Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) was an English philosopher whose work emphasized society and politics. He is often described as the founder of modern political philosophy, although some attribute that honor to Niccolò Machiavelli (1469 – 1527) who outlined in ruthless detail how to be an autocratic leader. Concerning religion, Hobbes makes a distinction between knowing that… Read More Thomas Hobbes – Life isn’t just nasty, brutish and short
Here’s another revised Think Free entry. Most of the updates result from observations and impressions gathered while a frequent churchgoer prior to the pandemic. — MC The word heterodox means practically the same thing as “unorthodox,” denoting beliefs and practices opposed to and usually publicly condemned by established figures or leaders. The term is found… Read More Heterodoxy, orthodoxy and their overlap
“To prevent future mass school shootings, we need to begin to focus on the cultural and social drivers of these types of events, such as the romanticization of guns and gun violence, rather than on individual predictors.” Source: Mental illness is not the cause of mass school shootings, study finds Opinion: A murderer kills a… Read More Mental illness is not the cause of mass school shootings, study finds | Opinion
This Think Free entry was last revised in 2011. A lot has happened since then but I’ve left in the 2011 example of “Occupy DC” and added some recent developments within Canada and the Canadian media. Introduction Back in grad studies the term “hegemony” was bandied about as if it were the gospel truth. Grad… Read More Hegemony – Power and the powerless
This was going to be a “departure” photo for a series or slide show. For now, I just want to talk about how different the two images are in this animation: I removed the garbage bins in the second frame of the animation. The bins are the reality. The clone-stamped image (replacing the bins with… Read More More thoughts from the ‘holodeck’
The outbreak of the 2019 coronavirus pandemic put science in the spotlight in a way that we had not seen for generations. Scientists were being wheeled out in front of cameras on a regular basis, to explain the rationale for decisions that would be of seismic importance for the future of people’s lives: will schools… Read More Scientism is a soothing but mind-numbing narcotic | MercatorNet | Opinion
To keep it simple, I wrote an ‘Opinion’ on May 11, turned it into a podcast May 12, and posted it as a video on Friday 13th! I’M BAAAAAAACK!😅 I hope you enjoy this. I really enjoyed working on it and learning the ins and outs of OpenShot. Here’s the podcast link, with a different… Read More The Twisted Road of Authoritarianism – New video based on podcast
The public mask mandate has more or less been lifted in Ontario, Canada. Health officials said they expected documented case numbers to rise and that they have. It’s a strange shift from ultra paranoia to reckless, gay abandon on the part of some ‘scientifically informed’ officials. Sure, we learn as we go along. And doctors… Read More Opinion | The Masks Are Off
A new book offers a version of history in which we lived for thousands of years in large and complex societies without kings or cops Source: Our ancient ancestors may have been more civilized than we are – Macleans.ca Opinion: Sex and violence: The dual recipe for ‘success’ in the popular TV and literature we… Read More Our ancient ancestors may have been more civilized than we are – Macleans.ca | Opinion
Hey You! First of all, let me say that in the past I have felt a bit uncomfortable saying merely “Hey Guys” because many feel that only refers to men. Some women do, however, use the term when addressing everyone. And probably not all women like the term “Gals,” which is another way to try… Read More Towards a more comprehensive look at “Individual Rights and Freedoms”
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