Philosophy and Politics

It's a word that just about everyone hates these days, like every other word that has become politically charged through the actions of one group who has decided something is bad.  Some people hate what the word represents, railing against a system they see as unfair and exclusionary.  Others hate it because it assaults what they have, a threat to their livelihoods from groups of people...

I think most people would agree that the internet is probably the single greatest advancement that human beings have made in the history of our existence.  At no prior point in our past have we had the level of connectivity not just between those people in our immediate sphere, but with people from all around the world.  Nearly unlimited information is at our fingertips in a nearly insta...

One of the consistent ideas that has existed in human society almost from the beginning is the desire for professional security services provided by experts who know how do do that sort of thing.  While in the past it might have simply been a cooperative group of villagers banding together to fight off danger and keep order within, our modern version has been a police force for quite a long t...

As an introvert, I struggle with this every day, and most of the time I fail.  I tend to prefer sitting around at home, not really getting anything meaningful done and just passing my time uselessly.  My brain knows this is a waste, but the part of me that hates going out and dealing with the world almost always wins against the part of me that yearns for something more.  I can tell...

I think most people struggle with living with who they are.  We are brought up to believe that we should be good people, striving to help others and participate in society in the way that everyone else seems to.  For some people, this comes quite easily and they are able to set aside their selfish tendencies, at least to the level where they can cope with others in a meaningful way. &nbs...

It's been bandied about for quite a while now that perhaps the government should simply mandate vaccinations in one form or another.  There are two sides of that argument that are both valid, and which side you land on depends on your philosophy about what it is to be a citizen of the United States.  Whichever path we choose moving forward will result in some form of harm to one group or...

We have seen a drastic shift in the way our culture perceives what is right and proper in how we deal with the people around us.  Much of this has to do with how far we've strayed from having to struggle against the world simply to exist, the conveniences of life allowing us to wallow in the luxury that is our modern life.  It is easy to understand that when there is no goal or objective...

I'm not a fan of California.  The funny thing about that is that I've lived here for nearly two decades of my life, having moved around SoCal for the military and then finally settling in San Diego after I was discharged for a medical problem.  As I've told many people in the past, I love San Diego but I hate California.  It's a very difficult thing to live with when you have a plac...

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://gunthrek.com/2021/09/02/spend-a-little-now-to-save-a-lot-later/

The internet has become pretty boring, if I'm being perfectly honest.  Like most things that have been around for a while, you get to the point where if you've seen one thing, you've seen them all.  Part of this is our natural tendency to become desensitized to things over time, but there is another aspect to how it all works that makes this phenomenon even worse.  No matter how cre...

We often believe that we have control over our lives.  The world has become much smaller and we have developed the ability to manipulate our environment, shape the events of the world and even begin our spread beyond it, out into the inky blackness of outer space.  We have risen to heights our ancestors could never have imagined, and it is natural for us to think that as we move further...

One of the biggest debates that has ever raged within human societies is determining which form of government is best suited to provide the kind of environment most of us seem to prefer.  Many kinds have been tried since we first started gathering into large groups, from iron-fisted dictatorships like medieval kingdoms to full on democracies like ancient Greece.  As we look back through...

This is a pretty simple topic that doesn't really require much extensive explanation, but I wanted to take some time to go over the dangers of hypocrisy, especially if you put yourself out into the world as a paragon of any given ideology.  One of the worst things a person can do is to preach one thing in public and then go into their own private lives and do exactly the opposite.  The f...

"Kill 'em with kindness." Or at least that's how the saying goes.  In today's emotionally charged environment, we're seeing more of a shift away from the "get it done" attitude toward leaders who constantly worry about offending people.  Many times this applies to the relationship between a boss and his subordinates, but mostly it shows itself in a manager's relationship with those peopl...

In a recent post, I discussed how our relationships are starting to fray due to the advent of certain technologies like cell phones, but that isn't the only reason why things are starting to change in the way that we deal with the people in our lives, especially when it comes to romantic relationships.   Our newly developed dependence on instant communication and social media are terribl...

This isn't a new topic.  Many others have gone over this ad nauseum, but as someone who has borne the brunt of the consequences for this brave new era in which we find ourselves, I feel it necessary to point out some of the drawbacks inherent in some of the new technology that we find ourselves living with today.  We human beings are incredibly innovative and come up with some amazing in...

What do you think about the value of work?  Is it enough to just get paid, or do you need something more from your efforts?  How do you find value in the jobs that you do; is it even possible?  Sometimes a change is required to break free from the negative things that grab a hold of us.  It can be painful, but the first step in figuring out what to do is learning to truly under...

For most people, our memories tend to be filled with a range of events both good and bad, exciting and tragic, meaningful and superfluous.  Sometimes we have certain events that stay crystallized in our minds for the rest of our lives, the importance of the event so great that it shapes the course of everything that follows it.  Regardless of how we view whatever memories we might have,...

Since I was young, I've been told that I can be anything that I want to be.  The implication that was silently included in that statement was that if I worked hard enough, there was no job or position or achievement that I couldn't reach if I just did all the things required to get there.  Nearly every member of my generation and beyond has been told this over and over again until we cam...

For many, it is a mystery why there is a portion of the population who just doesn't like to be around other people.  Human beings are social animals by default, and when we are alone for extended periods of time it tends to have negative effects on our mental state.  Most people can't bear solitude for very long, requiring regular contact with others in both physical and social contexts....

I've been playing video games for a very long time now.  As a nineties kid, I grew up just as they were really becoming a mainstream kind of thing.  I can remember my first Nintendo Entertainment System , playing games like Super Mario Bros. and Iron Tank .  When I was a little older my biological father introduced me to PC games like Heretic and Myst and Pool of Radiance .  I...

One of the most prevalent ideas in society is the notion that we aren't alone.  It's written into our DNA to believe that there is something out there other than just we humans.  Most of us believe in some form of non-human intelligence, and faith in a higher power is by far the most common way to satisfy this seemingly primal need.  Whether you choose to believe in God or not, ther...

There has been a lot of serious talk in progressive circles in the last decade or so about something called "universal basic income", the idea being that if everyone is provided with a basic living they will be free to pursue whatever interests their hearts desire.  This utopian idea, like many others, is an amazing concept that at first glance seems like a great idea, but is ultimately doome...

Too many people go on and on about following your dreams, but sometimes the dream you have isn't the dream that really works for you.  It's nice to fantasize about being someone other than who you are, but it's a dubious proposition to believe that you'll be truly happy living a life that isn't really you.  Being creative doesn't mean fitting yourself into the image of someone else; by d...

What do you think about wisdom?  Do you know many things but have little experience?  How has access to vast amounts of knowledge improved your life?  Can you learn more from actually going through things in life?  We tend to favor the acquisition of information over participation, but we do this at our peril.  It is better to learn how we deal with things ourselves rather...