Category Archives: Political Psychology

Deciding to go to “war”

Posted on August 27, 2014 by hessd

Today, I want to consider how we go to war. We need to consider why “war” has those quotation marks around it. And, more crucially, I want to consider how we don’t go to war.  As Americans, we seem to … Continue reading →

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Paleo Acres High School

Posted on August 1, 2014 by hessd

Bette and I have been browsing retirement centers.  Our plan is to move into one in 2017, which was a long time away in 2005 when we first decided to do it.  Now it is close enough that we are … Continue reading →

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The Lone Ranger and the High Salt Diet

Posted on July 29, 2014 by hessd

I grew up listening to the Lone Ranger on our radio.  I heard there for the first time a lot of music I came to understand better later.  Like everyone else, I heard the William Tell Overture there.  I heard … Continue reading →

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They aren’t Puritans; they are Quakers

Posted on July 27, 2014 by hessd

There are narratives that are so powerful that it might feel, in the middle of one, that you are in the whitewater rapids of a swollen river.  The river (narrative) wants you to go here and you don’t want to … Continue reading →

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Do Women Talk more than Men?

Posted on July 24, 2014 by hessd

It is my goal in this essay is to argue that that is a silly question and to say why. If you are the one who is asking a question, it is tough, sometimes, when the response comes in the form … Continue reading →

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Divergent: What the un-society looks like

Posted on July 5, 2014 by hessd

It is a really good idea to keep an eye on what you are for.  Otherwise, you will make important decisions based only on what you are against.  Ordinarily, that doesn’t work out well.  It doesn’t work out well for … Continue reading →

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Are the people of Feathertown, Tennessee, Idiotēs?

Posted on June 1, 2014 by hessd

I think so.  I am going to offer some information about Feathertown from Barbara Kingsolver, who invented it and described it in her marvelous novel, Flight Behavior.  She has set a major dilemma in Feathertown: what to do about the … Continue reading →

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Speak softly and carry on with your shtick

Posted on April 20, 2014 by hessd

Senator John McCain (R-AZ) lectured Secretary of State John Kerry recently on the Obama administration’s conduct of foreign policy.  One of McCain’s heroes, he said, is President Theodore Roosevelt, who is identified with the maxim, “Speak softly and carry a … Continue reading →

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“I will never be able to forgive myself.”

Posted on April 18, 2014 by hessd

I don’t remember ever saying that myself, but I’ve heard actual people say it and I’ve seen it in a lot of movies.  There are two reasons why a person might say this sentence.  One is that he or she—I’ve … Continue reading →

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A school stabbing. Everyone lived.

Posted on April 13, 2014 by hessd

A student goes wild in a crowded school and attempts to kill as many of his fellow students as he can.  That’s not even an unusual story anymore.  Here’s what’s unusual: nobody died.  Not yet, at least. So what’s going on?  … Continue reading →

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