Editorial rules for participating in discussions at The Society of Honor

By JoeAm We have observed a worldwide deterioration in the quality of information and debate as fake news, lies, manipulations, fallacious argument, trolling, and ignorance have been injected into information streams. Going along with that is a general dumbing down of people’s intellectual capacities, shoddy journalistic practices (biased, shallow, and sensationalized reporting), and a shortening … Continue reading

Tragedy of denial in the Philippines

By JoeAm I hope you had the opportunity to read Chemrock’s article entitled Tragedy of the Commons in the Philippines. It gets right to the heart of the personal and social malaise that infests the country leading to bad behaviors, bad decisions, and bad results. Poverty is the worst of the outputs. State-sanctioned murder is … Continue reading

Tragedy of the Commons in the Philippines

By Chemrock Juan has a few cows which graze daily in the small field outside the village, together with scores of other cows that belong to fellow villagers. He makes a decent living from milk production. An opportunity came for Juan to double his herd. He knows nothing about optimum herd size, but he has … Continue reading

When government is busy blowing smoke . . .

By JoeAm Lunacy simply defined is a departure from reality where reality is an accurate reading by our senses of our surroundings. If our emotional or intellectual capacities are damaged in any way, then our readings may be wrong and self-punishing. Instead of what “is”, we risk overlaying the real world with what enters our … Continue reading

Vantage points

By JoeAm Vantage points are the problem, and they are the opportunity. This arose the other day during a debate here in the blog discussion forum. I argued that: “One’s vantage point defines what one sees. It may not be ignorance.” I made this top-of-mind remark in response to a reader’s observation that some view … Continue reading