Social and Political Commentary
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Thoughtlets. LXXV. The people you rely on for your survival, delectation, AND companionship.
I define a tribe as those people you rely on for your survival, delectation, AND companionship. They’re your peeps. You can name them! [Excerpt from a footnote in my archives, 2019] I refer to those people who know you peed the bed until you were 12, not because you told them but because they slept Continue reading
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Thoughtlets. LXXIV. Vesuvius and Decision Protocols
Background: Pompeii wasn’t the only city decimated by Vesuvius in 79 AD. The small and relatively wealthy city of Herculaneum also fell victim to the heat, mud, and ash of the pyroclastic flow (as well as the towns of Stabiae and Oplontis). Some of the residents of Herculaneum were able to escape to the sea. Continue reading
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Upcoming in my Political Rhetor Series.
I’ve published: 6.1. Intro. Pam and Aristotle on the Political Rhetor; The Political Rhetor and the Future: 6.2.a. The Poor; 6.2. b. Children; 6.2.c.i. Future Generations. The Political Rhetor and the Future, Future Generations: 6.2.ii. Who are the Future Generations?; 6.2.iii The Glimmer of Hope Move; and, 6.2.iv. Stewardship — are each in the editing Continue reading
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Aristotle and Pam on The Political Rhetor. 6.1. Series. Intro.
I’ve already published 6.2.a. The Poor, 6.2. b. Children, and 6.2.c.i. (of ii, iii, and iv) on Future Generations. So this intro is out of chronological order. The most important concept for political rhetoric is the “perlocutionary speech act” as described below. “The political orator* aims at establishing the expediency** or the harmfulness of a Continue reading
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The Political Rhetor and The Future. 6.2.c.i. Future Generations: The end of ‘my’ world versus the end of ‘the’ world.
To help you navigate political rhetoric. This post is largely analytic compared to the previous two research dense entries in this series. In this entry, I examine a broad swath of the conceptual territory underpinning future generations. Since this topic is particularly content-dense, I’ve decided to break this blog entry into several posts under a Continue reading
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The Political Rhetor and the Future. 6.2.b. Children
To help you navigate political rhetoric. This entry is a long read, but it’s quite interesting. (This post was originally published in 2020. I’ve done some light editing and ensured the links are active.) “Preparing for the future must begin, as always, with our children.” Children have little to no political voice. They can neither Continue reading
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The Political Rhetor and the Future. 6.2.a. The Poor.
To help you navigate political rhetoric. *updated from June 2020 for readability and to ensure active links See 6.1 Intro here. I’ve broken The Political Rhetor and the Future into: 6.2.a. The Poor; 6.2.b. Children; and, Future Generations 6.2.c.i. , 6.2.c.ii, & 6.2.c.iii. Subsequent posts in this series are: 6.3. Attainability of Ends; 6.4. Warnings; Continue reading
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What beliefs do for us. Aaron C.T. Smith
In his book, Cognitive Mechanisms of Belief Change, Aaron CT Smith, a cognitive scientist from Melbourne, Australia, provides a brilliant analogy to explain what beliefs do for us. Flock Theory, “In my estimation…beliefs follow the same kinds of rules governing flocks of birds…First, successful beliefs fit the rule of separation. Like birds in the flock, Continue reading
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Dinner for one.
Photo and painting by Pam. 2019. (published 2025) Continue reading
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Doing our doxastic labour together (vetting candidates for beliefs with our peeps), 4 of 4: What we stand to lose.
Recall my project here, Doing our doxastic labour together (vetting candidates for beliefs with our peeps), 1 of 4 In the final instalment of this series, I lay a few bones (see 3 of 4) on the table for your consideration. I hope you find them as interesting as I do. “If the human race Continue reading
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