At my first ever, week-long summer church camp (I was 11 and a practicing Lutheran at the time), I and the token skater/heavy metal kid of the lot—who used a ballpoint pen to tattoo the letters O-Z-Z-Y on his knuckles once a day—were tasked with being in charge of setting up viewing of the afternoon’s … Continue reading Nobody Knows History, Nobody Understands Context
Category: Ideas
Why Do You Let That Nonsense Get to You?
People react to things. It’s a crucial part of how our central nervous systems function as living organisms. Burns, freezes, pain, possible further pain, possible death—humans are going to yank away their body parts or duck underneath something if suspect any harm will come to them, and possibly live longer as a result...
The Hornet and the Hive Mind
Fallacy of the hive mind – 1.) Inferring that someone who makes a comment which aligns with a consensus political opinion or movement on social media possesses the same deep, ingrained, singular, core principles or characteristics as that group or movement. 2.) Erroneously clumping people into a spuriously-named, demographically or sociologically unofficial group because they agree with, voice their opinion regarding or argue in favor of a consensus opinion which is temporarily influential, on social media or elsewhere.
Into the Mind of a Billionaire
Take a person. Make it you. Take you. Now, imagine you’ve made enough money to never work again in your life. A billion dollars, say. But say you don’t. That is, don’t never work again in your life. Because this is real life; because, practically, if you stop working, you won’t have your billion dollars … Continue reading Into the Mind of a Billionaire
How ‘Right’ and ‘Left’ Keep a Pasture Polarized
The problem with politically aligning with either term, ‘right’ (conservative) or ‘left’ (liberal), is that, once aligned, no one has to actually come out and say what it is they really believe. All they do is check a box, push a button, and the organization takes care of the rest...
When Society Says: ‘I Think We Should Start Seeing Other People’
Pretend society is a house party. And you’re the bitter, little social scab sitting in the corner. You’re that person who sits at the end of the couch in the darkness, drinking your flat, tepid beer in that plastic red cup all by yourself, cursing in your head everyone who’s laughing and talking among themselves, having a good time...
Let’s Strangle the Whole World, Together!
What would happen to a vastly intertwined global economy, hypothetically speaking, if some imaginary figure sitting in the driver’s seat (a novel disease, in this case) suddenly, with the hall pass of a natural disaster or other act of God, began to gently and without wavering apply a braking force to it? ...