Everything in moderation, including moderation.
Tag Archives: philosophy
Ancient Wisdom
“The wealth required by nature is limited and is easy to procure; but the wealth required by vain ideals extends to infinity.” – Epicurus
A Thinking Point
If a socialized health industry is bad, why is a socialized police, fire, and rescue industry good?
What Does It Do?
Thinking point:
What is the purpose of a society’s economy?
Thinking Points
“RightNetwork launches on television, web and mobile in the summer of 2010.
Mission: To entertain, engage and enlighten Americans who are looking for content that reflects and reinforces their perspective and worldview.”
Wow. Check out that mission statement.
“…content that reflects and reinforces their perspective and worldview.”
Another way of saying that is, “We will tell you what you want to hear.” I’m not kidding; that is exactly what that means. Is that really considered a good thing, now? I suppose it is. There are, sadly, many people who are only happy hearing things that ‘reinforce their…worldview.’ Hearing different point of view just angers and upsets them.
Personally, I am always questioning my worldview, trying to gain a deeper, not necessarily more comforting, understanding of what is going on in the world. Sometimes that results in me changing my mind about things, which is something else that makes a lot of people uncomfortable, and is seen by many as a sign of weakness.
Surely I can’t be the only one, though. Thus, my ‘thinking points.’ As contrasted with ‘talking points.’ I don’t necessarily have answers to them; they are things to think about. If I can make even one person uncomfortable by challenging their worldview and making them think, that’s a good day.
Thinking is good for you, right?
Right?
Thinking Point #4
Does a country have a right to restrict who can come and live there? Or, conversely, does a country have an obligation to accept everyone who wants to come and live there?
Brown’s Law of Politics
Any mature political system, no matter what it’s particular mechanisms, is based on increasing the wealth and power of the wealthy and powerful.
Ancient Wisdom #2
“The consequences of anger are often more harmful than the causes of it.” — Marcus Aurelius
Winners and Losers
A child who was in 2nd Grade when the 9/11 attacks took place would now be old enough to go fight in Afghanistan. A whole generation of young adults can barely remember a time when America was not at war. We have undermined the traditional values of American society, creating a culture of fear and obedience, and destroyed our economy, all in pursuit of an unattainable objective.
Every war has winners and losers, and the common people of both sides are usually among the losers. We aren’t just losing the War on Terror; we have lost.