BC

I am a commodity, first of all, and a commodity fetishist to boot. I was junked as a laboring commodity when I grew too old. But I am still consuming ...

You can find a handy sampling of the ruling class by looking at a list of the Fortune 500 -- a listing of the 500 largest corporations in the United S...

The ruling class is distinguished by the amount of power they have. In any nation, the ruling class has at least tacit support of the population, but ...

If, and only if the governed decide to roll over and play dead.

People with lots of power are called "the ruling class". They rule because they have lots of power. There are 3 basic classes are divided up on the ba...

He'd be right, of course.

Aristotle might die on the spot from the shock of having the light switched on. Socrates might say, "2500 years later this is the best we can do?" "I ...

Maybe the masked bandit would be thoughtful enough to have sex with the guy who doesn't have many opportunities to feel pleasure. It would work for me...

True: a little controversy never hurt anyone. Actually, quite a bit of controversy never hurt anyone either. If we compare 21st century realities to t...

It is sad. We live in an age of diminishing returns. Those who have been here longest have seen the returns diminish the most.

Street light summarized the demands -- which were stated in an NPR report from Hong Kong. They are not, according to a spokeswoman in Hong Kong, seeki...

The philosophy that is most important is the effort we make to situate ourselves in the world, and judge whether where we are is good or not. some peo...

I don't know why this is difficult. The FHA could be 100% color blind, and the black housing conditions could be worse now (which they are). Ameliorat...

The FHA does not now engage in racial segregation as a matter of policy. They have been reformed by court orders, legislation, and large changes in th...

I refer the OP to the Jerry Seinfeld Comedy series, which was a show about nothing. Very popular. Also, this on YouTube: Nothin' from nothin' leaves n...

The economic effects of what the FHA began doing in 1935 and (supposedly) ended in the 1980s are enduring. In addition, disinvestment in housing conti...

Yes: Stop worrying about it. To use a phrase which you popularized a while back, The Philosophy Forum "is what it is". What it is is a free chat room ...

The turnover rate has nothing to do with philosophy. Revolving door participation is a feature of public fora, whether they are actual or virtual. It'...

Let's take a longer over view than the last century. We evolved into our modern form roughly 300,000 years ago, and we lived as expert tool making hun...

Former Theists, how do you avoid nihilism?? Maybe they stay theists?

If the post WWII boom is what you are talking about, it's a very screwy boom. Anyway, the post WWII boom came to an end in the early 1970s. For the wo...

It's hard to bite the invisible hand when it has your balls in a tight grip

More like rotisserie chicken, I would think.

Optimism and pessimism have nothing to do with pragmatism. Optimism and pessimism are emotional states. Neither are a solution to anything.

BECAUSE IT ISN'T It's really very simple: IF political priorities don't match up with long term survival requirements THEN we won't survive. We're scr...

It might be, but you know, the bubonic plague wiped out at least a third of Europe's population in a short period of time. The plague was horrible, bu...

A realistic assessment of the global warming crisis ought to result in feelings ranging from pessimism to despair, with a side trip to include rage. D...

I've read a couple of philosophical works. But mostly, I've lived for 70+ years and have actively inquired what the nature of our life together is. I'...

There is a good article tangentially related to your post at Aeon addressing the question, Is capitalism modernity's most beguiling and dangerous ench...

What about...? Both, of course. We accept a job. It turns out to be a nightmare. We didn't make it a nightmare, but we keep showing up every day. The ...

I can't say that the study of philosophy produced positive changes in my mental health. What philosophy was useful for was understanding why I had exp...

Europe may want windmills, but in a UN report on meeting the Paris Accord targets ----> The G20 nations (Europeans for sure) aren't pulling out the st...

I suppose a bunch of somebodies will disagree with the statement that 2 + 2 = 4. Be that as it may... I think religion is ALWAYS a human creation. Thi...

Splendid post. In the 1930s The US declared that control of Middle Eastern oil was a vital interest of the United States. If we didn't need it at the ...

Whether the gods exists or not, a well structured and developed philosophy of religion is a very good idea. Perhaps we should preface our assertions a...

This is not directed at, toward, or about you. I'm talking about the standard model of juvenile nihilist. The doctrine of an extreme Russian revolutio...

Congruence. (agreement or harmony; compatibility) Older children and adults do not arrive at a decision-making crossroads with blank minds. We have pu...

I am sort of a Protestant mirror of your Catholic experience. I was steeped in mainline Protestant (Methodist) Christianity, and had no objection to i...

Well, it may be that some people from "illustrious biological lineages" can fall into poverty (like, not so much as a room and a pot to piss in) and t...

You will have to read the book (The Color of Law, among others) to get the evidence on black/white achievement differentials. I do not disagree with y...

We do not have time to review the history of the United States and the United Kingdom (just for starters) to find all of the major causes of economic ...

I was just including you in the loop. one doesn't always know who is reading which posts.

I would suggest that you read about philosophy first. Libraries and bookstores have introductions to philosophy which range from very simple to quite ...

Loose as a goose. Lose your blues.

I can point you to a history book - THE COLOR OF LAW (2017) - that will show that we do not have, and have not had equality of opportunity. We need no...

Bed time. Tomorrow.

And you weren't? Come now... How is it that you and you alone managed to overcome the deception and manipulation that was visited upon you, and that n...

The population increase would suggest that somehow the urban poor are managing to reproduce. Whatever happened to fathering several children with one ...

Actually I was wondering which century you were living in. Seems to be something of a perception-distorting time warp going on here.

I sincerely hope that the current generation of 'click-bait-wise' youth will be more resistant to being dazzled by bullshit than past generations. I a...