The United States is both practical and idealistic writes Siva Vaidhyanathan as he paraphrases the conclusions of Thorstein Veblen, a sociologist and economist who wrote at the turn of the 20th century.   Almost from the start, our educational system represented those polarities: Ha

“All the world’s a stage,” Shakespeare wrote and with the advent of social media, his words couldn’t be truer. So many comedians exist on the internet that late night television shows have hired as writers some of Twitter’s leading lights. (“Satirized for Your Consumption,

What a piece of work is man?   Seen from outer space, we homo sapiens, dwelling on the third planet from a middling sun, appear to be unique in that we are conscious.   Our imagination is limitless and we use it to alter our environment for the benefit of our species.  Over time,

I came across statistics published in the July/August 2015 edition of Mother Jones that left me wanting to laugh and cry simultaneously. Certainly, I was reminded of the British comedy, The Mouse That Roared, starring Peter Sellers. Sellers played thae prime minister of the duchy of G

Recently, I was a guest on a radio program, Labor Hour, where, with co-hosts Susan Stoner and Lane Poncy, we discussed the future of the labor movement. (Click)  When asked what I thought was the single most important issue facing the workplace, I answered, “robotics” and the thr

My blog of June 23, “Frail And Sensitive Little Bullies,” evoked a number of responses, particularly among Facebook readers.  At issue was the concern a female student shared with her instructor about Ovid’s Metamorphoses. She was a rape victim and feared reading the descriptio

Martin Ford’s new book, Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future is likely to produce as many nightmares as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.  Reviewer Edward Luce in the Financial Times describes it as an apocalyptic warning for the coming decades when “mor

A few weeks ago, I wrote about a man who found a fish fossil that provided surprising information on evolution. (Blog 7/2/15)  It wasn’t the first time I’d read about some discovery found moldering in the bowels of a museum and I always have to ask myself, “How can an object be

 “…the wedge isn’t what it used to be,” writes columnist, Michael Kingsley.  (“What Do The Simple Folk Do?” Vanity Fair, July 2015, pg. 47.)  By “wedge,”  Kingsley refers to those core values,  like abortion, gun control, prayer in the schools and affirmative acti

Every once in a while, my stockbroker and I have lunch.  We don’t necessarily do it to adjust my investments.  We get together to solve the world’s financial problems.  Right now, the world, according to my broker, looks glum.  He’s especially annoyed with Greece for not pay