Category Archives: Society

Dominant Cultures

Posted on January 28, 2023 by hessd

As a common practice, “dominant cultures” and “majority cultures” are used interchangeably. When I argue that easily misused expressions like “dominant” should be used very carefully, I am told that it really doesn’t make a difference. And that may be … Continue reading →

Posted in Society, Words | 1 Comment

Living without stories of our own

Posted on September 2, 2020 by hessd

There are some things novelist Neal Stephenson just does better than anyone else. This post is about two of them. The first is that he builds these thick amazingly dense alternative worlds—worlds with their own history and people and languages. … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Political Psychology, Society | Tagged commitment to a project, denial, distraction, fake stories, Neal Stephenson | Leave a comment

And he lies scarcely at all…

Posted on June 22, 2020 by hessd

Scene 1: Saint Peter and a few angels are performing the daily ritual with some dice and a chart of the cardinal sins. They throw an 11, look at the chart and see what vice is on special today. Scene … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics, Society, Sustainability | Tagged desecration, George Washington, iconoclasts, the gift of public norms | Leave a comment

Juneteenth, 2020

Posted on June 20, 2020 by hessd

I think I’d like to pay some attention to Juneteenth this year. I remember hearing about it before, but only from a distance. Since last June, I have been thinking about the increasingly wide divisions in this country and how … Continue reading →

Posted in Political Psychology, Society, Sustainability | Tagged Granger's Proclamation, Juneteenth, racial comity | Leave a comment

Strong women

Posted on May 12, 2020 by hessd

Where I live, people want women to be “strong.” That is the official sentiment, at any rate. That seems to me to be asking for too little. Maybe I can introduce my concern by coming at it from the other … Continue reading →

Posted in Political Psychology, Society, Sustainability, Words | Tagged fashionable virtues, gender norms, women are beautiful, women are strong, women are weak | Leave a comment

What keeps me up at night

Posted on March 31, 2020 by hessd

It’s not just worrying about things. I get roused out of sleep by new ideas, too. And I don’t really mind that. I wish I got more sleep, but I would hate to miss out on the ideas. I’m better … Continue reading →

Posted in Getting Old, Living My Life, Society | Tagged colleagues, deaths of despair, distraction, flow, loneliness, self-respect | Leave a comment

Are we worth saving?

Posted on November 10, 2019 by hessd

“Let me tell you something, my friend, Red says to Andy in The Shawshank Redemption, “hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane.” And that may be true. Or it may be the only thing that gives … Continue reading →

Posted in Society, Sustainability | Tagged a happy future, human extinction, the word we need to do, thought experiments | 1 Comment

I wanna be a hero

Posted on October 16, 2019 by hessd

I don’t know how it is with girls, but there is a persistent attraction among adolescent boys toward “heroism.” It can take really ugly forms as well as really attractive ones. I think there is nothing good or bad about … Continue reading →

Posted in Living My Life, Society, Sustainability | Tagged adolescent boys, extremism, hate groups, heroism, liberal stasis | Leave a comment

Category Archives: Society

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