All Entries in the "Featured Articles" Category
The Big Lie – Selfishness and Greed
Do so-called authorities know more about us than we know about ourselves? “The Big Lie” asserts that authorities, in the form of theologians and academics, seem to think they do. Further, those authorities tend to take a dim view of human nature—and those negative perspectives often produce very negative consequences. Because authorities are cloaked in a mantle of institutional legitimacy, their opinions are perceived as being more truthful than those of non-authorities. Nevertheless, “The Big Lie” argues that the truth is often at variance with the opinions of authorities. Be skeptical! (Timothy M.)
Thanksgiving at Walmart: Strikers Plan a Nationwide Celebration for Black Friday
Ah, Black Friday. It’s typically the biggest shopping day of the year and, for that reason, the happiest date on the calendar for retailers. On Black Friday, retailers who have been languishing in the red can count on raking in a whole lot of black. Profits galore! As usual, Walmart, the world’s largest and most [...]
God’s Loaded Dice: Einstein and the Death of Classical Reality
There is a crucial distinction between explanatory systems that are based upon fate vs. prediction. Both perspectives purport to shed light upon the course of future events, however, fate is based upon a faith in metaphysics whereas prediction is scientific. Determinism represents a branch of metaphysics primarily because determinists claim to know more about the [...]
It’s Alive!! Ray Kurzweil, AI, and Frankentelligence
If real is what you can feel, smell, taste and see, then ‘real’ is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain. Morpheus in The Matrix. Ray Kurzweil is obsessed with artificial intelligence (AI). Kurzweil has written a series of bestselling books–most recently How to Create a Mind–in which he advances the argument that machine intelligence [...]
Sweet Revenge: Barack Obama and the Death of White Republican Privilege
As Republicans conduct an autopsy of the 2012 election they’ll need to acknowledge that their particular brand of vanilla–rich, white, and well-aged–is no longer a recipe for electoral success. No doubt, this will be a tough pill to swallow. After all, bigotry, greed and xenophobia have always been a sure fire recipe for success in [...]
Many Worlds, but only One Reality: Stephen Hawking and the Determinist Fallacy
One can hardly broach the subject of agency without acknowledging the long-standing and unresolved philosophical debate regarding the agency vs. determination dichotomy. To provide an illustration of the extent of disagreement over this dualism, determinists, such as Stephen Hawking have argued that agency and free will are nothing but an illusion: …the molecular basis of [...]
Teenage suicide, Amanda Todd, and new communication technology
A brave new world has emerged for our children. Whereas once bullying was confined to the school yard, or the back hall, now bullying penetrates into every aspect of their life space. At night, alone, in their bedroom, surrounded by family, our children have become targets, and victims. What are we going to do and who are we going to turn to? As Nat King Cole once sang, “Straighten out and fly right…”
Ward Churchill, the AAUP, and Academic Freedom
There is no doubt that being a university professor is a privilege, and certainly protected speech is one of them. Not always, but sometimes, university researchers say things that other people don’t like. Tobacco is addictive, cell phones might cause brain cancer, and class warfare wages on. Some people might not like us to say these things, like the Tobacco lobby for example, or the uber rich people who control the world, but society and democracy benefits from open intellectual criticism and debate. It is why the right to free speech was enshrined in the first place. We need to stand up for our right to speak without censure, without reprisal, and without fear. In the age of an open Internet society, anything else seems medieval, backwards, and just plain wrong.
Emotional Abuse
Here is a letter from a concerned worker in the Florida school system. Schools are supposed to be safe havens for our children, but the reality is they are not. Filled with violence and abuse, our schools beat us up and put us down. We often know it is going on, and we are often willing to change, but The System is designed to punish the willing and suppress change. Times are a changing though and what is now only a subterranean tremble of minor revision will shortly become a global and revolutionary earthquake of change.
Gender and Sexual Violence
As a therapist I see everyday the victimization of women, and men. In intimate relationships physical, psychological, and emotional violence are as common as the Hollywood action film. They occur outside of relationships as well, but just how much of it occurs is hard to tell not only because we often don’t “see” violence when directed at men, by women, but also because fear and ego get in the way of reporting, or so we think. In this survey we take a look at some of the factors that impact whether people report sexual victimization or not. If you’ve ever been victimized, male or female, consider taking the survey. It will help us get a better picture of the extent to which male and female victimization goes unreported.
What to know about the nature of money, the value of money, and money's role in our modern economies of exchange, then download The Rocket Scientists' Guide to Money and the Economy and let the truth set you free. [
Sociology for the revolutionary in you. 