From time to time I check out the latest activity at Education Conversation, a blog by Tammy Brennan about the problems in America’s current state-run education system. Today I stopped by and found a post from February 17 titled “The End of Literacy” that describes a situation and an experience that I have personally encountered…
Category: Society & Culture
Doomer fringe converging on the mainstream (Headlines from the Meltdown)
Cardin comments: You know life on planet earth has gotten weird when conventionally respectable mainstream news sources start running stories that sound like what would have formerly been dismissed as the ravings of a conspiracy nut. But — and this is a crucial point — is anybody really listening? Case in point: an analysis piece…
Not just an economic crisis but a difficult cultural transformation
As is obvious from my last few posts, I’ve decided to start keeping tabs here at The Teeming Brain on doomer-sounding economic news stories, essays, analyses, op-eds, and rants. Currently the media are presenting a veritable cornucopia of these things, and they seem likely to keep it up for a very long time to come….
The Future Is Now: Peak oil arrives, the world begins to shake
The theory of peak oil has been around for several decades now. I first discovered it myself a little over four years ago and found my view of modern technological/industrial civilization and our collective future deeply impacted by it. Two things have proven particularly fascinating to me in this regard over the past couple of…
Food spikes, foreclosures, and cultural freefall
Has it really been three weeks since my last post? A glance at the date stamp on that previous post indicates the answer is yes. I’m now four weeks back into my teaching job, and this, in conjunction with a couple of extra-job responsibilities, is eating up nearly all of my time. Alas, the blog…
Spiritual investment in the age of financial disaster
Greetings, Teeming Brainers. I’m back from attending the 29th annual Armadillocon in Austin, Texas, where I spoke on several panels (and served as moderator for one of them, which was a new experience) and enjoyed hobnobbing with various writers, editors, and fans of science fiction, fantasy, and speculative literature. It was a nice time overall….
The sadness of America and the need for a new consciousness
A couple of months ago I began catching wind of a new documentary film titled What a Way to Go: Life at the End of Empire. It sounded intriguing so I started reading pretty much everything I could find about it on the Internet. At this point, having informed myself as much as I can…
Anna Nicole Smith Is the Fourth Horseman
The only daily newspaper that originates from my part of the world is The News-Leader, which is located in Springfield, Missouri. It blankets southwest Missouri and part of Arkansas. Last Tuesday, February 13th, editorial page editor Tony Messenger posted a brief observation at his blog, “Ozarks Messenger,” titled “A sign of the apocalypse…” It read…
Planet of the Dead, or Is dehumanization so bad?
One of the most nightmarish things about a dark age is the degradation that it entails for life’s overall tone, not least in the dehumanization that occurs when a people’s intellectual, emotional, moral, spiritual, political, social, and cultural life in general is reduced to a ghastly level of brutishness and ignorance. As is now plainly…
Jihad vs. McWorld: The trouble with radical Islam
To begin with, a proviso: I probably don’t know what I’m talking about here. I’m certainly not a political scientist. I may not even qualify as a reasonably informed citizen. But anyway… A little over a week ago, back on September 10th, the online arm of The Guardian published a long essay by Martin Amis…