Wednesday, March 24 2004
The Encroachment of the Public
As privacy fades, so do intimacy, personal safety, and self-esteem (mental health) and with them social cohesion.
Wednesday, February 11 2004
The Pathology of Love
Behavior changes are reminiscent of psychosis and, biochemically speaking, passionate love closely imitates substance abuse.
Wednesday, January 21 2004
The Basic Dilemma of the Artist
We are prisoners in the universe of our emotions; our weapons of language are useless.
Wednesday, December 10 2003
The Columnist in the Mousetrap
Agatha Christie's opus is a portrait of our age as it emerged, all bloodied and repellent, from the womb of the dying Victorian era.
Wednesday, November 5 2003
An Argument for State-Sanctioned Torture
Inevitably, the very act of being rendered suspect is traumatic and bound to inflict psychological, pecuniary, and physical pain and suffering.
Wednesday, October 1 2003
Morality as Collateral Damage
The universal imperative 'thou shall not kill (another human being)' is easily over-ruled by the moral obligation to kill for one's country. The imperative 'though shall not steal' is superseded by one's moral obligation to spy for one's nation.
Thursday, September 4 2003
The Folly of Parenthood
Many (children) continue to live with their parents into their thirties and consume the family's savings in college tuition, sumptuous weddings, expensive divorces, and parasitic habits.
Thursday, July 24 2003
The Myth of Mental Illness
Suicide, substance abuse, narcissism, eating disorders, antisocial ways, schizotypal symptoms, depression, even psychosis are considered sick by some cultures -- and utterly normative or advantageous in others.
Wednesday, July 2 2003
Just War or a Just War
What is legal is not always moral and what is legitimate is not invariably legal.
Wednesday, June 4 2003
The Ecology of Environmentalism
Arguably, bacteria and insects exert on Nature far more influence with farther reaching consequences than Man has ever done.
Wednesday, May 14 2003
Hitler and the Invention of the West
The idea of the West . . . is merely the last phase and manifestation of the clash of titans between Germany on the one hand, and Russia on the other.
Wednesday, April 9 2003
The Demise of the West
No official version of the events can survive the onslaught of blogs and multiple news reporting.
Wednesday, March 5 2003
Why America is Hated
I firmly believe that it is better to face a forthright villain than a masquerading saint.
Wednesday, February 5 2003
Serial Killers as a Cultural Construct
Such killers are convinced that they are more honest and open about their desires and, thus, morally superior.
Wednesday, January 8 2003
Sex or Gender
Are gender identity and sexual preferences . . . immutable lifelong features or dynamically evolving frames of self-reference?
Wednesday, December 4 2002
The Merits of Stereotypes
(Discrimination) has little to do with stereotypes and a lot to do with societal and economic power matrices.
Wednesday, October 23 2002
A Case for Legalizing Some Crime
Millions of professionals . . . derive their livelihood, parasitically, from crime.
Wednesday, September 25 2002
Ethical Relativism and Absolute Taboos
(Taboos) disappear or are transformed when no longer useful.
Wednesday, August 21 2002
Racing Down: Eugenics and the Future of the Human Species
If society is to bear the costs of over-population -- social welfare, medical care, daycare centers -- then society has the right to regulate procreation.
Wednesday, July 31 2002
The Myth of the Right to Life
Public hospitals, state pension schemes, and police forces may be needed in order to fulfill society's obligations to prolong, maintain, and improve our lives, but fulfill them they must.
Friday, June 28 2002
And Then There Were Too Many: The Population Bomb
No one can vouchsafe for a 'critical mass' of humans, a threshold beyond which the species will implode and vanish.
