Society
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Watch Surviving Progress online
Quality: Humanity's ascent is often measured by the speed of progress. But what if progress is actually spiraling us downwards, towards collapse? Ronald Wright, whose best-seller, A Short History Of Progress inspired SURVIVING PROGRESS, shows how past civilizations were destroyed by "progress traps" - alluring technologies and belief systems that serve immediate needs, but ransom the future. As pressure on the world's resources accelerates and financial elites bankrupt nations, can our globally-entwined civilization escape a final, catastrophic progress trap?
Watch Four Horsemen online
Quality: The modern day Four Horsemen continue to ride roughshod over the people who can least afford it. Crises are converging when governments, religion and mainstream economists have stalled. 23 international thinkers come together and break their silence about how the world really works and why there is still hope in re-establishing a moral and just society. Four Horsemen is free from mainstream media propaganda, doesn't bash bankers, criticize politicians or get involved in conspiracy theories. The film ignites the debate about how we usher a new economic paradigm into the world which, globally, would dramatically improve the quality of life for billions.
Social Darwinism
Social Darwinism is a philosophy based on flawed readings of the biology text On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection , which came into existence in towards the end of the 19th century, though its origins can be traced all the way back to the ideas of Thomas Malthus . Social Darwinists took the biological ideas of Charles Darwin (and often mixed them with Lamarck and Malthus) and attempted to apply them to the social sciences. They were especially interested in applying the idea of "the survival of the fittest" in a social context, as this would excuse their existing ideas of racism , colonialism , and unfettered capitalism .The age of postmodernism has introduced a sceptical view of social constructs such as culture and has placed more emphasis on the interpretation of each individual person. It is no surprise then, that with rise of Globalization which has seen the process of an integrated global network with different societies mingling together, that new ethnic identities have formed. Stuart Hall states "Modern people of all sorts and conditions, it seems to me, have had, as a condition of survival, to be members simultaneously, of several overlapping 'imagined communities" Over the past few decades the UK population has experienced an influx of cultural diversity with the percentage of white British decreasing from 93% in 2001, to 90% in 2007.
Phils Blog Of Neglect...: Cultural Hybridity In The UK
Phils Blog Of Neglect...: Cannabis Prohibition
The debate on whether or not to make cannabis legal has been a subject of controversy for decades. On one side many people think it should remain illegal as they believe it has links to psychosis, lung cancer and is a gateway towards harder drugs. On the other hand many people advocate the legalization believing the supposed dangers of the drug are over exaggerated and it would significantly reduce illegal trade on the black market.
Q: You've spoken out against the War on Drugs, explaining that it's essentially a means to lock up poor people, that it actually increases drug use, and that it serves as an excuse to control foreign nations. Would you briefly elaborate on these points? A: Let's grant that there's a drug problem, for the sake of argument -- drugs meaning, you know, cocaine, marijuana and so on.
Noam Sayin'? The High Times Interview with Noam Chomsky, Noam Chomsky interviewed by T.A. Sedlak
<img src="http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/129282323a.jpg?w=307&h=200&crop=1" alt="129282323a" title="129282323a"/> Imagine there was one changeable factor that affected virtually every measure of a country’s health— including life expectancy, crime rates, addiction, obesity, infant mortality, stroke, academic achievement, happiness and even overall prosperity. Indeed, this factor actually exists. It’s called economic inequality.
How Economic Inequality Is (Literally) Making Us Sick
Income inequality is not the cause of this nation’s social problems
Myth: Income inequality is not the cause of this nation's social problems. Fact: Studies by Harvard and Berkeley prove the correlation, and strongly suggest causation. Summary Poverty is correlated to higher mortality rates for all ages.
Anders Behring Breivik's mother 'sexualised' him when he was four
The family's neighbours at the time became worried about her inappropriate sexual behaviour. "During the police investigation, the neighbours also said that they had been shocked by the mother's sexualised language," Borchgrevink writes. "There was a lot of fighting in the apartment and they remembered sexual activity taking place while the children were in there." The SSBU report described Ms Behring as "a woman with an extremely difficult upbringing, borderline personality structure and an all-encompassing if only partially visible depression" who "projects her primitive aggressive and sexual fantasies onto him [Breivik]". The psychologists reported that she would frequently tell her son that she wished he would die. "She shifts very quickly between speaking to him with a sugary voice and openly expressing a death wish," they wrote.There are few things quite so mis-understood by humans as their own psyche and behaviours. A few examples of our distortions from reality include concepts such as the existence of 'good and evil' people, or of a human having a distinctly separate 'mind and body' and hence having separate 'mental' and 'physical' health. Such old superstitions are still passed around human cultures today, even decades after evidence that shows them to be irrelevant has passed from the cutting edge of science.
How to Spot BS and Never Feel Insulted Again: A Brief Introduction to General Semantics and Non-Violent Communication
Rocking Philosophy: Evolutionary Psychology and Feminism
Feminists don’t take too kindly to being given a rational explanation for the alleged oppression of their sex. As a rule being told that the reason for something is down to a natural precondition does not fit into the narrative of woman as victim. It doesn’t matter what type of feminist you are; Sex+, Radical, Marxist, Cyber, et al – they all start from the inherently flawed foundation that women are owed something due to past oppression. Evolutionary psychology can tell us a lot about the inconsistencies of the feminist goliath that steamrollers all opposing views into submission.On Mars right now, an earthling-built mechanical spider-scientist is driving around and learning the secrets of our sister world. It is doing so after a months long journey, remote controlled by people tens of millions of miles away. What an amazing time to be alive, to witness such wonders of science. This makes it all the more jarring to see how science is routinely attacked by subsets of the very same group of earthlings who can harness its power to accomplish such amazing feats. Readers of this space can probably readily summon examples to mind: biology textbooks in Louisiana, denial of climate change, attacks on the usefulness of vaccinations.
Science denialism at a skeptic conference | Incredulous
I hear a lot about patriarchal oppression within feminist circles, and in my opinion, I think it's largely a load of hooey. This is not to say that I don't believe that patriarchy has been around for the vast majority of our species' time on this planet--of course it has. And this is not to say that I believe women haven't suffered from oppression throughout the course of history, or that strict enforcement of gender roles isn't harmful to individuals. But the feminist interpretation of patriarchy as a system of oppression of women ...it seems to be kind of wilfully detached from the reality of human history.
Owning Your Shit: Patriarchy shmatriarchy
Society II
During a recent appearance on BBC's Question Time , Michael Gove, the secretary of state for education, extolled the importance of encouraging creativity in schools. He's right. Creativity is essential to the success and fulfilment of young people, to the vitality of our communities and to the long-term health of the economy.