Philosophy and Politics

We've all seen in recent months how Joe Rogan has seen quite a lot of backlash from his show due to the far left side of the political spectrum strongly disagreeing with his very centrist, somewhat libertarian attitude toward the social issues of today.  As one of the least filtered and most controversial figures in media today, Rogan has become the epitome of what a long form, unscripted pod...

So I think we all know at this point that there is going to be a massive shift in our political landscape in the next year, and anyone who says otherwise is either delusional or just blatantly dishonest.  The events of the last year have made it quite clear that the moderate agenda that the Democratic party shouted from the rooftops during the election was a complete sham, desperately promisi...

I've spent most of my life inside of systems.  While most people do end up interacting with the systems of our society to one degree or another, I am an example of someone who has been shaped from the ground up not by critical thought, but by the repetitious impaction of specific ideologies.  From nearly two decades spent in primary and secondary education, to more than another decade in...

It's something we go through all the time, struggling toward what we want out of our lives while at the same time realizing it's never going to be exactly the way we want it to be.  One of the most difficult things to live with is the idea that the perfect situation for our life is out there somewhere just waiting for us to find it, but knowing that the odds of us ever finding it are slim to...

We're hearing a lot of talk in recent years of a "divorce" of the country between liberals and conservatives.  The argument appears to be that our ideologies have become so disparate that we can no longer live peacefully together in common cause and must separate into two distinctly separate nations so we can all live the kinds of lives we want.  Liberals can have their big government na...

Tomorrow begins yet another mask mandate for the state of California in an attempt to "control" the spread of COVID-19 during the winter months when the virus is particularly aggressive.  This sounds great in theory, and on some level it makes sense that wearing a mask should help reduce the transmission of the virus amongst the population.  However, the problem with that thought process...

One of the great battles of the last century has been the fight between societies espousing individual liberty and those with strict authoritarian governments.  Of the many attempts since the dawn of the twentieth century to create permanently successful socialist or communist governments, only one has seen any real level of success:  China.  Of course, that country has only been in...

We live in an alien world these days.  The one I grew up in was far different from the one we're experiencing today.  As a child, I was raised with certain ideas that were universally accepted by American society as an ideology we should all be striving for.  The United States has been the beacon of hope for the world for nearly two centuries, primarily because of the views we have...

Just about everything in the world can be compared to business.  When it comes to the things that have value, there are some things that are abundant and easy to come by and thus, even when demand is very high, economies of scale allow us to keep the price down to a reasonable level.  On the other hand, when something is very rare, or just very valuable regardless of the quantity availab...

If you've been following my blog for any length of time, you're aware that my current job will be ending soon and I don't really have a solid plan for after that.  I have been fortunate that the termination point for this position has continued to be pushed back as the requirements for the project we're working on continue to be delayed, but this will eventually run out and I will be out of w...

There isn't really much to say that we all don't know already with the result of one of the most high profile criminal cases in recent history.  We all knew that young Kyle Rittenhouse was innocent of any criminal intent and was simply defending himself and his family.  The only doubts any of us really had was whether the jury would have the courage to come to the only just conclusion an...

Anyone who knows me personally knows that I tend to be a loner.  There is obviously a certain amount of need for me to have contact with other people, and I can't be alone for extended periods of time without starting to get a bit of loneliness creeping into my space, but much of the time I'm content to be doing my own thing with a minimum of interaction with other people.  It's a strugg...

Our modern world is a double-edged sword.  On the one hand, the services and technology that we have access to have given us an unprecedented quality of life that just a century ago was out of reach for even the wealthiest of people.  The other side of the coin is a darker part of our society that we don't think about very much:  the entitlement that comes with having everything giv...

As an older millennial, it took me quite a long time to develop an interest in politics.  I'm no expert, and I certainly don't keep up with nearly as much as I probably should, but I try to stay on top of major developments so I'm at least aware of the broad stroke things that are going on at any given point in time.  My interests in the field tend toward a more philosophical point of vi...

I've said in the past that suffering is relative .  It can be difficult to have sympathy for someone who appears better off than you do when you see or hear something from them that claims unhappiness or pain or whatever other negative experience they might be going through.  It is a natural thing to write off the bad things others experience when we feel like what we're going through is...

I don't declare myself to be an expert on relationships, as there have only been two people in my life who became serious love interests for me.  One was a marriage that lasted nearly a decade; the other an engagement that lasted three years.  When it comes to telling people what they should do when it comes to their partner in life, I am not really the best qualified to give advice. Sti...

Making money is one of the more sad things that we have to deal with in our lives on this little pale blue dot we call Earth.  The laws of nature dictate that we have to put in time and effort into very boring things like finding resources to survive.  As most of us have come to realize, the idea that we can find a way to survive that doesn't involve long hours of toiling away at somethi...

We hear it all the time these days: so many jobs and not enough employees to fill the positions.  It seems crazy to think that with so many people out of work, yet so many available jobs, that we are struggling to get people hired.  There are a lot of theories as to why this is, and the primary one I've heard is that government handouts are encouraging people not to work because they mak...

They say the best things in life are free.  It would be nice if that were true, and perhaps if you're talking about money, it has a ring of truth to it.  However, it is the unfortunate truth that anything worth having has a cost associated with it, something we have to give up in order to have it.  Many times it is money or resources, but even if it's just a positive interaction wit...

I came to a rather stark realization this morning:  I don't exist.  At least, not in the way that everyone else around me seems to.  So many people seem to have at least a vague understanding of who they are and what they are about, but I've spent my entire life struggling with what I want and who I am.  After so much soul searching in trying to figure out what might make me ha...

So many of us today are struggling with this idea that events are moving beyond our control and we fear what tomorrow might look like.  Perhaps it is a feeling we have of being a small person in a big world run by powerful people who will crush us if we refuse to comply with their wishes.  Whatever the reason might be, there is a feeling of power held by those people who have risen to th...

I've said a few times before on this blog that I struggle with knowing what I want to do with my life.  Over the course of nearly four decades, I've done so many different things that most people probably wouldn't believe it.  If I recall, I covered some of that in one of my first posts, and every time I go back and recall the things I've experienced in my time here on Earth, I'm surpris...

"The world will always need ditch diggers."  This saying, or whatever version you might be familiar with, has been around for as long as we have had modern industry.  As people have moved from primarily farm based activity to jobs in production, we have been constantly striving to move beyond the need for menial labor and into work that satisfies our souls.  Few people are content w...

It's old news by the time this article goes live, but as many of us expected it turns out that Fauci lied about his connection with the Wuhan lab and the gain of function research related to COVID-19.  As far as I know, there has been no conclusive evidence presented that the virus absolutely originated in this laboratory, but it's an awfully suspicious coincidence for a highly transmissible...

Human beings reach for the stars.  It's in our nature to be unsatisfied with what we have and constantly strive for something better.  The drive to succeed and accomplish great things is what has propelled us from living in cold, dark caves to the fantastic level of technology that we enjoy today.  There is nothing inherently wrong with being unrealistic because most of the things w...