Category Archives: Psychology

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 →

Posted in Book Notes, Meaning, Morality, Psychology | Comments Off on Jonathan Haidt, THE HAPPINESS HYPOTHESIS, post 1

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 →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Politics, Psychology | Comments Off on Troubled Children, Cognitive Collapse, Cave Man Morality

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 →

Posted in Narrative, Psychology | Comments Off on Narrative Closure in A House of Dynamite

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 →

Posted in Psychology, Religion, Science | Comments Off on Notes from the Reality-Based Community

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 →

Posted in Human Nature, Psychology, Science | Comments Off on They’re Already Here

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 →

Posted in Politics, Psychology | Comments Off on So Again, How’d those No Kings Protests Go?

No Kings vs. Reality

Posted on Saturday 18 October 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Trump pardons George Santos, of course; The “No Kings” rhetoric from the Republicans, and the results today; With some thoughts about conservative thinking; Jamelle Bouie; Lunatic: MTG still obsessed about weather control; Science: how humans perceive only a tiny bit … Continue reading →

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Art and Conservatives

Posted on Wednesday 15 October 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

How a Christian Right talk show failed, and how MAGA’s fake Super Bowl halftime show is “pitifully out-of-touch with pop culture”; Thoughts about how conservatives have no sense of humor, and how conservatives dominate talk radio; Personal thoughts about resistance … Continue reading →

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And How Science Fiction Is Both a Symptom and a Solution

Posted on Monday 13 October 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Further thoughts on how science fiction informs current social ills; Republican doublethink about “No Kings” rallies; Columbus Day, and Trump’s veneration of Columbus vs the realities of history; Heather Cox Richardson’s perspective on Columbus, and the origin of Columbus Day. … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Human Nature, Human Progress, Philosophy, Psychology, Science, science fiction | Comments Off on And How Science Fiction Is Both a Symptom and a Solution