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The Rational Optimist
http://www.rationaloptimist.wordpress.com/
Commentary of Life, Society, Politics, and Philosophy
LATEST ARTICLES ( 1301 )
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Impeachment and the Party of Rule-breaking
Trump’s Northern Syria retreat is shredding U.S. national interests. Our longtime Kurdish allies, thrown to the wolves, are now aligning with the Syrian regime... Read more
Posted on 17 October 2019 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
Strangers in Their Own Land: Understanding America’s Right
Since 2016 I’ve striven especially hard to understand what’s happening in America. Arlie Russell Hochschild is a Berkeley professor who, in the same quest,... Read more
Posted on 14 October 2019 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
Ethiopia’s Abiy Ahmed: Good News Story
Ethiopia’s leader Abiy Ahmed has received the Nobel Peace Prize. Those prize choices sometimes seem strange, but not this one, it’s a bull’s eye. Read more
Posted on 12 October 2019 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
Trump Ends U.S. Protection of Kurds, Inviting Slaughter by Turks
A Kurdish army (originating from Iraqi Kurdistan) has occupied an enclave in Northern Syria, as key allies of the U.S. in the battle against ISIS, in which... Read more
Posted on 10 October 2019 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
The Bible: a Book of Fiction
Adam and Eve. Cain and Abel. Noah’s Ark. Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Joseph and centuries of Egyptian slavery. Moses, Passover, the Red Sea,... Read more
Posted on 08 October 2019 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
Defining Deviancy Down and Trump’s Reality Inversion Storm
“Defining deviancy down” was a Daniel Patrick Moynihan trope. When something once deemed intolerable becomes tolerable. Like births outside marriage. And... Read more
Posted on 05 October 2019 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
No More Presidential Primary “debates”
These are not debates. A debate entails a question argued by two opposing sides. These presidential primary “debates” are joint interviews, yet with candidates... Read more
Posted on 03 October 2019 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
Greta Thunberg is Wrong
Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish climate warrior, berates the world (“How dare you?”) for pursuing a “fairy tale” of continued economic growth — putting... Read more
Posted on 01 October 2019 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
Impeachment and Its Aftermath
The whistleblower’s complaint is devastating. Read it. A thoroughly researched, detailed report,* showing Trump abused his office, broke the law, and harmed... Read more
Posted on 28 September 2019 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
Cuomo and “Fusion Voting” in the Democratic People’s Republic of New York
“Fusion voting” refers to candidates running on multiple ballot lines. For example, Republican and Conservative (a frequent combo). Read more
Posted on 26 September 2019 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
Trump, Biden, and Ukraine
We always knew he’d do this — concoct some phony lie to smear Biden. Reprising his “crooked Hillary” shtick, while Trump himself was the crookedest ever. Read more
Posted on 24 September 2019 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
The Vaping Panic and the Human Fear Response
Eight Americans have died, and over 500 fallen ill, apparently from vaping e-cigarettes. Governmental bodies all over are scrambling to ban this scourge.This... Read more
Posted on 22 September 2019 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
Thinking Like a Caveman
What is it like to be a bat? That famous essay by philosopher Thomas Nagel keeps nagging at us. What is it like to be me? Of this I should have some idea. But... Read more
Posted on 18 September 2019 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
Dan Rather on “What Unites Us”
Dan Rather, at 87, is still actively in the news game, running an outfit called “News and Guts.” He appeared recently in Albany, discussing his 2017 book, What... Read more
Posted on 15 September 2019 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
Corporate Social Responsibility Versus Profits
For decades it’s been gospel that a corporation’s mission is just to maximize shareholder value. But now a group of over 180 heads of top U.S. Read more
Posted on 12 September 2019 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
Religion and Voting
Trump was elected by a minority, with three million fewer votes than Clinton. But hardly over half of those eligible voted; so Trump was elected by only about... Read more
Posted on 09 September 2019 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
Norman Rockwell’s America
On Labor Day we visited the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, MA. Rockwell was an “illustrator” who disclaimed producing “fine art. Read more
Posted on 06 September 2019 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
A Vision for America
Trump has a vision of America. It says the real Americans have been under assault — economically and, mainly, culturally — by “others.” From outside, and from... Read more
Posted on 02 September 2019 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
Is the Novel Dead (or Dying)?
(This essay previously appeared in Trolley, the NYS Writers Institute’s online magazine.)I was a failed novelist. Good with words, perhaps, but less on human... Read more
Posted on 31 August 2019 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY -
Reading Tony Judt on People Telling Themselves Stories
Tony Judt was a lefty intellectual historian who died at 62 of ALS in 2010. When I was writing The Case for Rational Optimism, he wrote Ill Fares the Land, his... Read more
Posted on 28 August 2019 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY