Vera Mont

Moooo!

That points up the overweening role of money in education. Why are there good and bad schools? The resources are allocated not just unevenly, but dest...

I suspect the biggest problem with American foreign policy is that there isn't one. They don't seem committed to any long-term vision or plan; each ad...

Tribal societies tend to be strong on the teaching of their own history and social values, though they have little need of politics. Critical thinking...

Those have been mentioned, among other solutions.

I'm not familiar with the current state of education in the US - or anywhere, really; it's a long time since I had any contact with the system. I can ...

So, you believe that the only possible social, political and economic organization is the one we currently have.

Pottery Throwdown, Best in Miniature, Baking Show - both British and Canadian - and Race Against the Tide. We like contests of skill. I also watch con...

Busted. I console myself that at least my co-sarcaster got away with it.

And it's a credit to the Spanish, and later the Monroe-driven US policy, that no Mexican citizens are sacrificed today. https://www.cfr.org/background...

I don't claim that the US actually controlled any Middle Eastern state; that might have had a better outcome. Their (and Britain's) bungling interfere...

I don't think he was nearly as certain of anything as he made out. Remember, there was a powerful Catholic church to watch out for; you had to be pret...

To a large extent, that is exactly what it is. Yes, I think that's been covered. Indeed. Lots and lots of slots in the ramp, kissing up, kicking down.

They don't own much, do share their scarce material resources, don't make war unless they're attacked, know far too much about the inhospitable land o...

I guess you won't.

It is for an increasing number of modern people. Intentional communities were mentioned earlier in this thread and some religious group function on an...

Where do you get that idea? In fact, I'm firmly in the "settler" category. We are slowly learning to coexist in some semblance of amity. Yah, that wou...

Vivisection was a very common form of experimentation and demonstration in medical colleges of the time - and in various forms, up to the present. Whe...

Hard to imagine sufficient fat and fiber packed into a pill one could swallow. Another down-side: employers would cut lunch hour to 2 minutes a day.

What if we were talking about North American natives? They had something to say about European civilization. I generally use 'civilization' to mean ur...

So we wait till it's too late for gradual or controlled demolition of a failed system, until the structure collapses on our heads. The only way to get...

I knew that. Of course we need to work in order to have what we need and want. We don't need a whole lot of the things that we make and the want of th...

Some people admire bullfighting as an art form, some serial killers include ritual mutilation of their victims and I've heard of the artistry of a ver...

I particularly dislike it on small children. Actually, the young women I see usually wear cotton dresses in a floral print, with bonnets that hide the...

The negatives are optional. We can choose a wholesome diet and eat in moderation, just as we can choose to imbibe alcoholic beverages in moderation. T...

The bad managers (five spring up from distant memory) I mentioned were all in IT. The manager specialized in management (MA) and had not a clue about ...

The Amish, like our Mennonite communities, operate more like a tribe than urbanized modern societies. The Mennonites around here have a flexible syste...

That's why I suggested electing a member of the team who is recognized by the others as a good organizer. Such a team leader would have more respect a...

Would you still take the pill when you're together? How about family gatherings at Thanksgiving and Christmas, or social events, like weddings and cha...

What if management were a temporary position? Someone with specialized knowledge or experience is elected manager for the duration of a project. Once ...

I've just been reading about such arrangements in a Forbes article that I linked in my previous post. Sounds very sensible as far as a single enterpri...

Very possibly. But would the managers need to be an upper class over a lower worker class?

I see that I couched the question in too simplistic terms, inadequate to describe the structure of capitalist economy. I was specifically interested i...

It's about time!

The preparation of food is sometimes rewarding; the cleaning up afterwards is a chore; the acquisition of ingredients is expensive and requires an eff...

The events of the past have little to do with manipulating fractions, but the events of the far distant past did precede the events of the recent past...

In that case, I need a Newspeak dictionary. Nobody promised that economic and military imperialism would never backfire. Ask the Islamophobic French n...

Which is why I called the US an empire. And they're not complaining about their and their ancerstors' treatment by the current and past European regim...

That certainly opens a couple of potentially interesting topics! Can the purpose of someone's life be the acquisition of knowledge? If the omnibenevel...

You could, if you looked at the history of US involvement. Both in the middle and far east, the US took over power in European colonies, just as it di...

Britain was there before them, and France and Italy... Europe dragged its two big wars across those lands, plundering the resources and exploiting the...

I don't understand how "to improve everyone's welfare" is a totalitarian mindset. Come to think of it, I'm unclear on the concept of a totalitarian mi...

Only if he had the power to impose his ideal solution on everyone, rather than just to teach possible solutions that everyone could implement as they ...

Except, one also knows that any attempt to teach humankind to behave better results in crucifixion or at least a cup of warm hemlock.

Sure, if they performed enough feats of knowledge and kindness. But they would have to do it either on a large public platform (which is dangerous to ...

The concept of "rights" as expressed in codes of conduct is a human idea. But the general practice exists in all social animals that are capable of in...

Kudos on attaining that Olympian perspective! OTOH, is it not possible that there are conditions that all human beings - or possibly all sentient bein...

Disclaimer: I did not have the patience to read the entire essay; can only respond to the opening and closing remarks. The West does not think, and al...

Ummm. Okay.... I can't cope with that.

They don't. They're not. So what? Natural and truth simply don't enter into it. It's true that humans are social animals, that all social animals have...