Category: Our Present Culture
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Recommendation: Confessions … CIA Agent
In keeping with my last post on the massacre at Orlando, I strongly recommend the Youtube video Confessions of a former covert CIA agent – Amaryllis Fox. She delineates the absolute need to know your “enemy” — he/she is human too. This was originally posted to my Facebook on 20160614.
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Thoughts on the massacre at Orlando
I wish to comment of the massacre at Orlando, for a variety of reasons. First, I am deeply saddened, but not surprised by this occurrence, given the frequency of violations that occur in (but not exclusively in) “the land of the free.” Sadly as well, I am not surprised that Donald Trump would take advantage of…
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Slowly maturing. A number of items have impressed me recently.
Two recent news items have crossed my desk that have impressed me that our culture is slowly maturing. (I’ve never doubted this; my questions invariably relate to whether or not we will mature enough to survive the next 100 years of cultural chaos.) The first came to me via an email from Avaaz; it quoted…
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How much do you know about the American 2nd Amendment?
A very interesting article, reminding me that “believing is seeing.” I will soon be presenting a post on Beliefs and Values. Opinion: What America’s gun fanatics won’t tell you.
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Physicians Respond To Gun Control
Finally, the American Medical Association has chosen to lobby on behalf of gun research and gun control. As a physician myself (albeit Canadian), I am almost ashamed that they have not done so prior to this. I know from personal experience that most physicians are intelligent, compassionate and interested in research; and they are often…
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Another Way, Needing Integration
In the past few weeks, I have been traveling through beautiful country (New Mexico, Arizona, Grand Canyon, and Utah, amongst other areas), with stunning views. With such vistas, it is easy for me to connect to a sense of grandeur and mystery, of questioning as to how did this world became so beautiful, of what…
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What Are The Rules That Run You?
I frequently look around at my culture and wonder how have we gotten to this point of insanity. We are on the brink of collapse as a civilization, if not as a species, and yet there is so little surface evidence of this. When I dig, there is lots of evidence. Two recent emails posts…
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A Vision of A Mature Culture
As I explore the issues of our culture, I start with Vision because it is essential to our being. As the Cheshire Cat said to Alice: “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will do.” Vision is what motivates us: we want to move towards it. (We want to move away from…
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The Power of Visioning
Vision is like a good novel — it is a fiction that motivates. From Murakami on Gaza (thanks to John Hanagan on Facebook). Haruki Murakami accepted the Jerusalem Prize for Literature in 2009. This is from his acceptance speech. “Between a high, solid wall and an egg that breaks against it, I will always stand on…
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The Issues of Global Warming, Part 2
I recently completed my PhD (Wisdom University, 2012), my dissertation being Acedia and its Transformation. I came to believe that acedia — an ancient word, almost obsolete in our culture — accurately describes our difficulty in dealing with global warming. For those who want to fast-track many (but not all) of the ideas of this…
Awakening From Your Anger 