Matters in society that constitute problems for the stable operation of social institutions or populations and/or are recognized by significant groups as indicating the need for change in some parameter of social structure or process.
I have been interested in social illusions for a long time. However, I never expected to discover the extent to which they drive the terminal trajectory of the industrial/militarist era toward oblivion today. I’m not saying that we are destined to collapse and never recover as a species on this planet, although that is possible, … More ILLUSIONS AND INTERDICTIONS: Imaginary Progress and the Real World
Image Credit: Britanica I have always been a bit of a techie. Ever since all those 21 Boy Scout merit badges to become an Eagle Scout, about seven decades ago, I have been fascinated by tools and their uses. Earning each merit badge taught me about one technology or another—whether cooking, knot tying, marksmanship, first … More The AI Illusion: Death in an Algorithm
I cringe every time I hear some talking head refer to the gang of thieves engaged in an autocratic attempt to overthrow a democracy, however flawed, as “the administration.” Why? Because my first thought is, what exactly are they administering? An administration administrates; it does not plunder. Well, occasionally some do in relatively minor ways. … More When is an Administration a Regime?
image credit: AARP My father was an insurance claims adjuster. He was also an extremely ethical man. When a claimant tried to overstate the damage from a fire, or lie about that diamond necklace, which actually may not have been stolen, it angered him greatly. I came to hate insurance because of what his role … More Insurance: Public Capital for Public Benefit
Photo Credit: Wikipedia For whatever reason, the phrase “friendly persuasion” popped into my head a couple of days ago. “Wasn’t that the title of an old movie?” I thought. Yep! 1956. Gary Cooper, Dorothy McGuire, and Anthony Perkins starred in the “story of a Quaker family in southern Indiana during the American Civil War and … More (Un)Friendly Persuasion
Photo Credit: Werner Ustorf via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0) Race has always been an ambiguous concept. Racial identity is held to desperately by the socially insecure and the psychologically anxious, who turn their ignorance and confusion into fear, which then becomes hate. Then there are those who consciously exploit the fears and confusion of others to encourage … More The Ridiculous Race
Political power disintegrates when the people withdraw their obedience and support. ~ Gene Sharp The Musk’s hyper-tech-bro ruffians storm-trooping through the federal government has moved as fast as phantom fairy dust from the Wicked Witch of the West. The initial response of widespread protest has moved fast too, but not nearly fast enough to have … More It’s Only the Beginning: Tyranny and Resistance
What will it take to cause “shock and awe” over increasingly frequent and devastating catastrophic climate events? Consider this context: “The average temperature in 2024 was 1.6C above preindustrial levels, data from the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) shows.” (see story in The Guardian, 1/10/2025.) Climate science predicts the devastating consequences clearly. Even so, LA burning becomes … More Charade: As Cities Burn, Perverse Politics Prevail
I suppose it is not reasonable to speculate on the limits of human creativity. But one thing is certain. We all have an initial capacity for creative expression, if only in one way and not another. For some, it is crushed by their earliest experiences of life-conditions that I would not wish on anyone. For … More Living the Good Life, Somewhere
The other day, the grandson of dear friends was gunned down, murdered in a drive by shooting in Albuquerque. He was a vibrant nineteen year old reaching out to a life to be led. Yesterday, another dear friend mentioned the continuing grief of the death of her twenty-something son by a hit and run driver … More Suffering and Death Do Not Become You.
Robert MacNeil Christie, Author 