Recently, my Human Development class arrived at the logical conclusion of the lifespan: death. Fitting that it comes last and we get to contemplate the finality of existence just before taking the final exam and parting ways forever. I don’t teach any higher-level courses at this school and so our association is ended here. It… Read more »
Agency power withdrawal. Americans are increasingly enraptured with the right to die movement. Kevorkian did his time for assisting suicides, and we overwhelmingly think his actions were righteous. More recently, a brain cancer patient elected suicide after her wedding. That term, no fewer than a dozen of my students did tearful presentations on her case…. Read more »
The first World Congress on Existential Psychology is coming up, in London, England. The editor oft New Existentialists, a certain Sarah Kass, has made sure our blog and our writers are represented there. Our topic of conversation: existentialism, writing, and activism. I feel out of place helping to represent the cause or representing causes. All… Read more »
Muzafer Sherif in the 1950s and again in the1960s demonstrated that contact is the cure for bigotry. He introduced artificial bigotry between two groups of boys by segregating them and having them compete against one another; he then erased the bigotry by having them work together to solve a common problem. The United States has… Read more »
“Likewise, I have always insisted on justice for all the world over, because justice is indivisible.” –King, 1998 This quote is part of a piece on the Vietnam War. It’s a difficult piece. King has trouble reconciling opposition to the war with the civil rights movement. For me, it’s perfectly clear. Pacifism seems a natural… Read more »
I haven’t seen the doctor. Snowpocalypso 2015 was suggesting a non-driving weekend, and they’d only want me to take a narcotic painkiller. I’m not so keen on the idea. The last time they suggested it, I was agreeable. But the pills did little for the first pain I was feeling, and also inspired a second—a… Read more »
Just in case you value such things, spoiler alert. Although what I have to say shouldn’t actually come as much of a surprise. Seeking a Friend for the End of the World is an end-of-the-world movie in which the world actually ends. There are actually a number of complicated love stories in this romantic comedy… Read more »
They put up a community board, sort of a Facebook in meatspace. They started us off with some posters: Black Lives Matter proclaimed one, the heading over a portrait of Michael Brown. Black Lives Matter proclaimed a second, over 12 portraits in rows of four, columns of three, all people of color killed by police…. Read more »
Photo by Marion S. Trikosko. I recently took my son to see Selma. There was no school because of the weather, so it seemed like a history lesson was in order. Oyelowo was brilliant as Martin Luther King, Jr.. A sensitive performance, nuanced. Fear in his eyes at just the right moment, to just the… Read more »
The world is changing. If you want to survive in the modern world, you have to be leaner, sharper, colder. You have to cut back on love and empathy and focus more on the bottom line. Don’t get me wrong: I love your idealism. I just think you need to be more realistic. Look, so… Read more »
