06. November 2016
The Dalai Lama and Arthur C. Brooks in a op-ed column in the New York Times on November 4, 2016 (http://nyti.ms/2fiQt4h) explain the underlying anger and fear of so many Americans living in the social world. That anger and fear goes beyond mere objective deprivations and exploitation. Human beings need a subjective sense of meaning, of being valued in the social world, and contributing something positive to that world before they die. That sense of meaning and value can mean a lot of different...
27. October 2016
Why are good, hard-working, moral people supporting political candidates with some of the worst character and personality traits imaginable for those purporting to be our leaders including running for president of the World’s Greatest Nation? Consider Trump, Palin, and numerous others who express divisiveness, intolerance, hate, ignorance, arrogance, emotion over reason, and other horrible attributes. While many Americans are appalled by this state of affairs, numerous others find these...
12. July 2016
New York Times columnist, David Brooks, almost always has trenchent, lucid, and sober analyses of American society. His July 12, 2016 column laments the collapse of the "American ideal" and the failure of leadership throughout our country. (http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/12/opinion/are-we-on-the-path-to-national-ruin.html?_r=0) While almost always optimistic about even the most dire events Mr. Brooks shows some concern that American society may become even much worse than he had imagined. He is...
30. May 2016
Eli Watkins of CNN reports in a May 29, 2016 column (http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/27/politics/libertarian-party-convention/index.html) of the Libertarian Party's newest effort to be relevant to American politics in an effective sense. Voting in a candidate for President is NOT going to be successful OR effective. There probably is no high degree of correlation between those people who tend to favor personal "liberty” (as the libertarians do to a greater degree than most people) and private...