Society

The practice of anarchy

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Whenever an existing hierarchically organized system becomes sufficiently ossified and dysfunctional to give an obvious edge to an improvised, anarchic, perhaps initially inferior alternative, there is a possibility that such an alternative will materialize out of nowhere, spread virally, become dominant, and then, in turn, become hierarchical and ossified.

Resilience: Why so many parents today are getting it wrong

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I’ve lost count of the number of articles I’ve read about the importance of developing resilience.  It’s mentioned all over the web and for good reason, as it’s a critical coping mechanism.  Most of those articles however, are directed at developing resilience within the adult population.  Seldom, do we talk about how parents can and should create resilience in children, particularly when there are many parents out there who are doing the exact opposite of what’s required.
 

UT motto modification: What Starts Here…Accelerates Destruction?

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I want to suggest a slight modification of the University of Texas’ motto, “What starts here changes the world.” A more accurate slogan — while not quite as pithy and probably less effective for public-relations purposes — would be, “What starts here accelerates the destruction of the world.”

Gay, gay, marrions-les

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France is about to legalize gay marriage. This has caused some turmoil in some part of the opinion and the right wing opposition bitterly opposes it, mostly, I think, to show they are indeed the Opposition. Indeed, the very fact that a measure which concerns only 5% of the population has become, in the middle of a major economic crisis, one of the focuses of our collective conversation tells a lot about how impotent our rulers have become.