https://youtu.be/lcMbie9KTfw?feature=shared March is Criminal Justice month and while this post is late to the punch to reflect on the meaning of this designation for that month it's never too late to reflect on the meaning of what mass incarceration says about us as a society. In this vein NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) commemorated … Continue reading On “Corrections”: Rehabilitation Vs. Punishment
Category: Personal insight
“Economics”
Adam I was an "economics" major in college, along with anthropology. Not that I've asked around, but I am aware of, potentially, at least ONE other person with this rather ODD combination of ACADEMIC "interests." ODD, I'm saying, because whereas "economics," at least in our globally-"Westernized" conception, is identified with Adam Smith, capitalism, free markets, … Continue reading “Economics”
“Pale Blue Dot” (“Fermi”? “Fermi”? Anyone?)
"Pale Blue Dot." According to the "Fermi Paradox," the question posed by Nobel laureate physicist Enrico Fermi, "Where is everybody?" Specifically, what are the chances that we are alone in the universe? According to the laws of probability, if we exist, why not others? (Specifically, Fermi was referring to "intelligent" beings... You know, like us... … Continue reading “Pale Blue Dot” (“Fermi”? “Fermi”? Anyone?)
Phineas
Phineas Gage In his "Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason and the Human Brain" Antonio R. Damasio writes about Phineas Gage. He was penetrated through the skull by a steel beam during an accident in the railroad industry where he worked as a foreman in the 1800's. He survived the incident, but "lost his mind," becoming "indolent," … Continue reading Phineas
Tom Brokaw
What do Tom Brokaw, Anne Frank, and Bill Russell have in common?
BEHOLD!!!
The earliest art form in the world is a cupule, found on rock formations throughout the world. The universality of this truth would seem to indicate something universal about this experience... It goes back a LOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGG way. Do you?
What Do White Supremacists, African Americans, Jews, Me, and You Have in Common?
“Fight for It”
Black Statue of Liberty. Something I wrote a LOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG......... time ago, but never posted. But AM now. “Fight For It.” My favorite song on the Hamilton soundtrack is “Wait For It.” Every time I listen to the soundtrack I can’t get the song out of my head, except that when I hear it in my head … Continue reading “Fight for It”
On the Truth and Power of “Free-Association”
Actual photo taken by me. One of two places of any "significance" I've ever been, unless, of course, you count them all. Yesterday my soul slipped into the sea, It buoyed there a while and cried for you and me. That soulless surface scarred, it dredged the deepest dream, it swelled the strangest sigh... Yesterday … Continue reading On the Truth and Power of “Free-Association”
On “Suffering”
"Strength to Love." According to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in "Pilgrimage to Nonviolence," his final essay in Strength to Love, "I have lived these last few years with the conviction that unearned suffering is redemptive." However, according to Alice Miller, psychologist, philosopher, and psychoanalyst, all behavior stems from childhood experience, at least in … Continue reading On “Suffering”
Observations from the Brink 