Category Archives: Our Culture / Ourselves

AI and the Arts

I‘ve been playing with one of the new AI bots called Midjourney, which is specifically oriented toward the creation of images — ranging from the photorealistic to the abstract. I’m still working on an older version which lacks some of … Continue reading

Posted in Creative Works, How the World Really Works, Our Culture / Ourselves | 5 Comments

Grooming Us to Hate and Fear

image from piqsels, CC0 My last article talked about how we’re biologically and culturally conditioned to love the music we love (and perhaps the people we love). This time around I want to explore the shadow side of this — … Continue reading

Posted in How the World Really Works, Our Culture / Ourselves | 1 Comment

Accounting for Tastes

This is a bit of a follow-up to my post last fall exploring why I love sad songs (and romantic comedies). still from dance-practice video by Japanese-Korean hip-hop/R&B group XG Some of my favourite YouTube channels offer analysis of music, … Continue reading

Posted in How the World Really Works, Our Culture / Ourselves | 1 Comment

Links of the Month: March 2023

cartoon by Michael Leunig Letting go of the idea of free will is both liberating and terrifying. As I watch the world devolve into fascism and nuclear brinksmanship, I long to believe this is just a temporary aberration in human … Continue reading

Posted in Collapse Watch, How the World Really Works, Our Culture / Ourselves | 7 Comments

Our Incapacity to Admit Failure

Afghan children, from pxhere, CC0 Recently, the rather dim-witted right-wing leader of Canada’s Conservative party, Pierre Poilievre, whose elected representatives have been hobnobbing with the German neo-Fascist AfD party, announced a bid to overturn Canada’s new, tepid, right-to-die law. Sufferers … Continue reading

Posted in Collapse Watch, How the World Really Works, Our Culture / Ourselves | 1 Comment

Shameful Pleasures

Chart from Wikipedia by Derek Snider, CC-BY-SA 3.0 There is a lot of controversy about current experiments to decriminalize ‘hard’ drugs. Critics, and long-time supporters of the horrific “war on drugs”, argue that it’s a road to perdition, and that … Continue reading

Posted in Collapse Watch, How the World Really Works, Our Culture / Ourselves | 3 Comments

The Preteriat

(Another post on political theory) The late David Graeber talks with Occupy Wall Street demonstrators, image from London Real (2015) The adjective ‘preterite’ (rhymes with the adjective ‘confederate’) is an ancient word referring to ‘that which has been passed over’. … Continue reading

Posted in Collapse Watch, How the World Really Works, Our Culture / Ourselves | 4 Comments

Wish List

image from rawpixel, public domain cc0 This blog just turned 20 years old, celebrated its 3,000th post and surpassed the 10,000 cumulative page mark. Looking back at its evolution, I’m astonished how little I’ve perceived myself changing from year to … Continue reading

Posted in Our Culture / Ourselves | 4 Comments

Why Humans Struggle With Democracy: A Theory of Governance and Power

This is a bit of a theoretical exploration. I had to write it out to make sense for myself of the two complex articles it attempts to summarize, so I thought others interested in the theory of politics and power … Continue reading

Posted in Collapse Watch, How the World Really Works, Our Culture / Ourselves | 4 Comments

Links of the Month: February 2023

cartoon by Michael Leunig Every once in a while I take a quick peek at the publications that I once lauded for their insight, their investigative reporting, and their courage to speak truth to power. Basically I wanted to read … Continue reading

Posted in Collapse Watch, How the World Really Works, Our Culture / Ourselves | 4 Comments