economy

The Matrix Is Real.

This is your last chance.  After this, there is no turning back.  You take the blue pill — the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe.  You take the red pill — you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.
-Morpheus, “The Matrix”

What is The Matrix?

A lot of people have no idea.

The original movie, “The Matrix”, was released over twenty years ago, in 1999.  Today’s college graduates were still in diapers, and many of them are completely ignorant not only of the story arc, the mythology, and the characters in the cinematic cycle, but also of the philosophical allusions and ramifications of the ideas presented therein.

They’re not alone; most of the film’s viewers don’t get it either.  To us, it’s a classic sci-fi (more…)

The State Of The Union Is Not Good — But It Could Be

Those of you who know me will know that I love sifting through the worst garbage to find treasures — diamonds in the rough.  Last night’s State of the Union address was less garbage than most are and certainly better than expected, and there were some true gems carefully concealed within the rhetoric.  The (more…)

Healthcare: In Order To Fix A Problem…

The first step toward a solution is to know what the problem is.

Healthcare in this country has been the subject of widespread and highly politicized debate in recent years.  Most of us agree that there’s something wrong, but we tend to disagree on what, exactly, that might be.  It’s little wonder that the solutions that we try are subject to controversy — and that controversy includes widespread civil disobedience, of a type and breadth not seen since the civil rights era of the 1960s and 70s.

The trouble is, we don’t know what precisely is wrong.  We haven’t diagnosed it.  So… (more…)

It’s Not The One Percent, Dammit!

There is more than one valid and effective solution to our problems. Unfortunately, the political parties in our strongly divided system are far more concerned with blaming one another than in getting anything done. This is hardly a purely American phenomenon, of course; that’s just a handy example.

The evident solution is NOT to discard parties and then recreate the process from the ground up. Instead, it’s to get (more…)

WALDEN (an excerpt), by Henry David Thoreau

Economy

When I wrote the following pages, or rather the bulk of them, I lived alone, in the woods, a mile from any neighbor, in a house which I had built myself, on the shore of Walden Pond, in Concord, Massachusetts, and earned my living by the labor of my hands only. I lived there two years and two months. At present I am a sojourner in civilized life again.

I should not obtrude my affairs so much on the notice of my readers if very particular inquiries had not been made by my townsmen concerning my mode of life, which some would call impertinent, though they do not appear to me at all impertinent, but, considering the circumstances, very natural and pertinent. Some have asked what I got to eat; if I did not feel lonesome; if I was not afraid; and the like. Others have been curious to learn what (more…)