Below shows the results if you search Amazon for “Top 2025 Christmas gifts.” I will bet over 95 percent of them will be in landfills, bottoms of drawers never to be used again, or some equivalent by the end of January. I’m pretty live-and-let-live about what makes people happy (though not when it hurts someone else without consent), but I couldn’t find one item there whose existence made the world[…] Keep reading →

This week I finished: Lesson Plan: The Story of the Third Wave, directed by Philip Neel and David Jeffery: If you’ve followed my pursuit to learn about the pattern of how people are induced to act against their values by culture around them—also known as corruption—you’ll recognize the subject of this movie. It’s about high school history teacher Ron Jones, who in 1967, when his students asked how Germans could[…] Keep reading →

This week there wasn’t much sun, so I read and listened more than usual since they take little to no power. I finished: Here Comes the Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilization, by Bill McKibben: I’ve met Bill and support his environmental work. Bill writes in this book that he doesn’t believe people will change their levels of consumption so concludes that only[…] Keep reading →

This week I finished: “Some People Can’t See Mental Images. The Consequences Are Profound,” by Larissa MacFarquhar in the New Yorker: A few years ago I learned that most people, when they imagine something visual, actually visual something, as if they were seeing it. By contrast, when I imagine seeing something, I don’t see anything. I just imagine it. Apparently nobody knew of this distinction until recent decades and only[…] Keep reading →

This week I finished: Sophie Scholl: The Final Days, directed by Marc Rothemund, starring Julia Jentsch: This movie was nominated for an Oscar for best foreign language movie in 2005. I confess I only learned of the White Rose movement, and two of its key members, Hans and Sophie Scholl, this year. I recommend learning more about them, especially if you’re interested in learning what leads people to oppose a[…] Keep reading →

This week I finished: The SCUM Manifesto, by Valerie Solanas: I’d heard about this book, or manifesto, by the woman who shot Andy Warhol. I listened to a podcast or two about it first. They couldn’t tell if the author was serious and crazy or sarcasm or what. Seeing as how she shot an innocent person, I’m inclined to think she’s crazy. The diatribe is bizarre. I kept wondering what[…] Keep reading →

Regular readers know I volunteer to deliver food that stores were going to throw away to groups that make it available for free to anyone who wants it, and sometimes to people directly, always for free. The context: free food distributed with disposable plastic One of the groups, Food Not Bombs, distributes food that many volunteers bring. They also distribute for free hot food that they cook. I believe all[…] Keep reading →

I’ve written before about a practice I’ve come to see as a part of maturation: reading and studying people I disagree with—the more opposition, the more I value the learning. I mean more than just learning their views. I mean empathizing with them, learning the sources of their views, and reaching a place where what they say makes sense. Reading, learning, and understanding don’t mean agreeing or supporting. On the[…] Keep reading →

This week I finished: The Radicalism of the American Revolution, by Gordon Wood: Wow, what a book. I’d never read a history like it. It didn’t just present dates and events. It talked about how people lived, how their lives changed, how culture changed. I found it fascinating. I learned plenty, including areas I thought I knew well before. His perspective put me more in the moment, understanding changes from[…] Keep reading →