Am I saying that professors should teach whatever they feel is true? No; a thousand times no. If you use your “feelings” to form beliefs, you shouldn’t be a professor at all. The first fiduciary duty of every intellectual is to set emotions aside, and calmly and patiently study a wide range of arguments and evidence.
Tag: action
What Parents Can Really Do to Help Prepare Their Teens for Success
Regardless of how you may feel about climate activism, the key message to parents is that school can be stifling and anxiety-inducing for many teenagers who crave and need meaningful work. Adolescents are meant to come of age within the adult world, surrounded by a diverse group of mentors and engaged in authentic, real-life pursuits. This gives them both experience and personal reward.
Randolph Bourne
Bourne packed a lot of ideas into his short life, and did much writing for someone who was repeatedly canned for being so forthright with his ideas. Today, his legacy includes the Randolph Bourne Institute and its instrument, Antiwar.com. Furthermore, Bourne is famous for the very durable quote, “War is the health of the State.”
What Does it Mean to Live Free?
Humans are good at adding layers of justification and passive aggression to our words and actions. Pretty soon, it’s impossible to identify our own desires. Denying yourself the use of manipulative tactics forces you to come to terms with your thoughts and feelings. Why do I want her to go on a walk with me? How much do I value it? Why might she value it? What could make it more valuable than her alternatives?
Community, True and False
I distinguish true community and false community. The line that separates them is the locus of points at which people bring government compulsion to bear to compel those who disagree with them to fall into line or suffer punishment, the line that separates those who recognize and respect everyone’s natural rights and those who do not.
Yes, I Do Have An Enemies List
It’s a powerful thing to name your enemies. By naming them, you can keep always in front of you what you’re up against. So I figure I ought to take a page from Arya Stark’s playbook and start keeping tabs on my list of enemies.
Mistakes and Wrongs
I’ve made so many mistakes over the course of my life. And I’ve committed so many wrongs. Many of my mistakes haunt me when I think of them. Each one undoubtedly set my life on a different course. When I think of them I sometimes want to punch myself in the face and mutter “Stupid, stupid, stupid!”
Social Media Companies “Struggle” to Help Censors Keep us in the Dark
According to CNN Business, “Facebook, YouTube and Twitter struggle to deal with New Zealand shooting video.” “Deal with” is code for “censor on demand by governments and activist organizations who oppose public access to information that hasn’t first been thoroughly vetted for conformity to their preferred narrative.”
Try Before You Know
In design thinking, there’s a process known as “Proof of Concept.” This is when you create a pilot version of a project in order gauge your idea against the feedback of some real world experience. This works not only for developing products, but also for developing your self.
Reward Someone’s Faith
Wouldn’t it be nice to live in a world in which humans had faith in other humans? Wouldn’t it be nice if people had faith that good wins out over evil, that virtue leads to happiness, and that freedom creates the best kind of society? Answer: it would be very nice.