We have devalued our belonging to people and place as our allegiance to paternal sources has grown. These allegiances include political parties, corporations and interest groups. We trust in these paternal sources, particularly as represented by corporate media and think tanks, while skeptical of human nature. This reverses where the “innocent until proven guilty” focus [...]
Continue reading about Restoring Cultural Balance – Become Paternal Skeptics
I have picked on “free market libertarian” information providers more than any others, more than “liberal” information providers and, for that matter, more than “conservative” information providers. Since people tend to lump in “conservative” and “free market libertarian” together one might assume a liberal bias on my part. Let me first concede that I do [...]
As a former teacher I have been well-indoctrinated with the concept of teachable moments. Recent exchanges on this forum presented the possibility of two different teachable moments. Blogging is often an impulsive activity. On an impulse I picked the wrong teachable moment.
I attempted to goad a future exchange that would uncover further the literal meanings [...]
There is a new feature on The Middle Class Forum, the Social Values Survey. It is one of the Forums and Feedback items. My eventual plans call for administering this to small social groups throughout the country, as well as with the large “social group” represented by the Internet.
My “beta-testers” to date were twenty people [...]
Two recent revelations put my long time comment policy into jeopardy. The first is I’m just now realizing that people may link into a post that does not display the main page and, consequently, never see what the comment policy is when they make their comment. Yes, yes, I’m a slow learner. I’ve tried a [...]
What we believe and how we behave forms middle class culture. Over the course of my lifetime we have become a culture more engaged by interest groups than by our communities. To thrive in the setting of community you have to be willing to harmonize diverse beliefs and behaviors. To thrive with an interest group [...]
Available from the Products and Services feature (right hand side of page) is a bookmark in pdf form that states 10 principles of misinformation. The first one relates to a topic recently discussed, that we are misinformed on what is natural or normative.
In Systems out of Balance I report on a version of the Travelers [...]
You have been given fair warning over the past few months. My book, Systems out of Balance: How Misinformation Hurts the Middle Class, is now available for order at the following web site: www.systemsoutofbalance.com. In a week or two it will be available at Amazon, but I receive less than $2 per book if you [...]
This past week I received a notice for a program offered by the water company to help people struggling to pay their water bills. I’ve received notices like this from my electric utility provider as well. I suppose these programs are a good thing for these corporations to coordinate, but there is something a little [...]
