Even In The Best Of Times, The Poor Have Always Been Neglected

"A Golden Age is a period of 'peace, prosperity, and happiness.' Early Greek and Roman poets used the phrase to describe how people lived in an almost idealized time and place. It is a point in history where art, science, and philosophy thrive, and where economic growth is unparalleled. But not everyone gets to enjoy that prosperity..."

Throughout known history, humanity has always ignored the needs of the poor. Memo to MAGA: the USA has never been great. Click on the link below for a history lesson on this fact:

What It Was Like To Be Poor Throughout History

School Lunch Programs Help Society

"John Oliver discusses school lunch programs in the US, and why giving kids free lunch is in all of our best interest."

Click this link for information supporting the need for school lunch programs and their improvement:

Identity Politics And Chimpanzees

Cooperation is better than domination - - -

"The dark side of identity politics occurs when the dominant race/religion/gender (in today’s America that’s white Christian men) identifies people who aren’t part of their group as an 'other' and uses this otherness as a rallying cry to enlist members of the powerful in-group against the 'outsiders.' 

"This is what the GOP has been doing for years! Ever since 1968, when Richard Nixon picked up the white racist vote that Democrats abandoned in 1964/1965 when LBJ pushed the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act through Congress."

Click on the link below to understand that MAGA equals Chimpanzee behavior:

How Republicans Get You To Cheer For Murder 

The Disease Of Anti-Immigration Continues To Spread

"Border security around the world continues to take turns for the dark and dystopian as right-wing sentiment against migrants and refugees continues to escalate to the extreme."

Click on the link below for a 2-hour in-depth podcast addressing the rational and irrational fear of "The Other."

Migrants and Refugees on Fortress Earth: Our politicized, fortified, industrialized borders in the US and Europe.

Your Identity: Is It Interfering With Your Understanding Of Reality, And Others?

" - - - people don't feel they need to have any particular expertise to have opinions about (religion and politics). All they need is strongly held beliefs, and anyone can have those."

"The more labels you have for yourself, the dumber they make you."

We all identify with our family and other human groups. It is part of our psyche. The problem with such identification is that it can dampen our empathy for, and cooperation with, others not in the groups we identify with. Click on the link below for an article addressing this area of human experience:

Keep Your Identity Small

Cult History And Thinking: How To Penetrate It

"In an age of cultish in-group/out-group politics and media, we seek to find messaging for progressive partisans to achieve electoral success."

Click on the link below for how cults are formed historically, and presently, and how the USA can marginalize them to save freedom and our democracy:

Messaging left-wing politics amid cultish politics

Imagine A World Without Religion

"There has seldom been a war that religion did not support.

"Scholars say that before the rise of patriarchal religions, human beings lived fairly peaceably in kinship-based communities under matriarchs who established a more tolerant morality than the later, father-worshiping kind.

"Pre-patriarchal cultures were very indulgent of their children, giving them much physical affection and little punishment. They also tended to be permissive about physical pleasures and sexuality. There were no homosexuality taboos, no concubinage, no prostitution. The sexes had equal status although the families were matrilocal and matrilineal. Most property was owned by the women, whose life-giving magic was considered essential to fertility in general. Descent was reckoned only through mothers, among people who had not yet understood biological fatherhood. There was no caste system and no full-time military. Religion was some variant of nature worship with no strict codes, a Mother Goddess being primary and her consorts secondary. Such cultures were generally nonviolent and valued spontaneity, humor, and sensual enjoyments."

Click on the link below for more information that you probably were not aware of:

https://freethoughtnow.org/religion-has-always-supported-war/

The Reason Today's Young Are Pissed Off (And, Rightly So)

"In a scorching talk, marketing professor and podcaster Scott Galloway dissects the data showing that, by many measures, young people in the US are worse off financially than ever before. He unpacks the root causes and effects of this "great intergenerational theft," asking why we let it continue and showing how we could end it."

Click on the link for the video:

How the US Is Destroying Young People’s Future

The Horror Since The End Of Roe V Wade

"We’re sharing another episode in our WITHpod 2024: The Stakes series, in which we choose specific areas of policy and talk to an expert about Trump and Biden’s records on the topic. This week, we’re discussing the seismic changes to reproductive rights over the past few years and both candidates’ stances. Jessica Valenti is an author and the founder of abortioneveryday.com. She joins WITHpod to discuss Trump creating the conditions for Roe v. Wade to be overturned during Biden’s term and what the overturning of it has meant, the status of abortion laws across states, why she feels hormonal birth control will be taken away from teenagers and more."

Click on the link below for a dystopian view of the future of the USA should Trump/Republicans win in 2024:

The Stakes for Reproductive Rights

Chinese Immigrants: Hate & Fear Under The Radar

"In the New York Times today, Amy Qin and Patricia Mazzei reported on the new Florida law that prohibits many Chinese citizens from buying property in Florida, especially near important infrastructure like airports, refineries, and military installations. Qin and Mazzei note that more than three dozen states either have enacted or are crafting laws to restrict the purchase of land, businesses, or housing by Chinese nationals, even if they have legal residence in the United States. The justification for the laws is that Chinese investment in the U.S. is a national security risk, although Chinese nationals own less than 400,000 acres in the United States.

"It was an odd echo, for on this day in 1882, President Chester A. Arthur signed into law the Chinese Exclusion Act, which banned Chinese workers, but not scholars, businessmen, or diplomats, from immigrating to the United States for ten years. This was the first federal limitation of voluntary immigration to the United States, and it would be extended for more than 60 years."

Click on the link below for more:

A History of US Bigotry

Economic Inequality: The Root Of All Evil?

"The past, present, and future of tackling the uselessness of extreme wealth by exposing and closing tax avoidance loopholes and pushing for a culture change to embrace the need for a more equal society."

Click on the link below for an exploration of all the possible negative effects of economic inequality in the USA:

Society of Extreme Wealth and its Discontents: Tax avoidance, wealth inequality and the detrimental effects felt by us all

B Corp Certification: Why Is It Not Better Known?

"B Corp Certification is a designation that a business is meeting high standards of verified performance, accountability, and transparency on factors from employee benefits and charitable giving to supply chain practices and input materials. In order to achieve certification, a company must: 

• Demonstrate high social and environmental performance by achieving a B Impact Assessment score of 80 or above and passing our risk review. Multinational corporations must also meet baseline requirement standards. 

• Make a legal commitment by changing their corporate governance structure to be accountable to all stakeholders, not just shareholders, and achieve benefit corporation status if available in their jurisdiction. 

• Exhibit transparency by allowing information about their performance measured against B Lab’s standards to be publicly available on their B Corp profile on B Lab’s website.  

"As leaders in the movement for economic systems change, B Corps reap remarkable benefits. They build trust with consumers, communities, and suppliers; attract and retain employees; and draw mission-aligned investors. As they are required to undergo the verification process every three years in order to recertify, B Corps are by definition also focused on continuous improvement, leading to their long-term resiliency. 

 

"B Corp Certification is holistic, not exclusively focused on a single social or environmental issue. And the process to achieve and maintain certification is rigorous and requires engaging teams and departments across your company. Taking company size and profile into account, verification involves documentation of your company’s business model and information about your operations, structure, and various work processes, as well as review of potential public complaints and possible site visits. Recertification confirms these standards continue to be met on an ongoing basis. Read more in our FAQs."

Measuring a company’s entire social and environmental impact

Are College Campus Protests Effective?

The current college campus protests are bringing back reminders of when I was in college and the protests against the war in Vietnam were at their peak. As was the case then, there is much discussion about whether such activities help or hinder the resolution of the problem being addressed. Unfortunately, it's difficult to tell whether what happens after protests is a cause-effect or a correlation. Below are the results of some studies to shed some light on this controversial activity:

The impact of anti-Vietnam demonstrations upon national public opinion and military indicators

"In an attempt to assess the national impact of anti-war protest, 15 major anti-Vietnam demonstrations occurring in the United States from 1965 through 1971 were analyzed for their effects upon Gallup public opinion survey data, American troop strength, and American munitions expenditures. While weak and short-term counterproductive effects appeared for two opinion indicators, an equally likely conclusion is that the demonstrations had little or no lasting impact. The possible reasons for this finding, and its social implications, are discussed."

REFLECTIONS ON THE VIETNAM ANTIWAR MOVEMENT AND ON THE CURIOUS CALM AT THE WAR'S END

"Some years ago I did a study comparing public opinion on the war in Vietnam with public opinion on the Korean War. Using various tests I found that, although television supposedly made Vietnam somehow unique, the wars actually affected public opinion quite similarly. Both wars were supported by the same demographic groups: the young and the well-educated, in particular. Sentiment for withdrawal and escalation was about the same and mostly came from the same groups. Moreover, the wars were about equally popular during the periods in which they were comparable; that is, while the war in Vietnam eventually became more unpopular than the Korean War, it became so only after American casualties there had substantially surpassed those of the earlier war. Trends in support for the wars followed the same course: basic support declined as U.S. casualties increased, and it did so according to the same mathematical relationship. (2)

"This similarity seems surprising because, while the two wars had many things in common, the Korean War inspired no organized public protest remotely comparable to the one generated during the Vietnam War. If one paid attention to vocal protest and to media reports about that protest during the two wars, it would certainly seem the later war was far more unpopular.

"It seems to me these findings suggest two cautions about assessing vocal protest. The first is fairly obvious: One should be careful about assuming vocal agitators necessarily represent the masses they purport to speak for. Labor union leaders may not speak for workers, active feminists may not accurately represent women, and the Moral Majority may, as the bumper sticker suggests, be neither.

"Second, and perhaps more interestingly, it may be that the Vietnam protest movement, at least through 1968, actually was somewhat counter-productive in its efforts to influence public opinion--that is, the war might have been somewhat more unpopular had the protest not existed."

Increase In Inequality = Increase In Crime?

"Corporate news wants you to feel like * crime is on the rise. But could it actually be that the forces turning your fellow Americans into criminals stems from inequality? Even in the animal kingdom, they can spot a con when they see one… "

Click on the link below for a 6-min video that presents evidence in support of the causal link between inequality and crime:

The Real Reason Crime Is Rising In America

* Is crime REALLY rising in the USA? (link)

Neoliberalism, Bullying, And Inequality

"New research is linking the kind of schoolyard bully attitude to neoliberalism. Can we create an America where bullying doesn’t lead people to power over anything?"

Click on the link below for a short video presenting the link between bullying and neoliberalism, a political approach that favors free-market capitalism, deregulation, and reduction in government spending.

Science Proves What's Wrong With America’s Democracy!

Cooperate, Be Nice, But Also Don't Be A Pushover: The Key To A Successful Society

One of the clearest divides between conservatives and progressives is how differently they view cooperation and self-interest. Click on the link below for a video debunking this binary:

What Game Theory Reveals About Life, The Universe, and Everything

Feminism & Equality: A Different Perspective

"Equality has been at the heart of civil rights movements for decades but what we have failed to see is that in striving for equality we cannot help but reinforce the unquestioned preexisting structures of society which, themselves, may be at fundamental odds with true freedom for all."

Click on the link below for an in-depth look at what the feminist movement may be overlooking in striving for equality:

Forget Equality, Embrace the Feminism of Freedom

Loneliness From Poor Urban Planning

"Loneliness is an epidemic that long-predates the COVID lockdowns that only made things worse but it's not primarily cultural or even technological in origin. The issue largely has to do with how our built environment is designed and then social and technological aspects compound the problem."

Click on the link below for a deep analysis of factors that contribute to loneliness that only better society planning can change:

A Different Look At Sociology

"Bernard Lahire has dropped a bombshell with the publication of Structures Fondamentales des Sociétés Humaines (“Fundamental Structures of Human Societies”, La Découverte, 2023). In nearly 1,000 pages, the CNRS research professor at the Centre Max-Weber in Lyon (southeastern France)1 re-examines some 150 years of sociological practice that in his view has strayed too far into hyperspecialisation and become isolated from the life sciences. In the past 30 years, his research has focused on various topics ranging from school dropout rates to political action, illiteracy, and artistic creation. But he has long felt the temptation, dating back to his doctoral dissertation, to expand his field of investigation to other disciplines like history, psychology, and linguistics, along with a need to reconsider the status of the social sciences, a subject broached in his most recent work2. His proposals to revolutionize sociology are the fruit of these years of reflection."

Click on the link below for the details of this novel view of sociology:

Sociology needs to reconnect with science

- - - - - - - -

While on the subject, there's a reason why conservatives don't like sociology (link).

The Prisoner's Dilemma: How Cooperation With Protecting One's Interest Is The Key To Survival

"The Prisoner's Dilemma is a game theory thought experiment that involves two rational agents, each of whom can cooperate for mutual benefit or betray their partner ("defect") for individual reward. This dilemma was originally framed by Merrill Flood and Melvin Dresher in 1950 while they worked at the RAND Corporation.[citation needed] Albert W. Tucker later formalized the game by structuring the rewards in terms of prison sentences and named it the "prisoner's dilemma".[1]

"The prisoner's dilemma models many real-world situations involving strategic behavior. In casual usage, the label "prisoner's dilemma" may be applied to any situation in which two entities could gain important benefits from cooperating or suffer from failing to do so, but find it difficult or expensive to coordinate their activities." (Wikipedia)

Click on the link below for a video explaining this complicated process for maximizing human well-being:

What The Prisoner's Dilemma Reveals About Life, The Universe, and Everything