• Thoughts

    How Did We Get Here?

    The psychological stress caused by cognitive dissonance is something that has caught my attention. How could it not? You don’t have to go far to find people getting upset over things that likely would never have bothered them in the…

  • Thoughts

    Illegitimate Truth?

    I wonder how many of us ever consider the concept of legitimacy. Maybe we catch the cover of a magazine at the grocery checkout and think, “Oh, her. She’s beautiful.” Perhaps the image, instead, elicits an eyeroll, because we simply…

  • Thoughts

    The Compartmentalization of Attention

    Thanks to the attention-span-killing Internet, it becomes harder to pay anything the attention it deserves. This works well for those who exploit it. What was earthshattering news last week can barely be recalled today. We more easily forget and, to…

  • Thoughts

    Groupthink

    Groupthink: A Study in Self Delusion turned out to be rather a different book that what I thought I was in for. I sometimes buy books impetuously, skimming descriptions as quickly as possible, glancing at a review or two, and…

  • Thoughts

    Who Does Your Thinking?

    A very short poem from Robert Louis Stevenson ran through my mind this morning: The world is so full of a number of things,I’m sure we should all be as happy as kings. Now, I can’t personally vouch for the…

  • Thoughts

    Who Wanted It First?

    Yesterday, I tried to put my finger on what separates me from so many people I encounter. I tossed around one notion after another, but none felt quite right until I hit upon the word “quest.” Yet even that misses…

  • Thoughts

    My Own Thing

    How often do I change my mind, my outlook, my convictions? Yes, my convictions. If I don’t blindly hold onto a belief my entire life, it doesn’t mean that I am a moral relativist, and if I don’t keep up…

  • Thoughts

    My Thoughts

    My computer (owned for less than two months, mind you) is now telling me it does not like the browser I’ve chosen for cruising the Internet. I understand that the monopolizing tyrants of Microsoft would rather have me use one…