Philosophy and Politics

How do you feel about change?  Are you excited when it happens, or do you feel anxiety?  What kinds of changes have you experienced that you thought were going to be negative, but turned out to have unexpected benefits?  Learning to look at the future with a positive lens can help us make the transition from one phase of life to the next in a much easier way, and might be the differ...

What do you think of this movement?  Should D.C. be its own state, or should it be a distinct entity?  What are the pros and cons of the idea?  There are many arguments for and against, but we must think long and hard about making this change.  The wrong choice could lead to serious problems, and we have enough of those already. This episode is also available as a blog post: ht...

How do you feel about religion in our government?  Should it have a voice, or is it important to minimize its influence?  Where is the line between respecting religion and incorporating it into law?  If we can remember how the founders of the country thought as they drew up the Constitution, we might have a more harmonious frame of mind when we enter into political discussion of the...

How do you feel about immigration?  Have you had to deal with the process, or do you know someone who has?  What ways can you think of to solve the problem?  If we can freely share our ideas and actually listen to what the other side is saying, we stand a much better chance of being able to move our country forward in a healthy way.  The alternative is to continue this death sp...

How do you feel about the media today?  Do you find yourself flitting from topic to topic like the wind?  How often do you feel triggered by a headline or social media post?  The problems of today are highly affected by these very issues, and until we can learn to move away from this way of thinking, our nation will continue to struggle to resolve the deeper issues still plaguing ou...

What do you think about the slippery slope?  Is it a real thing, or a construct of people afraid of losing what they have?  Have we seen real examples?  If we ignore the past and continue down this road we're on, we'll have no one to blame but ourselves.  We've been given the example of what not to do, and it is up to us to have the courage not to do it.  What will you do...

How do you feel about the quarantine?  Did it make you feel any safer, or was it an infringement on your freedoms?  Would you allow it to happen again, or do you think we should reject it?  There are vastly differing opinions on this topic, and the discussion surrounding it will be heated for years to come.  We should all take some time to think about it without the influence o...

What do you think about the filibuster?  Is it a valuable tool, or an unnecessary roadblock?  What reasons can you think of to keep it or remove it?  Many of us don't spend enough time paying attention to what our government is doing, but we can start becoming more involved today by simply sending an email.  As the saying goes:  you get out what you put in.  Are you p...

What are you good at?  Do you know, or are you still figuring it out?  What steps can you take today to start down the path of learning what your talents are?  It's one of the hardest things to do, but if you can learn to take your natural abilities and turn them into a valuable service, you will not only provide a life for yourself and your family, but you will also find the satisf...

Do you live with depression?  How has it affected your life?  Have you found that thing in your life that will push it away, or do you feel like you're lost?  Part of living with depression is just knowing that you aren't the only one.  It won't make the feeling go away, but sometimes just sharing our pain is enough to get us moving.  Feel free to share it here and we can...

How do you feel about greed?  Is it a big part of your life, or do you see it as an impediment to your happiness?  Are your goals reasonable, or do they require something that is unlikely to happen for you?  Learning to adjust our expectations to remove greed from the equation is a huge step toward finding happiness in our lives.  The more you can figure out how to do this, the...

How do you feel about minimal effort?  Does it make you feel bad, or are other things more important than making money?  Do you regard people who do just enough to get by as a negative or positive?  If we can understand that not everyone has a desire to be what society calls successful, we can stop treating people who don’t live up to our own personal metric of acceptable effort wit...

What do you think about being an employee?  Is it a position where you have no power, or are you able to leverage your strengths to exert control over your situation?  Do you put up with the creeping scope of responsibilities as time moves forward, or are you able to stick to your guns and reject such tactics?  The first step to improving our careers is to start believing that we ar...

What do you think about the variability of human intelligence?  Are there things that you excel at which make you wonder why you struggle with something else?  How do you overcome the things you're not good at?  When we can identify our weaknesses, we start to realize that we can't do it on our own and, though it may hurt our pride, we learn to reach out to others to find a way forw...

What do you think about individualism?  Have you traditionally regarded it as selfish, or do you believe we should try to accommodate different points of view?  What can you do today to advance the cause of individual liberty?  While many will never be able to understand the seeming contradiction, it is important for us to think critically about human nature and carefully insert it...

How do you feel about your past?  Did you learn anything from it, or do you continue finding yourself in the same situations?  What measures are you putting in place to make your life better from today forward?  These are the questions we must ask ourselves if we are to have a fighting chance of making a better life for not only ourselves, but those who choose to share our journey w...

How do you feel about spending money on an unknown outcome?  Do you jump right in and hope for the best, or do you hold back because you're afraid to lose?  Where do you draw the line between risk and reward?  Sometimes we have to do things that are uncomfortable to get where we want to go, and the sooner we learn this, the more rich and fulfilling out lives can become. This episode...

What do you think about your perspective on life?  Are you satisfied with where you are headed?  If not, have you thought about trying to break into something new?  Sometimes all we can do is simply take the first step down the path and hope for the best.  None of us knows the future, and many times it is a small change that ends up making the biggest difference in our lives. &...

What do you think about government?  Is it something you trust, or something you fear?  Have you seen anything done by government that guaranteed you a positive result?  We like to believe that most people are good and will do what is right for the betterment of society, but history has shown us over and over that this just isn't the case.  Good people become corrupted very qui...

So what do you think about working for employers?  Do you have a good one or a bad one?  Do they make you feel valued, or despite their kindness do you feel like a chess piece?  Sharing your own experiences is one of the best things we can do to assuage our own angst and frustration, because the sharing of our experiences in a constructive way has a strong, positive effect on our ps...

What do you think about living in transitions?  How did you handle it when it happened to you?  Are you in the middle of one right now?  Our life is full of transitions, and learning to handle them well can mean the difference between moving closer to our dreams and being pushed further away from them.  Still, sometimes venting your frustrations can reset your perspective and h...

What do you think about the shortening attention span of our society?  Do you find that you struggle to get through articles once they reach a certain length, regardless of how interesting you find the topic?  Are there writers that you find engaging, yet you still struggle to read their work because they simply take too long to get to the point?  The reality is that as things conti...

Will this spark last, or will it be drowned out by the darkness of doubt?  The peril of predictability?  The yearning for a safe harbor?  Or will it flare up into a raging fire to be viewed with awe in its full glory?  Can it be a guiding light that not only saves my own soul, but that of others around me?  I cannot say, but I view the world through this new dawn choosing...

So what do you think about political hatred?  How often do you experience this in your personal life?  What do you do when someone you disagree with starts speaking and all you can feel is anger at what they're saying?  Learning to control our hate and treating people as people is a critical part of building a free and open society.  As much as we fear those who want to exert t...

I'm starting to hit that wall where enthusiasm runs out and you have a choice to either continue on the path or decide it's just not worth it.  It happens so often in my life, and my usual choice is to set aside what I'm doing and look for something else to do.  As a person who grew up in an instant gratification world, it's so hard to stick with anything when you aren't getting what you...