The Latest from Steven Pinker

Posted on Wednesday 22 March 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Today, a long interview with Steven Pinker about ‘progress’ despite human nature; about the value of rationality; about looking at data and not headlines to understand the state of the world; about cancel culture; about the perils and inevitability of narrative thinking;  about Bayesian thinking; about cognitive illusions and moral mythology; and about how even crazy conservative politicians don’t invoke superstitious ideas that people took for granted hundreds of years ago. Well, not all of them anyway. Progress!

Big Think, Steven Pinker, undated, The ultimate guide to rationality, subtitled “Steven Pinker explains how to cultivate greater rationality in today’s complex world.” (transcript)

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How Much News Is Too Much News?

Posted on Tuesday 21 March 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Today: that debate, my own news consuming habits, and the negativity bias. Then: more about wokeness, and the relationship between conservatism, liberalism, wokeness, and equality; and between teaching values and indoctrination.

The Atlantic, Shadi Hamid, 13 Mar 2023: You’re Better Off Not Knowing, subtitled “The problem with dwelling on news about things you can’t control”

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Progress, Happiness, Economics, and Morality

Posted on Monday 20 March 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Items about the reality of progress and hope that humanity overcomes the effects of climate change; the latest world happiness index in which the US ranks 15th; Robert Reich busting myths about how the wealthy right justify their wealth; and the secret fantasy of those who believe in the American Dream.

Vox, Bryan Walsh, 20 Mar 2023: The doomers are wrong about humanity’s future — and its past, subtitled “The necessity of progress.”

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Liberty and Freedom vs. Conservatives

Posted on Sunday 19 March 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

About the notion of liberalism; the panic among White Christian nationalists; a book about the John Birch society, which anticipated the modern MAGA movement; and examples of conservatives’ opposition to liberty and freedom.

Let’s start with this short video by Yuval Noah Harari, about the idea of being “liberal.” The Facebook clip I saw (pic here) is an excerpt from this very long YouTube video.

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Saturday Updates, and Progress

Posted on Saturday 18 March 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

(These are photos from a late 1980s trip to Vandenberg to see a rocket launch.)

First of all, I spent another hour polishing and expanding yesterday’s post, about 6 short literary novels I read in 5 days last week while having a cold and not having much energy to do much but lie on the sofa and read.

Second of all, I’ve had all these projects I’ve worked on for years, which I’ve discussed many times before. I actually feel lately that I’m making progress toward completing them in the next few weeks. I know I’ve said this before.

As evidence, I’ve posted two new “pages” on this site of photos taken during my Rocketdyne years. The pages are linked in the drop-down menus from About/Personal History/Working at the Rocket Factory for 30 Years.

Here are direct links. Continue reading →

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A Literary Break

Posted on Friday 17 March 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Read last week: six short literary novels in five days. Three by Steinbeck; one each by Henry James and James Joyce and Leo Tolstoy. A break from my routine of reading science fiction and current nonfiction.

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To Conservatives, Woke Seems to Mean Whatever They Don’t Like

Posted on Thursday 16 March 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

So my take on wokeness, a couple weeks ago, as a “perhaps exaggerated respect for the sensitivities of others,” is not what most others mean by “woke.” To some conservatives, it means anything they don’t like or want to acknowledge, even climate change.

Salon, Amanda Marcotte, 16 Mar 2023: Why the GOP is obsessed with “woke” — but can’t define it, subtitled “MAGA can’t explain what ‘woke’ is, but that’s the point — it’s a ‘choose your own bigotry’ term for Republicans”

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Narratives, Vanity, and Empathy

Posted on Wednesday 15 March 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

A writer named Alissa Quart has a new book out, Bootstrapped: Liberating Ourselves from the American Dream, that challenges the American myth that one can “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” to succeed all on your own. It’s a fantasy of course; look closely at all the supposedly self-made billionaires and you will find that they had advantages that the vast majority of people have never had.

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Oscars 2023, 2

Posted on Tuesday 14 March 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

My takes on the films released in 2022 that we saw, including 8 of the 10 Best Picture Oscar nominees.

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Oscars 2023, 1

Posted on Monday 13 March 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Lots of items in the news media today about the Oscars, of course. Here’s a typical article about them, followed by some of my reactions, to the awards, and (tomorrow) to some of the individual films.

Salon, Melanie McFarland, 13 Mar 2023: How the Academy Awards managed to be both uplifting and disappointing – everything, all at once, subtitled “Historic wins for Michelle Yeoh and ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ are balanced by dismay at who was left out”

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