"Nothing is Sacred," says Man. "Nothing is sacred save SCIENCE!" "We've christened Science, Omni-Science. All-knowing. Infallible. And incompatible with Religion. With ritual. With tradition. And so we've cast religion out. We've burned our Holy Books. We've made our devout, the heretics, and our heretics, the devout. We've erased the divine standard of morality. Man gives law unto … Continue reading The Destruction of the Sacred
Author: I.J. Wyant
On Motive
In 2005, psychologists Reeder, Pryor, Wohl, and Griswell published a study about the attribution of motive that was featured in the November issue of Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin. They decided to use a then-current hot-button issue as a central part of the study in order to draw out people's most authentic emotion. They asked American … Continue reading On Motive
You Can’t Care About Everything
Can I care about everything? And I mean truly care. Truly empathize to where I will give my time, money, and resources to help solve the problem? And if not, to what level can I care? If I placed your level of care on a spectrum, with one end being "abstract concern" and the other end being "complete dedication of time, money, and resources" to an issue, which side of the spectrum would most of the world's issues lie in your mind?
The Course of an Empire: The Arcadian or Pastoral State
Thomas Cole. Oil on canvas, 1834, 39 ½ x 63 ½ in. Collection of The New-York Historical Society, 1858.2. The day is further along than in "Savage State". Clouds dance slowly around the mountains. A small village has been established near the bay. Nature and humanity are in harmony. Peasants engage in simple pleasures. From … Continue reading The Course of an Empire: The Arcadian or Pastoral State
The Course of an Empire: The Savage State
Cole's first work in The Course of An Empire series. Depicts the dawn of civilization, the entirety of the picture being in a state of motion. The mysteries of nature swirl about, as if molded from nothing with the outset of the fog. Primitive people dance around a camp fire. Men organize in tribal governments … Continue reading The Course of an Empire: The Savage State
All Ideas Are Not Created Equal
Thoughts, feelings, and beliefs alone are unsubstantiated. They are truth to you and you alone through the schemas and perceptions that your inherently flawed mind creates. Nobody cares what you think, feel, or believe because not all ideas are created equal. And your thoughts, feelings, and beliefs alone are at the bottom of the "weight of an argument totem pole".
The 3 Degrees of Purchase
Understanding the Third Person Transaction is paramount to understanding government spending. The idea of your taxes being used to make responsible transactions that will benefit you is diametrically opposed to the nature of the third person transaction. There is no necessity for efficiency or quality. And responsibility is so diffused that any legitimate call to accountability will yield you a a low-level scapegoat if you're lucky and a self-righteous speech on the importance of transparency.
“My Mom is Dead” – The Misuse and Abuse of the Personal Account
Over the course of a boy's middle school free time, he will inevitably hear or participate in the male contest of "yo mama" jokes. In case you're unfamiliar, "yo mama" jokes are generally framed as "Yo mama is so (adjective, usually 'fat') she (some sort of thing that she does that describes the previous adjective)". This usually went around for awhile, with no one really getting that offended, until you had the wise guy in the group decide he was going to shut down the party. He waited patiently for someone to make fun of his mother, or he initiated the attack by making fun of their's first, and when their quip was finished he responded with these silencing words:
A Lawmaker’s Litmus Test
Ours is a country of laws. Every problem, every grieving mother, every offended 20-something year old results in some statute or another. Every public shooting, every racial incident, and every sex offense seems to spawn an extra measure of legal ink. And why is this? Because it feels good.
THYMOS 