Tag: social animal

Individualism, Socialism, and Sanity: Can We Choose to Live as Humans?

October 22, 2021

It is about time we reflect on the distorted industrial-consumer culture and the “…isms” that propagandists use to confuse reality. The idea of individualism is certainly an American cultural icon as much as socialism has been a cultural red flag. If you like something, tag it as an instance of good old American individualism. If … More Individualism, Socialism, and Sanity: Can We Choose to Live as Humans?

Freedom, Responsibility, and the Absurdity of Autocracy

May 7, 2021

Ideas can get away from us, even take control of our lives. Sometimes, a great idea can become destructive when taken to its most extreme form. Life is full of ambiguities and imperfections. If we take our great ideas out of this context, they can become dysfunctional, stupid, and even dangerous. So it is with … More Freedom, Responsibility, and the Absurdity of Autocracy

Public Health, Personal Liberty. and the Scourge of Interdependence

May 18, 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced to the surface some very peculiar ideas about American values. Those values have changed significantly since the explosive century of industrial consumerism. As industrial extraction, production, and consumption expanded through the twentieth century, right up until the pandemic, economic change has transformed the character of the old “rugged individualism” as … More Public Health, Personal Liberty. and the Scourge of Interdependence