Category Archives: Human Nature

Johan Norberg, PROGRESS

Posted on Tuesday 3 March 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled: Ten Reasons to Look Forward to the Future (UK: Oneworld, Oct 2016, 246pp, including 28pp notes, acknowledgements, and index) Rather as I did with Rutger Bregman a few days, here’s an author who has a new book out recently, … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, Human Nature, Human Progress, progress | Leave a comment

The MAHA Veil, Cruelty, and What Trump Supporters are Teaching their Children

Posted on Thursday 26 February 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

MAHA isn’t about health, it’s about making money off quack cures; Matthew Rozsa thinks Trump will lose in November because of one word: cruelty; John Pavlovitz spells out what Trump supporters are teaching their children, about diversity, compassion, women, and … Continue reading →

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Rutger Bregman: HUMANKIND

Posted on Wednesday 25 February 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled “A Hopeful History” (2019 Dutch; 2020 Little, Brown, xviii+461pp, including 64pp acknowledgements, notes, and index) Still catching up posting about big books I’ve read in recent years. This book came out in 2020 (in the US) and I blogged … Continue reading →

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Does ICE need to come and track you down?

Posted on Tuesday 24 February 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Why Trump fears “woke,” why he loves the poorly-educated, and how advances in American history were due to “woke”; How he cares about discrimination only if it’s against Jews or whites; How his creepy emails work on the MAGA faithful; … Continue reading →

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Competence vs. Competition

Posted on Monday 23 February 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Olympics thoughts: zero-sum games; competence vs competition; Amanda Marcotte on the violence and propaganda from the DHS; Zack Beauchamp on how to stop a dictator: make the threat obvious; Tom Nichols on the Republican Party’s Nazi problem; Short items about … Continue reading →

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Another Take on the Left/Right Divide

Posted on Sunday 22 February 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Kalen Dion on the right/left divide: homogeneity/diversity, and all that implies; What do historians mean that tomorrow won’t be better than today? Because human nature; The modern economy and the limits of human cognition; Conservative values: the Biblical right to … Continue reading →

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Whatever They Can Get Away With

Posted on Friday 20 February 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Short items today Trump’s move to demolish greenhouse gas standards is based on a (admittedly technical) lie; America is experiencing a tourism slump (because… one guess); About Trump’s “cartoonish” monuments to himself; How Trump makes his own voters suffer; How … Continue reading →

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Are There Superior Civilizations?

Posted on Wednesday 18 February 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Reactions to a speech by Marco Rubio claiming the superiority of Western Civilization over all others, by Bret Stephens, Eliot A. Cohen, Jamelle Bouie; Noting again Jared Diamond, who explained decades ago why the fact that the Enlightenment et al … Continue reading →

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Religious Motivations

Posted on Tuesday 17 February 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Jerry Coyne challenges claims of a religious revival in America; Review of a book called “Why I Am Not an Atheist” by Christopher Beha; And a NYT essay by author Christopher Beha. – – – A couple items about religion … Continue reading →

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The Clash Within

Posted on Sunday 15 February 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

How there isn’t a clash of civilizations (e.g. Christian vs. Muslim) so much as a clash between modernity and those who resent it: WOKE vs MAGA; Items about ensuring the “right” people will vote, the erosion of the separation of … Continue reading →

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