Category Archives: People, Politics & Culture
A Depressing Part Of Being Human
I think often about the human condition – and maybe too often – and in particular about what it would take to move beyond the current state of affairs that appears to be largely defined by an insatiable desire for … Continue reading
Posted in People, Politics & Culture
Tagged human being, insatiable desire, personal gratification
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Before The Law
Franz Kafka’s Before the Law is a deliciously ambiguous parable that is part of his 1925 novel The Trial – about a man from the country who goes to the king’s castle in order to gain entry before the Law. … Continue reading
Posted in People, Politics & Culture, Philosophy, Science & Religion
Tagged allegory, Before the Law, Existentialism is a Humanism, fate, Franz Kafka, Jean-Paul Sartre, meaning of life, parable, reason for being
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Religious Terrorism
It was reported in the news today that Islamist insurgents retreating from Timbuktu set fire to a library containing thousands of priceless historic manuscripts. The Saharan town’s mayor described the incident as a devastating blow to world heritage. Apparently, al-Qaida-allied … Continue reading
Posted in People, Politics & Culture
Tagged al-Queda, book burning, critical thinking, independent thought, Islamic Jihadist, Islamic Militants, religious terrorism, sub-Saharan history, Timbuktu
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Getting Organized for the Future
You would think that – if life is inherent in matter – and evolution drives the process of reaching ever higher levels of organizational complexity within it, there would be a continuation of this process in the collective consciousness that … Continue reading
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Tagged collective consciousness, evolution, the future
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The Ruins of America
Ruins are the visible symbols and landmarks of our societies and their changes, small pieces of history in suspension. The state of ruin is temporary by nature, the volatile result of the end of an era and the fall of … Continue reading
Posted in People, Politics & Culture
Tagged cheap foreign labour, Detroit, economic decline, ruins, self-interested politicians, Wall Street bandits
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A Sad Day For Humanity
Salman Taseer – a senior member of the governing Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) – was assassinated by one of his bodyguards angered over the governor’s opposition to blasphemy laws. He had recently angered Islamists by appealing for a Christian woman, … Continue reading
Posted in People, Politics & Culture
Tagged assassination, blasphemy laws, Islamists, Pakistan, religion, Religion Kills, Salman Taseer
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The Gospel According to Teflon Tony
I have been amused – somewhat – by the recent encounter between former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and a frequent writer on atheism, Christopher Hitchens, on the resolution: “Be It Resolved that Religion is a Force for Good in … Continue reading
Posted in People, Politics & Culture, Philosophy, Science & Religion
Tagged a Force for Good in the world, Christopher Hitchens, Munk Debates, religion, Teflon Tony, Tony Blair
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The Feeble Voice of Religion
Joseph Ratzinger, RC Pope, anachronism and pretender to some heavenly throne on earth – and who is already a fossil well before his time – claimed today that religion is ‘marginalized’ during his speech in Westminster Hall in the UK. … Continue reading
Posted in People, Politics & Culture
Tagged child molestation, Joseph Ratzinger, morality, Roman Catholic Church, the pope
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She Saved The Anne Frank Diaries
Miep Gies has died at the age of 100 on January 11 in Hoorn, The Netherlands; she was born in 1909 in Vienna as Hermine Santrouschitz before moving to Amsterdam in the early 1920s and marrying Jan Gies in 1941. … Continue reading
Posted in People, Politics & Culture
Tagged Amsterdam, Anne Frank, Anne Frank's Diaries, Holocaust, Jews, Miep Gies
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On the Use of Religious Symbols
Much has been made of the fact that the Swiss population rejected via a referendum the further propagation of religious symbols across the Swiss landscape in the form of minarets on mosques. Predictably, the politically correct have cried foul and … Continue reading
Posted in People, Politics & Culture
Tagged churches, intolerance, Islam, minarets, mosques, religion, Swiss ban on minarets
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