Cf. the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, the idea driving the current culture wars is that language controls thought, and thought controls behaviour. So he who controls the words we speak controls the world. And, of course, he who controls the world controls… Read More ›
Critical Thinking
PATTER
I’m certain that clergy, politicians, and news anchors all take the same course in patter. Given how often “our hearts go out to …”, one wonders if they ever stay home. Note that it’s invariably our hearts, first person plural,… Read More ›
INDIGENOUS WAYS OF KNOWING
We woke up this morning to the sight of a doe and two fawns grazing on our front lawn. If this happened in Berlin or Lyon or Naples, it would have made the front page. Having precious little of it… Read More ›
HOW TO SURRENDER IN THE LANGUAGE WAR
What do Edward Sapir, Benjamin Lee Whorf, George Orwell, and post-modern feminists have in common? They all triangulate on the fact that we think in words. And so if you can control what can be said, you can control what… Read More ›
HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE
Let me give you a heads up. Whatever you’re most sensitive about, I’m probably going to be insensitive to it. This is regrettable, by which is meant it’s able to be regretted, but apparently not by me. Here I offer just… Read More ›
WE HUMANS ARE ODD
They asked me to stay home for a couple of weeks, and I did what they asked. Then they asked me to stay home for another two weeks, and after that another, and then another, and now yet another. The… Read More ›
THE PREVIOUS INVESTMENT TRAP
My wife isn’t just a pretty face. Behind it she’s got a sit-up-and-take-notice brain, i.e. one not to be trifled with. So in response to my query at the end of my last post, she’s offered the following answer. Not… Read More ›
THE NO-END-IN-SIGHT CLAUSE
All the epidemiologists and politicians are talking about flattening the curve, by which they don’t mean– at least not necessarily – reducing the total area under the curve, i.e. reducing the number of people who’ll eventually contract Covid 19. Even… Read More ›
ONLY BAD PEOPLE ASK BAD QUESTIONS
I guess this is a case of in for a penny, in for a pound. How so? Because once one’s asked – as I have in an earlier post – how many lives have actually been saved once we include… Read More ›
TRUTHS THAT DON’T BEAR SAYING
When I die, and if I’m remembered at all, it’ll probably be as that misanthropic bastard who authored that scurrilous piece of shite entitled “A Defense of Terrorism.” Sound as it is, I won’t be remembered for the argument. Rather… Read More ›
