Author Archives: Thor

242. The Strange Matter of Job Incompetence

Posted on June 6, 2012 by Thor

Some peo­ple are very good at their jobs. Some jobs are pretty easy to be good at. In my expe­ri­ence, extremely large num­bers of peo­ple are rather bad at their jobs, and a fair num­ber are a down­right men­ace. In … Con­tinue read­ing →

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241. Sell It!

Posted on May 7, 2012 by Thor

Over two thou­sand years ago, there was a philoso­pher, Laozi, who was sure that peo­ple were nat­u­rally good (some­one called Jesus Christ had the same idea). About the same time another char­ac­ter, Shâng Yâng, reck­oned they were nat­u­rally bad and … Con­tinue read­ing →

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240. Women, Men and Religion

Posted on April 8, 2012 by Thor

Men find secu­rity in phys­i­cal dom­i­nance. With­out that dom­i­nance most men feel sex­u­ally cas­trated. Lack­ing phys­i­cal dom­i­nance (on the whole) women often seek secu­rity in deceit, or fail­ing that, in magic. Magic is broadly expressed as spir­i­tu­al­ity. Magic, sorted as … Con­tinue read­ing →

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239. The Competing Engines of Action: Greed and Benevolence

Posted on January 26, 2012 by Thor

The sales­man and the teacher share much in method and imme­di­ate pur­pose. Both wish to move other human beings to deci­sive action, and in that quest they engage the target’s moti­va­tion. Each how­ever is dri­ven by a dif­fer­ent per­sonal need, … Con­tinue read­ing →

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238. Racism and the Paradoxes of Miscommunicaiton

Posted on January 26, 2012 by Thor

It is an axiom that we will be mis­un­der­stood. “All the world old is queer save thee and me, and even thou art a lit­tle queer” [Robert Owen 1771–1858]. It is chis­elled in stone that our writ­ing will be mis­un­der­stood. … Con­tinue read­ing →

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237. What is a Civilization?

Posted on December 22, 2011 by Thor

A civ­i­liza­tion is a shared sys­tem of val­ues. To those not shar­ing the par­tic­u­lar val­ues, that civ­i­liza­tion may appear defi­cient, even unciv­i­lized. Then we have a clash of civ­i­liza­tions. Inter­na­tional agree­ments try to man­age clash­ing civ­i­liza­tions, and mostly rely on … Con­tinue read­ing →

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236. Eyes Wide Shut, and Energy of the Human Kind

Posted on December 19, 2011 by Thor

What do you see when you see? What do you hear when you hear? Dur­ing World War II the Aus­tralian mil­i­tary com­mand brought some New Guinea vil­lage chiefs to see the city of Bris­bane. Shock and awe? They went home … Con­tinue read­ing →

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