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Category: Culture
What is the most compelling, captivating, and impossible-to-put-down book you’ve ever read?
I started reading this book early in the evening: Bare-faced Messiah I did not put it down until 10 am the following morning. I did not sleep; I just kept reading and reading. The narrative it presented, of L Ron sinking into his own mythos on board a Sea Org cruise ship meandering through the […]
Is it true that Americans don’t learn Old Greek, Latin, or German?
Ugh to many of these answers. The traditional European language curriculum was oriented to an elite, and had to do with instilling the cultural values of the West, which privileged Latin and Greek. Latin was still the lingua franca for European intellectuals up until the 18th century, but that does not explain Greek. I’ve written […]
Did Da Vinci say something like, “If you ever tried flying, you will look at the sky when walking and think that is your home”?
Googling finds: “When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return” Refuted in Wikiquote Talk: Talk:Leonardo da Vinci So to summarize what we know, based largely on the research of KHirsch above, the quote […]
What do you think about “Naked Attraction”?
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/naked-attraction/on-demand/63570-001 I caught a glimpse of it while channel-surfing. My thoughts: Most of these reality shows are better in the original American: Dating Naked. I find something very trashy and mean about UK Reality TV in general, and this did not appear to be an exception. Once again, the contrast between the American and the […]
Do you think “homo prospectus” would be a more accurate title for humans than “Homo sapiens”?
The claim, Googling tells me, comes from Homo Prospectus (2016), by Martin Seligman et al. Its programmatic claim is that: Our species is misnamed. Though sapiens defines human beings as “wise” what humans do especially well is to prospect the future. We are homo prospectus. If the title is to be more accurate, then we […]
What are your results on the new 8values political ideology test?
https://8values.github.io/ You know, for someone who has said publicly that they have made their peace with the market, I’m still scoring pretty socialist. For someone who despairs of the morass of modern Western democracy, I’m still scoring pretty democratic. For someone who thinks globalisation is proving a mistake, I’m still scoring pretty internationalist. And for […]
Are there lesbians because girls are so hot?
Actual lesbians have answered this question, and now, despite my better judgement, so will I. Using the insightful comment of one of their number as a springboard: Molly Juul: https://www.quora.com/Are-there-… The “aesthetically finding women more beautiful”-phenomenon is 100% social. Women are sexualized sooo much in the media, and men are constantly being told that “women […]
How is Nihilism relevant to the Modern world?
Bit of a big question there, and nihilism is a big concept—that often gets used quite loosely, to mean “relativistic” or “cynical”. We are in a time in the West, of course, when a lot of longstanding moral absolutes have been increasingly questioned or scrutinised, and the outcome has been called nihilistic by both proponents […]
Is gender dysphoria a recent phenomenon?
I should be careful about opining here, but this is a discussion that, as it happens, I’ve had recently with a couple of trans women. Gender dysphoria–or at the very least, awareness of gender/sex mismatch—seems to be very old, given the number of attestations of gender-diverse instances in human societies, and of androgynous cultural artefacts. […]
What texts and experiences shaped the development of your political views? What were the seminal factors in the growth of your civic sensibilities? What books most influenced you? What events?
I am somewhat surprised to have been A2A’d this by four people. That my politics should be of interest at all, though I haven’t expressed my politics here coherently, is likely more a token of their esteem than my interest. I am somewhat mortified to have been A2A’d this by four people. Unlike the other […]