Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has provided a case study in how democracies react to existential challenges — What follows is a fictionalized summary of what in reality comprises many tens of thousands of hours of lengthy discussions focusing on minutiae, on the results of the most recent public opinion polls, and — most importantly of all — on what the “news” media is presently telling people to…

Now that the previously unthinkable is almost certain to happen in the next couple of years, what will the consequences be for the world? — The famous economist John Maynard Keynes believed that governments should behave in a fiscally responsible manner. When the economy is thriving, governments should set aside excess funds arising from tax revenues so that during economic downturns this money can be available for stimulus packages without the country incurring extra debt…

Where do Electric Vehicles make sense, and where are they just a foolish waste of money? — We humans are herd animals and often rush without thinking to embrace whatever new trend is being hyped around us. If we see other people sporting tattoos in order to be “individual” we naturally get some tattoos in order to be individual just like them. If we hear that investing…

How to open up space for something we all want but rarely get — If we step back for a moment from the seeming exigencies of our daily lives, we can notice a very odd thing: despite being wrapped in convenience, comfort, and abundance beyond the dreams of any Emperor or Queen even as recently as a century ago, most people aren’t happy. …

The silent killer in our midst — There’s nothing the media likes more than a new threat with which to scare hundreds of millions of ordinary people and thereby boost the value of all-important ad slots. As people are now bored of Covid and covid-like stories, and as school shootings in the USA are now weekly occurrences…

How top-level economic statistics present a misleading picture of the USA’s wealth and power — To begin with the positives, the USA was the first nation in history to be founded on rational concepts. Its Constitution represented a significant advance in the ordering of human affairs. For all its many flaws, omissions, and false assumptions, it nevertheless attempted to provide a coherent framework for the…

How marketing deceives by almost telling the truth — First some history: the original fabric advertised as waterproof and breathable was Gore-Tex, developed by an ex-DuPont chemist called Wilbur Gore back in 1969 after a serendipitous discovery that stretching polytetrafluoroethylene resulted in a material full of tiny holes that were so small they would cause rainwater to bead on…

Is the US way of life really the direction we should all be going? — The day begins with an alarm clock bursting into noise, shocking you awake. Although this happens every weekday morning, your body always responds in the same way: your heartbeat jumps from a placid fifty-nine beats per minute to ninety-six beats per minute. …

Where did Judaism, Christianity, and Islam really come from? — It is ironic that in general the people who fervently believe in a particular religion have little or no knowledge about the origins of their mythology. This ignorance of the basics means religionists are easy prey for anyone who deftly manipulates a few chosen elements; religionists too often therefore can…