In his book, The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Terror and Tyranny, Russian dissident and gulag survivor Natan Sharansky, proposes a simple test to discern if you are living in, what he calls, a free society or a fear society. He calls it the Town Square Test: Can a person walk … Continue reading Enlightenment Now? Out, out, brief candle.
human nature
Sexy Isn’t Sexist or The Allegory of the Peacock’s Train
Discussing human sexuality is a tricky, if not fraught, enterprise today. Critiques of human sexuality abound in the popular and academic press. That’s why here, I would like to do something truly radical...celebrate it! Today, I put to you the heretical notion that in a sexually reproducing, sexually dimorphic species, men finding women sexy … Continue reading Sexy Isn’t Sexist or The Allegory of the Peacock’s Train
Religion, Atheism and The Evolution of Symbolic Thought.
Stone tools provide the first evidence of the evolution of symbolic thought and began to emerge in our hominid ancestors around 2.5 million years ago. The cognitive architecture in the brain had to be in place before the first spark of creativity occurred, before the hominid looked at the crude lump of rock and saw the refined … Continue reading Religion, Atheism and The Evolution of Symbolic Thought.
Other writings
A few articles and op.eds on other sites not suitable for DGS International Women’s Day 2016: What women who don't identify as feminists have to say Published in Indy Voices. The Independent. Monday March 7th. 2016 The Quality of Social Justice Mercy: The Florida shooting Published on Bombs and Dollars, June 13th 2016 Is racism … Continue reading Other writings
Darwinian Gender Studies: Unpoisoning the well
If any man could draw up a comprehensive, infallible guide to navigating this treacherous territory, we would certainly erect a statue to his everlasting memory. There is a Twitter account dedicated to exploring and enumerating precisely the distinctions and differences between the acceptably erotic and the intolerably sexist. It's called @SexyIsntSexist. It is, of course, … Continue reading Darwinian Gender Studies: Unpoisoning the well
#GamerGate: The Players and the Played
The #GamerGate controversy reached a new high (or low depending on your perspective) recently when one of its main protagonists, the radical feminist and cultural critic, Anita Sarkeesian, was featured on the front page of the New York Times. Ironically, in view of the focus of her criticism about passive female characterization in video games, she herself … Continue reading #GamerGate: The Players and the Played
