Category Archives: Psychology

Jonathan Haidt, THE HAPPINESS HYPOTHESIS, post 4

Posted on Friday 7 November 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled “Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom” With second subtitle “Why the Meaningful Life is Closer than You Think” (Basic Books, 2006, xiii + 297pp, including 54pp acknowledgements, notes, references, and index. Hardcover with no dust jacket.) (Post 1, Post … Continue reading →

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Bill Gates and Climate Change

Posted on Wednesday 5 November 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

There has been much consternation over a piece published by Bill Gates last week, about climate change. NY Times, David Gelles, 28 Oct 2025: Bill Gates Says Climate Change ‘Will Not Lead to Humanity’s Demise’, subtitled “In a memo, the … Continue reading →

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Jonathan Haidt, THE HAPPINESS HYPOTHESIS, post 2

Posted on Wednesday 5 November 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled “Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom” With second subtitle “Why the Meaningful Life is Closer than You Think” (Basic Books, 2006, xiii + 297pp, including 54pp acknowledgements, notes, references, and index. Hardcover with no dust jacket.) (Post 1) Once … Continue reading →

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Jonathan Haidt, THE HAPPINESS HYPOTHESIS, post 1

Posted on Tuesday 4 November 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled “Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom” With second subtitle “Why the Meaningful Life is Closer than You Think” (Basic Books, 2006, xiii + 297pp, including 54pp acknowledgements, notes, references, and index. Hardcover with no dust jacket.) Here is a … Continue reading →

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Troubled Children, Cognitive Collapse, Cave Man Morality

Posted on Monday 3 November 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Paul Krugman about how Trump has ceded the future to China; Tom Nichols on how the Trump administration resembles a bunch of toddlers, and what Americans who care about democracy should do. Salon’s Sophia A. McClennen on how the Trump … Continue reading →

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Politics is more about tribal human nature than about solving problems

Posted on Monday 3 November 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

David French on why Trump gets away with everything; Ezra Klein on how to beat Trumpism: something about Democrats not being so judgmental; Short items about Norman Rockwell, Nigeria and Christians, the welfare queen stereotype, how faith-base bigotry is just … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics, Psychology | Comments Off on Politics is more about tribal human nature than about solving problems

Narrative Closure in A House of Dynamite

Posted on Saturday 1 November 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

And David Brin on the persistent idiocies of the UFO cultists – – – We watched the new film about a potential nuclear war, A House of Dynamite, last Sunday on Netflix, and then I watched it again on Netflix … Continue reading →

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Notes from the Reality-Based Community

Posted on Friday 31 October 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Hemant Mehta on a new wave of atheist content creators; Scientific “groupthink” is a myth, an effect of how our fundamental theories are extremely successful; Richard Dawkins can’t understand how Tom Holland and his readers believe ancient legends and myths … Continue reading →

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They’re Already Here

Posted on Friday 24 October 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

About transcendence, and alien intelligence. More about “transcendence,” and quibbling with that essay I linked yesterday. It said this: Transcendence—basically, the human experience of a higher and deeper reality somehow hidden in our everyday existences, but giving hints of itself … Continue reading →

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So Again, How’d those No Kings Protests Go?

Posted on Sunday 19 October 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Photos, why the fanciful costumes, why Republicans should be afraid of who’s protesting; Heather Cox Richardson; Robert Reich; And Republicans, who are either in denial, are obtuse, or are cynically playing to their base; And arrests? A couple three, of … Continue reading →

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