LATEST BLOG POSTS

I don’t have anything against rats, but they represent a loss of biodiversity and a failure of our society. They thrive on our waste. This island used to be covered with countless species of mammals, birds, and probably reptiles and amphibians, on top of plants and fungi. Now we have mostly rats. No beavers, coyotes, bears, egrets, swans, butterflies, and what used to live here, plus fish, mollusks, dolphins, and[…] Keep reading →

Last fall a Korean production company asked to cover my off-grid living. As usual, I tried to clarify I work on leadership applied to sustainability and that covering my solar panels would be like covering Martin Luther King’s shoe’s during the bus boycott. Media is media the world over, so they covered my staircase and dark apartment as opposed to changing global culture. Still, without understanding what they say, I[…] Keep reading →

I described my volunteering to some friends. One remarked how over the holidays she wanted to volunteer so went to some pages that catalogued volunteer opportunities but they were all filled. People volunteering around holidays is like people going to gyms after new years resolutions: after the holiday, it empties again. People return to social media and watching TV over the gym and volunteering. This time I looked at it[…] Keep reading →

This week I finished: The Abolition of Man: Reflections on education with special reference to the teaching of English in the upper forms of schools, by CS Lewis: I read the Chronicles of Narnia as a kid but don’t remember much of them. Then between Hillsdale College courses and other conservative speakers, I hear about CS Lewis all the time. I thought I’d start with a short book I heard[…] Keep reading →

A friend of mine who is also friends with Scott Galloway emailed me about Galloway’s initiative to influence politics by changing consumer behavior. The initiative aims to lead people to stop doing business with companies that influence politics he and his followers disagree with. Context Galloway calls it “Resist and Unsubscribe.” Our mutual friend’s email included screen shots of his cancelling his accounts with Amazon, X, and ChatGPT. He included[…] Keep reading →

Here is a video showing a bunch of trees people bought to celebrate the birth of their lord and savior, in a tradition unrelated to that birth, borrowed from paganism. Instead of celebrating birth, they are actual death. Apparently people believe we have too many trees and forests. I love tradition. We don’t keep alive every tradition ever. People used to practice infanticide. Should we keep practicing it for tradition?[…] Keep reading →

A few of my sidchas involve lifting weights. I don’t lift to get big or strong, though I like that those results happen. I might like attaining those results more for their being side-effects rather than specific goals. My two main reasons are 1) because our ancestors for hundreds of thousands of years didn’t eat by just walking to the fridge, they had to climb trees, dig up roots, and[…] Keep reading →

I was watching a dialog on Slavery and the Constitutional Convention hosted by the US National Archives (see the video below). My upcoming book focuses on many relevant things, especially how culture induces people to act against their values, then to create beliefs to rationalize and justify the behavior violating their own values. Thomas Jefferson represents one of the most prominent cases of someone who promoted liberty, freedom, equality, and[…] Keep reading →

I’ve been reading Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics as part of the online course at Hillsdale College. I should say rereading, since I read it in college as part of Columbia’s Core Curriculum, but that was the late 1980s. As long ago as the 80s were, it was recent compared to when Aristotle wrote them. I should also say reading selections from it, not the whole book. A section on what he[…] Keep reading →