With any virus – but particularly with an especially infectious one – we get a perfect working metaphor for the relationship between individual actions and society. Namely: the only thing that spreads as far and as fast as a pandemic are the consequences of your moral actions.
Tag: society
Danger Is Temporary: Cowardice Is Forever
Danger and pain are external: you feel them and experience them, and then they are gone. Your own conscience and your society discharge you. Cowardice is a state of mind – and the memory of it lasts forever. Your conscience and your society hold you captive.
Coronavirus Reminds Us What Education Without Schooling Can Look Like
We have collectively become so programmed to believe that education and schooling are synonymous that we can’t imagine learning without schooling and become frazzled and fearful when schools are shuttered. If nothing else, perhaps this worldwide health scare will remind us that schooling isn’t inevitable and education does not need to be confined to a conventional classroom.
Open Borders: Think of the Children
I love to see kids reading Open Borders. When my daughter was five, she read it over my shoulder as I wrote it – and I knew I was right to make it a graphic novel. Since then, I’ve heard about dozens of kids enjoying the book. When I advertise it and add #ThinkOfTheChildren, I’m not joking. I really would like to put Open Borders in the hands of every kid on Earth.
American Fictionalists
It is both fun and informative to consider lists. To debate the list is a sign that you have engaged with someone who knows what she is talking about. This morning, I asked Google to find web pages that opined as to whom might be included on a list of the greatest American fictionalists (novelists,…
No One Policy Good for Everyone
If there were someone sitting in a government office somewhere controlling the weather, do you think they would serve up weather I like, or weather someone else likes? Maybe we’d all get whatever is dictated by policy. Would some people’s weather preferences be ignored because they aren’t popular?
Moral Approximates
Careful examination of real-world conflict does occasionally uncover not moral equivalents, but moral approximates. Though the two sides’ moral status is not precisely equal, they are morally more-or-less the same.
To “Serve”
Everyone serves someone just about all the time. The corner drug dealer serves. The cashier serves. The prostitute and the waiter and the car wash attendant serve. The writer serves, the scientist serves, and the medical provider serves. They serve by mutual consent and voluntary choice.
Good to Occasionally Consider “What If?”
Everyone would be smart to consider “what if?” — especially where their beliefs and assumptions are concerned.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
I am late for MLK’s birthday’s anniversary. It happened a week ago according to a record source I have seen. MLK’s real birthdate occurred on January 15, 1929. Every year we are reminded of the contributions that Martin Luther King, Jr. made to our society. What I fear now is that we are doing it wrong.