Saturday, March 7, 2015

Twenty-Five of My Best Posts

I was asked recently by a new reader of this blog if I had a list of favorite posts -- apparently some bloggers do. I came up with these twenty-five. These are all posts that are mainly my writing, not quotation, and not just collections of pictures or responses to other people's ideas.

Me and the 0.1%. September 4, 2023. Where does excellence come from? Why do some people rise so high and burn so brightly? And why am I not one of them?

Speaking One's Mind as an Impossible Act. February 18, 2023. Given that everyone belongs to a culture and shares most of its worldview, is there really any way to escape "groupthink" and reason "authentically"?

America in the Quicksand. February 2, 2022. When you are stuck in quicksand, fighting harder only makes you sink faster.

Renaming Schools in San Francisco, February 11, 2021. Does anyone deserve a statue? Or should we do away with the whole notion that some people are "great" and others are not? And see here on philosopher Walter Benjamin's thoughts about this question.

Bourgeois Ambivalence. September 7, 2020: the problems spawned by our intensely disciplined way of living.

9-11 Thoughts. September 11, 2019. Violence begets violence.

Orientalism, Europe, and the World. August 6, 2019. Pondering the suggestion that what made modern Europe great was the way Europeans gathered all the knowledge of the world to themselves, and drew inspiration from it.

Jacobites and Madmen. January 8, 2018. Why did so many apparently sane people support Bonnie Prince Charlie's doomed rebellion?

In Flint, the Psychology of Disaster. January 27, 2018. The political and psychological approaches to life are often at odds.

Walker Percy Explains the Rise of Inequality. June 27, 2017. The 1950s were the most economically equal time in American history. And we hated it.

Reflections on January 2017. American politics considered as a spiritual problem.

Circular Time, or, Alternative Medicine against the Scientific Establishment, Again, August 14, 2016. When you read that something is new, pause to consider whether this is true; some of our arguments are ancient.

Celtic Art and Druid Philosophy. March 5, 2015. Exploring the relationship between the revolutionary art  of the La Tene culture and the thinking of the druids.

If not meritocracy, what? February 4, 2014. An important question.

Optimism vs. Pessimism about the American Future, January 2, 2014. There is much to be said for both sides.

Grant in Command, March 21, 2013. In the fifteen years I have been doing archaeology for the National Park Service I have ended up becoming something of an expert on the American Civil War, or at least the battles fought around Washington. Of my many Civil War posts this is the one I like the best. It should perhaps be read together with my thoughts on the contemporary political relevance of how we assess Grant as a leader.

Sociology, Numbers, and Dismissing the Minority, March 19, 2013. My clearest expression of my annoyance at the bad mental habit of focusing only on the majority of any group.

Dirty Hippies and Respect for Authority. March 13, 2013. What really motivates young earth fundamentalists?

The Myth of Pepper and Rotten Food, February 2, 2013. Fighting nonsensical beliefs about history.

The Sad Decline of the American Working Man, December 7, 2012. One of the major issues facing our century is the decline of the male worker in both economic and social terms. Here is one of my many little essays on the subject, in which I touch on most of my own themes in this regard.

Dan Richards and his Mountain Lion, or, Hunters and Conservation, March 2, 2012. Understanding other people is hard, but that's no excuse to quit trying.

Joseph Cornell's Boxes, December 23, 2011. My favorite of my posts on individual artists, and one of my most popular posts.

The Sanctuary of Roquepertuse and the Celtic Cult of the Head, December 15, 2011. The creepiest, coolest archaeology.

Samarkand and Tamerlane, September 9, 2011. In which I ponder that one of the world's most beautiful and cultured cities was built by a tyrannical monster.

Pain, Captain, is a thing of the mind, July 14, 2011. One of my many stabs at the connections of mind and body.

Ai Weiwei, November 2, 2011. What is art, anyway?
Whose Money? April 28, 2010. Sure, you work hard, but where did that money you think is yours come from?

The Renegade Professor Gets Fired, October 20, 2010. In which I try to take down the foolish notions of a bad boy academic.

Indignation. October 5, 2009. A very dangerous indulgence.

Ba'al Hammon and the Unitarian List of Suggestions. From my old blog, a meditation on Carthaginian infant sacrifice. February 2, 2001.

No comments: