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
It was hot in the COSTCO parking lot. We had just finished loading the car, but I needed to go back in to use the restroom, before our hour-long drive home. So, I reached in from the driver’s side to insert the key in the ignition so my wife could roll down her window to … More An Epidemic of Nasty: On the Abandonment of Empathy and the Surge of Angry White Entitlement
Last Saturday we decided to take a hike in the beautiful Frijoles Canyon of the Bandelier National Monument near Los Alamos National Laboratory “up the hill” from Santa Fe. I had not experienced the pandemic claustrophobia that has caused so much anxiety; I guess I was just too busy. Anyway, it was a lovely cool … More Mask over Civility: The Indifference of Americans to Public Health
It seems that the title to Naomi Klein’s book, This Changes Everything, has taken on even greater meaning now, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Klein’s book is about the politics of the climate crisis. But the title applies equally to the sudden appearance of the novel coronavirus that spread so rapidly and extensively … More The Ethics of Pandemics
One way to gain control over institutions and violate laws is to take unprecedented actions to generate societal chaos. Demagogues know that chaos is contagious and susceptible to manipulation through fear and hatred. We tend to think that a stable society results from the existence of laws and their enforcement by police. The facts are … More Chaos, Contagion, Hatred and Compassion
The continuing surge of news stories about highly questionable police killings of unarmed civilians, is shocking enough on its own account. The victims are mostly young black or brown men but also women and even children. It is important to keep in mind that this pattern of police violence did not start with the advent … More Good Cop, Bad Cop: You Can’t Train a Psychopath to be Compassionate, But You Can Destroy a Good Man’s Compassion
Robert MacNeil Christie, Author 