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'Trust the experts' has been on the lips of many these days. And, while it most certainly is true that we do well to seriously consider the opinions of those trained in a particular discipline, it is just as true that the experts often get things wrong.

Those of us living in the west today have a great advantage over those living in unadvanced societies around the globe or in earlier times.

We have an almost unlimited amount of knowledge available to us at our fingertips. We therefore have no...

The term conservative is derived from the word conserve. The idea in politics and society in generals is to conserve those elements which have stood the test of time and experience. These are referred to as traditions. Such things as the nuclear family, free markets, private property, meritocracy and the rule of law.

Liberal is derived from the Latin 'Liber' and essentially means free. The idea in politics and society in general is to remove the constraints on men which prevent them from being...

People often mistakenly use the words empathy and sympathy interchangeably. They do however have quite different meanings.

Empathy means to put your yourself in the shoes of another. This cannot be done unless you yourself have experienced what they are going through. For example I cannot empathize with someone who is suicidal, since I have never been suicidal. I can however, empathize with someone who has had a suicide in their family since i have as well.

Sympathy on the other hand means to...

Nature in her infinite wisdom has only given us the capacity to embrace a certain type and amount of suffering.

Consequently we can only feel the suffering of those outside of our small circumscribed circle very lightly.

Thus the loss of a little finger would cause us more pain than the death of five million people in some far off place.

We could take that as an indication of callousness, but actually, it is a limitation of capacity. We can only handle so much.

An observation I find fascinating is the fact that if you know a person's stance on one issue you can almost always guess what their stance will be on a number of other completely unrelated issues.

For example, if I know your position on abortion, I'm pretty certain I know your position on illegal immigration. The same people are consistently lined up on opposite sides of these varied and unrelated issues.

It has been said that elephants have excellent memories.

This fact is displayed most convincingly in the observation that elephants are often seen taking premeditated revenge for an insult which occurred in the distant past.

One of the less pleasant aspects of human nature is our ability and perhaps tendency to take pleasure in the misfortune of another.

This is most likely to occur when the person suffering the misfortune is someone whom we envy or dislike.

It's difficult to think of anything which causes more intellectual blindness than hatred.

A person who has decided to hate an individual or a group has incapacitated themselves from the ability to view those people or their actions objectively.

They see through a glass darkly.

It is not at all uncommon for those of us in the west to take something for granted. We are all guilty of this on occasion.

One of the things we take for granted is cheap and reliable energy. Let's leave California out of the discussion.

One of the key necessities for lifting people out of poverty is the availability of cheap and reliable energy. Every other necessity will prove insufficient if this type of energy is not available.

One of the greatest gifts we can provide underdeveloped...

The second worst type of censorship is self-censorship. It comes about because a person becomes fearful of what might happen to them if they express themselves honestly. Especially if they hold views different than those of the narrative preferred by the overlords and their imbecilic minions.

The worst type of censorship by far however, is assassination. Simply eliminate the person espousing viewpoints you disagree with, consider wrong and perhaps even dangerous.

Both of these are on full...

You and I are not free in the physical world. It is impossible that we should be so. Instead we are forced to choose from limited options all the time. In other words, we are constrained.

The place where we are free is in the metaphysical realm.

By this I mean that we are free to decide what type of person we will become, and bear 100% of the responsibility for who we do become. It will not do to blame others, our circumstances or any other element of our past.

Common sense is understood to mean a practical type of wisdom which enables a person to make prudent decisions and to solve problems successfully.

It is referred to as common because, at least once upon a time, it was the good sense commonly held by almost everyone.

I don't suppose I am the first person to wonder whether or not common sense is all that common anymore.

It is generally believed that altruism and egoism are incompatible and in opposition to one another.

I don't believe that is the case at all.

Both are required for healthy well-being.

No one but the narcistic are concerned only about themselves, and no one is concerned exclusively about others.

Each has its role to play in the life of a well-rounded individual.

Unique: being the only one of its kind; unlike anything else.

I'm currently writing a book about human nature. In the book I'm focused on the things we all have in common.

I am purposefully not addressing the things which make each of us unique.

It strikes me as amazing how many variations there are in mankind worldwide. No two of us are the same.

Probably few topics are under discussion these days as frequently as that of AI.

I wrote about some pros and cons of AI and its usage in another post.

Here I simply wish to call attention to the contrast between artificial (fake) and authentic (genuine).

One of the hallmarks of a quality person is their authenticity or genuineness.

A person of this type may exaggerate occasionally or modify their account of something slightly now then but, for the most part they represent themselves and their...

Transparency when it comes to relationships indicates the desire and practice of being open and honest.

It is a commitment to honesty, even when doing so is uncomfortable or unprofitable.

it is the refusal to pretend in our encounters with our fellow human beings.

The concept of trust leans heavily upon transparency.

I have written here before about 'affective polarization' and the dehumanization to which it generally leads. Here I'm taking up a related but distinct topic, that of 'devaluation'.

My attention was brought to the topic by an article I read in which an explanation was offered for why most of the mass shooters have been white males, and the majority also quite young.

The author cited the trend to devalue young white men. I have noticed that trend for some time myself.

This is not the only...

One of the marks of our time is the effort to depict heroes, and producers as abusers and predators and victims (another category witnessing a massive amount of descriptive creep) as the new champions, and the ones to be honored.

Let me make it clear right here that I believe that persons who have been clearly and objectively victimized deserve our sympathy and help as needed.

It is not this group that I have in mind here. Instead, I am referring to the increasing number of people, many of whom...

There is probably no topic more on people's mind in the west than that of censorship.

There are good reasons for this. Today we are seeing a resurgence and proliferation of efforts to throttle free speech and open dialogue in the marketplace of ideas.

Whether it is the effort to interfere with communication between people in Brazil and people in the US, or the EU's push to coerce Social Media platforms to do their bidding and remove any speech which does not adhere to the leftist policies of...

There is hypothesis referred to as the 'Contagion Effect' which suggests that media's in depth coverage of violent events may in fact encourage copycats to emulate the perpetrators of the violence.

I think there is a way in which news outlets can cover such events but refrain from sharing such details as might encourage such copycatting.