Stop Scorching My Shrubbery

27 Jun, 2009 | Brian |

A great failing of mine is the incessant need to have an argument, a failing I will now indulge, though hopefully in moderation. I cannot reconcile with the idea that (a) morality is a substance provided from On High and that (b) absent this Provider there is no way to have morality. Another form of (b) is to claim, arms flailing in air, that without a Giver of Laws everything is subjective and so therefore "anything goes." I should separate these statements into (b1) and (b2). What is advanced in (b2) is, I suppose, intended to lever me into accepting (a). Alas, this is what we in "the biz" (i.e., the business of starting up arguments and then verbally beating the crap out of our opponents) call a fallacious appeal to consequences. Claim (b1) is also a fallacy, only this time it's called a false dichotomy. Not only are both of these formulations wrong, they are burdened by serious philosophical problems.

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The Lied-To Generation

17 Jun, 2009 | Dave |

You have heard of Gen-X, Gen-Y, the Millennium Generation, the Greatest Generation, and perhaps a few others. This article is for all of those who are part of what I would call The Lied-To Generation. It is hard to pinpoint when that began, because it varied from state to state and from school to school. But it most certainly includes nearly everyone born after 1980.

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God Is a Communist

15 Dec, 2008 | Brian |

Give what you can. Get what you need.

Tragic Mesomorph of the Soul

13 Dec, 2008 | Brian |

It is tempting to think my own experience can be reliably generalized onto the rest of the world. A sample size of one is good enough because it's me. What I succeed at, others ought to succeed at also; what vexes me should vex them. Secure in my arrogant, narcissistic assessment of the universe, I can then pronounce judgments on the rest of humanity. Bill over there does not lose weight because he is lazy. Jacqueline fails at business because of a dearth of people skills.

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Tribulations of Snow Shoveling

03 Dec, 2008 | Brian |

I am out shoveling snow this morning and someone had already been over the walk with a sled. As everyone who lives in snow-prone regions knows, treading on new-fallen fluff makes it harder to remove. It packs down. You have to scrape at it.

Option number one: I can smile at the early December snowfall, and be happy that the world looks so wonderfully holiday-ish, and be glad for the good folks who, preceding me in their meager vehicle, got to experience the strange bright joy of making the first track across a pristine canvas. Option number two: I can fume about how inconvenient it is that I have to scratch off the packed snow.

Well, what I can say is that I want to be the person who picks Option One, but I am not that person. At least not yet.

Maybe I am a little bit now that I've written it.

Perceiving Will

09 Nov, 2008 | Brian |

Some alternate titles for this article: Carving Lamb With a Samurai Sword, or How I Learned to Shut Up at the King's Table.

I wrote in a previous article about putting yourself into the service of something bigger than yourself. This is really about setting aside your will, which is often focused on getting and keeping. The getting part is the desire for acquiring things and experiences, and the keeping part is the desire to preserve what you've already got. Those impulses seem sensible enough in a capitalist sense - we're just looking out for ourselves and our families. From the point of view of personal well-being, though, these ideas turn out not to be so wonderful. When I don't get what I want, I become resentful. When events (real or imagined) threaten what I have, I become fearful. I end up living most of my life drowning in fear and resentment, and blaming everyone else for it, instead of accomplishing anything useful.

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