The Conversation

                 Time published an article on 4/20 titled “New Report Finds That Book Bans Have Reached Their Highest Levels Yet.” As an avid reader I am immediately bothered by this, but I think it is worth explaining why.               First, over half the country is functionally illiterate, and even more don’t like to read, so who are we banning books for, anyway? It’s not like online ads that subliminally change your thinking. If you want to read a book, you have to physically get it, let someone else know what you’re reading (checking it out of a library or buying it in a store), and spend hours reading the material, depending on how fast you read. Reading is also self-selecting, as you can figure out by the book cover and back if you want to spend the time to decipher its contents. Reading social media and news is anonymous (except for the data points being collected on ...

Lawyer argues fetus of jailed pregnant woman is being illegally detained.  By The Guardian  -  February 23rd, 2023     Okay, this is treasure trove of hot button issues, and in my desire to make everyone happy, this gave me pause because of the quagmire fetal rights is becoming. Basically, a woman in Florida is pregnant and being held without bail awaiting trial and alleges she is not getting adequate care and the fetus is being jailed unconstitutionally. So many issues to unpack in this one.     First, there is the can of worms that is giving an unborn fetus the same rights as an autonomous, living person. I'm not sure how I feel about this movement and find it hard to discuss because it is such an emotional issue for so many people, including myself. I think the first thing we can do is stop doing the Either-Or argument with fetus and mother. Mom and fetus have equal weight until it has a bearing on the economy and governmental health, then the ...

                Many things in life are disappointing. More things are disappointing than might be under different circumstances. What we expect to happen often does not meet the reality after we have met that goal. This sense of expectations being far “better” than reality shows life to be creates dissatisfaction, which in turn creates anxiety and a need to reduce the negative feelings. It is this cycle of dissatisfaction that is Grass is Greener Syndrome. This series of emotional and behavioral reactions to unmet expectations are one of the causes of the social ills we find as an affluent society (or at least the sections of society that experience affluence).               We’ve all heard the phrase “the grass is greener on the other side.” In Hardcore Zen, the author points out that we always expect the grass to be greener, but it is never as gre...

              “To refuse a hearing to an opinion, because they are sure it is false, is to assume that their certainty is the same thing as absolute certainty. All silencing of discussion is as assumption of infallibility.” - John Stuart Mill, On Liberty               The nineteenth century philosopher, quoted above, discussed the nature of freedom of speech and its impact on society, among other things. One idea that I have wrestled with is the polarizing opinions that seem to dominate discussion. This problem manifests itself on the freedom and censorship of speech on the internet. This conundrum has led to the digital powers that be to censor those whose opinions seem detrimental to society. I will admit that I agree with their opinion, but as I learn more about the nature of liberty, I know that this action is not moral.     ...