Category Archives: Culture

Links and Comments: Why I am Not a Conservative

Posted on 15 August 2018 by Mark R. Kelly

Every once in a while an op-ed in the New York Times, or a book review in NYT or PW (Publishers Weekly), will be on the subject of defending conservative values. I have a very basic intellectual grasp of what … Continue reading →

Posted in Changing One's Mind, Conservative Resistance, Culture | Leave a comment

Link and Comments: About Superhero Movies

Posted on 9 July 2018 by Mark R. Kelly

From Sunday’s NYT. Mark Bowden, Why Are We Obsessed With Superhero Movies? The issue for me is why these types of stories are so popular, recently – and how these are primitive fantasies, the very opposite type of story as … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Movies | Leave a comment

Links and Comments: Formal and Intuitive Religion

Posted on 14 June 2018 by Mark R. Kelly

Two items. First, the latest survey showing the rise of the “nones,” the younger generation for whom formal religion is losing its attraction. In Nearly Every Country, Young People Are Way Less Religious Than Adults. The pattern holds throughout most … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Religion | Leave a comment

C.P. Snow’s The Two Cultures, The Third Culture, Big History, and 2001

Posted on 10 May 2018 by Mark R. Kelly

C.P. Snow’s “The Two Cultures” is the famous 1959 lecture and then essay about the divide between the scientific community and the literary ‘intellectual’ community, an essay much referenced in books about the acceptance of science in modern culture (with, … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Science, science fiction | Leave a comment

Links from NYT recently, with Comments

Posted on 12 April 2018 by Mark R. Kelly

Op-ed by Amy Sullivan in the New York Times, April 1 (posted March 31): Trump’s Christian Soldiers The recurring, amazing fact that the self-righteous evangelicals support someone like Trump. You could open a publishing press devoted to the theological and … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Culture, Evolution, Politics, Psychology | Leave a comment

Links and Comments: Sports and Trump; Pinker and Gates; Tribal Allegiance and Actual Progress

Posted on 3 February 2018 by Mark R. Kelly

NYT, 3Feb18: Trump’s Blood Sport Politics. The writer recalls “”The Sporting Spirit,” an essay written by George Orwell in 1945 that sought to reckon with the rise of our modern athletic-industrial complex.” For Orwell, the rise of sports was bound … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Culture, Social Progress, Steven Pinker | Leave a comment

Links and Comments: Optimists; Bible; Children

Posted on 7 January 2018 by Mark R. Kelly

Time Magazine’s current issue is called “The Optimists,” and is edited by Bill Gates. Steven Pinker has a piece: Why We Refuse to See the Bright Side, Even Though We Should According to the latest data, people are living longer … Continue reading →

Posted in Children, Culture, Human Progress, Religion | Leave a comment

Link and Comments: Fractured Reality

Posted on 20 November 2017 by Mark R. Kelly

The cultural theme of this second decade of the 21st century seems to be the fracturing of consensus cultural norms, even of consensus reality, especially in the US. I’ve observed this in tandem with reading about advances in psychology, over … Continue reading →

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Links and Comments: Conservative Susceptibility to Lies; Contempt for Science; Existential Threats

Posted on 13 November 2017 by Mark R. Kelly

» Slate: Why Are Conservatives More Susceptible to Believing Lies?. Subtitle: “An interplay between how all humans think and how conservatives tend to act might actually explain a lot about our current moment.” Longish article about how conservatives are more … Continue reading →

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Links and Comments: An Abortion Thought-Experiment, and Conservative Thinking

Posted on 23 October 2017 by Mark R. Kelly

Salon: The Twitter thought experiment that exposes “pro-life” hypocrisy. Subtitle: “Comedian and sci-fi writer Patrick Tomlinson on the dangerous question that abortion foes refuse to answer” Last Monday, a tweetstorm eviscerating abortion foes went viral. Science fiction writer and comedian … Continue reading →

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