Something which a little while ago got me thinking – to the extent that I felt that I needed to blog about it – was the decision to ban young people from social media following an example in Australia. Now, my thoughts were not strictly along the lines of is this a good idea or not – rather the announcement triggered a lot of related things.
Philosophical
Finding Food for Thought
It was a surprise for me when I went looking that the source of inspiration for this post had only been used once. I had expected it to be more as it is a rich source of things – wise things – that people have written over the years. It does make it into my Trough of places that inspire me in one way or another. However only in A Thought Provoking Essay have I actually mentioned it before.
Never Wrong
In the last couple of weeks there have been a number of things that have prompted the “make a blog post” idea to come to mind, but up to now I haven’t managed to follow through on that – so it is time to rectify that omission.
On a Missed Last Time
It is almost certainly simply a symptom of advancing years and the fact that everyone you know is also suffering from that particular aspect of life. It is inevitable that for those who have managed to get this far there are more years in our past than in our future – and therefore plenty of things that we will never do or encounter again. When I posted This Could Be The Last Time… there was a certain irony in thinking that there would be further times which “could be the last time” 😂
A Timely Commencement Speech
If you can spare just under ten minutes to listen to this then I would urge you to do so. This young man’s commencement speech is both timely and timeless. It speaks to the particular problems we have in the world at present, but also is showing how it is nothing new and there are lessons to be learned from the past (as always).
A Thought Provoking Essay
One of the links in my Trough of useful sources is to what used to be called Brain Pickings but has now been retitled The Marginalian. I receive regular emails with short essays on a whole range of subjects which often contain things that are very insightful.
A Worrying Epidemic of Intolerance of “Them”
This is certainly not a new topic within this blog although it has perhaps not been explicit for a while. I think the last time I waxed lyrical on Usandthemism was in this post. So many instances of this ‘disease’ crop up pretty much daily – and the problem is that most of the examples are far more complex and nuanced than most people are willing (or perhaps able) to perceive.
A Quote Affirming the Purpose of this Blog
I have – on many occasions – in these writings mentioned the cognitive bias that is termed “the Dunning Kruger Effect”. That stems from the results of some psychological based tests. Many have stated (perhaps with less research behind it) in alternative forms and I came across this one today from a philosopher.
Does Truth Matter
Of course it does – I hear you all say. Of course, I agree. However there are some nuances to explore and – more specifically, some examples of where truth seems to have no place in the conversations. Strangely it is almost exactly a year (took so long to do this one that it is now 5 years!) since I wrote Face It – You Don’t Know which in some ways explored the same topic – but from a slightly different viewpoint.
Should Everyone Be Woke
Today I did something that I have never done before – I had a ‘conversation’ with Copilot. I’m not sure how often I would repeat this, but I did find it to be more illuminating than I expected.