Transcendence, and Science Fiction

Posted on Thursday 23 October 2025 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Writers keep puzzling about the idea of transcendence and its association with religion; I’ve proposed an answer;
  • Local news about federal agents in Alameda, near me, and how Trump called them off today;
  • Heather Cox Richardson about the destruction of the East Wing of the White House; Karoline Leavitt on Trump’s unilateral power;
  • Short takes about capitalists, how Democrats should commit to restoring the East Wing, how MAGA thirsts to find evidence of left-wing violence, and Robert Reich on the second gilded age’s billionaire’s ballroom.
– – –

OnlySky, Bruce Ledewitz, 22 Oct 2025: The lure of the transcendent, subtitled “We need a secular framework for human experiences of awe and deep meaning.”

I’m reading this essay for the first time as I post. Going in, I’m puzzled by the premise. Since feelings of awe and deep meaning do exist, they are obviously related to something other that the (non)existence of various supernatural beings. Which came first? Why would feelings of awe have evolved if they weren’t perceptions of the supernatural? (And if the supernatural were real — why the special feelings?) A while back I read a book called AWE (review here), which I was not deeply impressed by, especially since the author didn’t address the science fictional idea of “sense of wonder” (which I do in my essay).

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Demolition

Posted on Wednesday 22 October 2025 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Trump demolishes the East Wing, after promising not to;
  • Michelle Goldberg about MAGA;
  • Robert Reich on options to challenge the right’s “hate America” rhetoric;
  • Short items about how Christians should be in charge of everything, how MAGA hates people from India too, and Bill Maher on how if you’re a racist, you’re probably Republican.
– – –

A few days ago Trump said his new ballroom would be close to but wouldn’t affect the existing East Wing. This week, he’s had the entire East Wing torn down, with no due process for how construction projects are usually built or torn down.

CNN, 22 Oct 2025: Why Trump’s sudden East Wing demolition is extraordinary — and dicey
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Slop

Posted on Tuesday 21 October 2025 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Essays about AI slop, and how this endangers objective truth;
  • Trump is tearing down the East Wing of the White House, after he said he wouldn’t;
  • Responses to Trump’s poop video;
  • Paul Krugman on Trump’s loss of touch with reality;
  • How to deal with everyday religious platitudes;
  • Short items about how believers twist the Bible, and the Constitution, to their ends; and how those Young Republicans stiffed a NY hotel restaurant bill… just as Trump has done.
– – –

I’ve heard this word, referring to certain gratuitous examples of AI-generated video, a few times. But today comes not one but two thoughtful essays on the subject. (Not to mention Trump’s puerile video a few days ago, to which the world might also apply.)

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NY Times, guest essay by Bobbie Johnson, 19 Oct 2025: What Is Sora Slop For, Exactly?

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The Need for Community

Posted on Monday 20 October 2025 by Mark R. Kelly
  • An essay about how humans raised children in villages, throughout most of history;
  • Another essay about how Gen Z-ers are drawn to conservative Christianity, not because it’s in any way true, but because of that same need for community;
  • Heather Cox Richardson on Trump’s gross video, and the ideas of American government that are being lost;
  • Paul Krugman’s theory on the MAGA attacks;
  • Brief items about “Democrat programs,” how MAGA reactions to the No King marches proved the protesters right; and brief items about Adam Serwer, Dinesh D’Souza, MAGA objectors to No Kings, an attack in San Leandro, Chip Roy, communism, and national parks.
– – –

Curiously, there are aspects of what we are calling base human nature, that which evolved over hundreds of thousands of years in the ancestral environment, which modern conservatives resist, at least in the US.

NY Times, guest essay by Louise Perry, 14 Oct 2025: It’s Not Normal to Raise Children Like This (gift link)

By “normal” she means what has been common throughout most of human history, going back millennia. And still exists in some enclaves. Beginning:

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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 [MAGA] women threatening the protestors;
  • (And I’m not mentioning Trump’s scatological video posted this morning. This is where we are, and I continue to be astonished that his fans don’t care.)
– – –

The Atlantic, 19 Oct 2025: Photos: More ‘No Kings’ Protests Across the U.S.

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With some insight into the tactics of funny costumes.

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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 of reality.
– – –

Today began thusly:

NY Times, 17 Oct updated 18 Oct 2025: Santos Is Released After Trump Commutes His Sentence, subtitled “George Santos’s lawyer said the disgraced former congressman was freed from a New Jersey prison around 10 p.m. on Friday. He served less than three months on his fraud conviction.”

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Moral Collapse, or Moral Immaturity?

Posted on Friday 17 October 2025 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Has MAGA’s morality collapsed, or has it always been this way — immature?
  • With references to that hierarchy of morality, and Peter Singer’s expanding circle of morality;
  • Karoline Leavitt says Democrats are made up of “Hamas terrorists, illegal aliens, and violent criminals.”
  • Andrew Egger at The Bulwark spells it out: Trump and his fans live in a world of black and white;
  • Another preemptive attack on “No Kings” rallies as being un-American;
  • How Trump’s crypto scandal is bigger than Teapot Dome and Watergate (while his fans don’t care);
  • Shorts items about a Christian Nationalist defending slavery, stupid things people say about Antifa, Trump’s innumeracy about his Venezuelan boat strikes, and how the autism spectrum is too broad.
– – –

The Atlantic, George Packer, 17 Oct 2025: The Depth of MAGA’s Moral Collapse, subtitled “How we got to ‘I love Hitler.'”

A nice summary of recent events.
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Some People Hate

Posted on Thursday 16 October 2025 by Mark R. Kelly
  • The Young Republicans in those chats were not kids;
  • Republicans excuse their vile comments while demonizing anyone who has said anything less than adulatory about Charlie Kirk — whose opinions were equally vile;
  • Short items about demons, civil rights, mammals, lies, God’s vengeance, antifa, and health care premiums;
  • Robert Reich on how he is 10 days younger than Trump, but actually years younger, because he doesn’t hate;
  • And another attempted generalization about conservatives and liberals.
  • And another episode in my series about “the most beautiful music in the world”: Zbigniew Preisner’s “Dawn”.
– – –

First, following up on the Young Republicans story yesterday.

Politico, 15 Oct 2025: Vance downplays group chat messages: ‘Kids do stupid things, especially young boys.’, subtitled “The vice president called the texts ‘edgy, offensive jokes.'”
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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 to change and Heaven, and the idea of Heaven, and how life is a progression of changes;
  • News yesterday about how Young Republicans trade racist chats, and how  Republican politicians defend them, or don’t care;
  • Crispin Sartwell asks about woke and MAGA censorship, which is worse?
– – –

Granting there may be certain psychological and political themes that distinguish the ‘right’ and the ‘left,’ why would these extend to matters of art?

I noted a piece a couple weeks ago about Christian music, and how lame it is. The writer, Amanda Marcotte, commented,
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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.
– – –

And now to close the loop, at least tentatively for now.

Three days ago I offered three categories which describe most of the posts here on political or religious matters. These are mostly observations, but they are derived from principles of evolutionary psychology and the observation that human nature evolved in a very different environment than the one we live in today. The three: people believe things that are objectively not true; much of human behavior illustrates tribal behavior, not enlightenment behavior; and people tend to sort everything into binaries, preferring simplicity to complexity.

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