I was raised by assholes. When you call someone an asshole it is because they have demonstrated to you through their behavior that they lack empathy. They’re rude, entitled, inconsiderate, etc. Some examples: When it was -5 [not that cold in Montana] and snowing, my mother came to pick up my toddler son from myContinue reading “Empathy through Anthropology”
Monthly Archives: September 2020
Agriculture: we’re doing it wrong
Humans have very short memories and attention spans. This is by design [not intelligent design, but evolutionary design, which is to say natural selection by the environment for fitness]. Humans evolved as an upright hominid species that exploits technology [which includes both physical technology and complex symbolic systems like language, culture and religion] to inhabitContinue reading “Agriculture: we’re doing it wrong”
Anapodoton OR I don’t write fiction anymore, but…
When I was young, before all the abstract reasoning had completely kicked in, I used to write stories. Because I am a collector and cataloger and archivist at heart I still have all these stories in journals and notebooks. At various points in my life I have taken them out and leafed through the pagesContinue reading “Anapodoton OR I don’t write fiction anymore, but…”
Anarchy is not what you think it is
I am very dissatisfied with the current political climate of our country, and when I say “current” I don’t only mean the current administration, I mean as far back as I remember knowing anything about the political climate of our country. I was born in the 1980s, so it has been one helluva a ride,Continue reading “Anarchy is not what you think it is”
Rebuilding your ship at sea: a practical guide
First, a paradox: The ship wherein Theseus and the youth of Athens returned from Crete had thirty oars, and was preserved by the Athenians down even to the time of Demetrius Phalereus, for they took away the old planks as they decayed, putting in new and stronger timber in their places, insomuch that this ship becameContinue reading “Rebuilding your ship at sea: a practical guide”
“I’m from the government and I’m here to help”: tales of a mid-level bureaucrat of the apocalypse
For my last 20 years of gainful employment I have been a public sector employee for all but two of them, having spent only 16 months of my life employed in the private sector to the exclusion of the public sector. Most of that public sector work has been as a knowledge or IT workerContinue reading ““I’m from the government and I’m here to help”: tales of a mid-level bureaucrat of the apocalypse”
The Oracle of Z 