Often, when I idly troll the internet, bored and searching for my next waiter monkey fix, I think, if only I could surf away my time reading the letters of Jeremy Bentham and David Hume. Were that the case, I might have something to occupy my mind beyond hand-holding otters. Well, the clever folks at Oxford University have announced the Electronic Enlightenment, a electronic database that brings together the correspondences of the leading thinkers of the 18th century in single, search-able, cross-reference-able archive. In an unavoidable nod to the 21st century, developers have even made the Electronic Enlightenment interactive. Users can contribute content to the 230,000 scholarly annotations, and participate in chat rooms (in which LOL stills means the same thing, but HINAIOFBOI means “happiness is not an ideal of reason, but of imagination”). Below, watch Susan Neiman talk about the “Enlightment Monster.”
President Bush just spoke from the Rose Garden to reassure the American people that “we know what the problem is” and “we have the tools to fix it.” It’s certainly nice to hear they’re not worried in Washington, but is it possible that Bush is just hoping his confidence will catch on? Nobody wants to hear the phrase “I don’t know” these days, especially from the federal government. But as Presh Talwalkar wisely points out over at mindyourdecisions.com, it’s possible nobody really knows. He asks readers to stop for a moment and “think about the complexity of modeling millions of adaptive people in our economy.” Yea, sounds pretty tough. Talwalkar suggests people stop waiting for a silver bullet and stick to conventional wisdom: be cautious of over confidence, avoid vested interests, and buy and hold. And if you’re looking to ease the onslaught of depression (personal or financial), go out and invest in some good old domestic product—a beer. Here’s Joseph Stiglitz breaking things down; or, if you’d prefer Sam Cooke offering up a little confidence of his own.
We all react differently to stress, but some species react very differently. Fox News reports that a cat in China recently “sprouted a pair of fur-covered wings on his back.” The cat’s owner believes the wings grew “as a result of stress from too many females desiring to mate with him.” A stressful scenario indeed! If only this cat had practiced better stress management, he might still be wing-free today. Yoga Master David Life sat down with Big Think to discuss the benefits of meditation as a means of regulating our reactions to the world around us. A regular meditation practice helps to “clear out the clutter inside so that we can undertake actions from a… purer space.” So far, we haven’t heard of the downward cat—but we have heard of people practicing yoga with their dog. Alas, perhaps in time, this over-sexed feline can stretch and meditate his wings away.
It’s no secret that the price of food is rising. But that’s no excuse to throw in the towel and pick up the Big Mac. Lifestyle blog Divine Caroline reminds us that “low cost doesn’t have to mean low quality” and helpfully lists 20 healthy foods that cost less than $1. The blog suggests a back-to-basics approach—the less fancy packaging, the better.
NYU Professor and Nutritionist Marion Nestle has her own solution for curbing costs: eat less food. When Nestle spoke to Big Think, she explained that the food industry is configured to make people think they need double the daily calories than are actually necessary. So while buying natural, simple ingredients is fundamental, a little portion control never hurts either.
The quest for the easy cure for smokers has been well-documented in many a memoir (writing professor Susan Shapiro’s “Lighting Up”), responsible for an entire self-help industry (nicotine patch, gum etc.), new government policies (i.e. NYC’s smoking ban) and the demonization of the tobacco industry satirized in the 2005 film “Thank You For Smoking.” The newest research finds a surprising yet obvious answer that delves into the heart of human nature: peer pressure. New research in the New England Journal of Medicine discovered that when any influential person in a smoker’s life breaks the habit, the smoker has a higher chance of following suit, and one committed quitter can have a ripple effect on entire social networks, like a roving blackout.
“We tend to think of individuals as atomized units, and we think of policies as good or bad for individuals,” says Yahoo! Research scientist Duncan Watts in the New York Times. “This reminds us that we are all connected to each other, and when we do something to one person, there are spillover effects.” Besides advocating for group programs for smokers, the research also highlights the double-edged sword of social ostracism, that mentally ill and other marginalized people who smoke may fall further toward the edge.
How responsible are we for others’ bad habits? The battle between we vs. me dates back to the Founding Fathers’ relentless focus on individual rights and freedoms, and America’s profound opportunities that simultaneously breed monumental disparities. Does the American way of survival of the fittest and every wo(man) for herself work anymore? What is the responsibility of citizens as a whole toward social and public health problems?
Author and economist Naomi Klein believes this is a radical point in history and an opportunity for social change, since everyone does not believe that “lives are of equal value,” which she evidences by the U.S. aversion to tracking Iraqi or Afghanistani deaths.
Whether it’s combating bird flu or saving the environment for future generations, “the solution there is not property rights. The solution there is collective action,” according to economist David Dollar of the World Bank.
On a micro level, public health issues involving smoking, losing weight, the drug wars that have historically been viewed as individual problems, could be framed as a matter of civic duty, a concept that has become almost quaint. Harvard Business School Professor Nancy Koehn observes, “The portion of time Americans devote to community, and civic and political activity is decreasing. And yet if we believe that the problems, at least some of them, have been more urgent…that’s not the right equation.” She purports a need for leadership a la Oprah, Bono, and Nelson Mandela: “People that stand in front of others and bet their energy and bet their talents on problems that are much larger than they, and larger than their career.”
PBS NewsHour anchor Jim Lehrer urges every American to “get involved.” He sees the need for America to become a “we” instead of a “me” society, from electing a new president to deciding military policy, with education as the tool for togetherness. “I think there is a big we in all of us. It has to be utilized. Part of the process is to be informed and work at it. Find out what the issues really are.”
In 1492, Columbus sailed the Ocean Blue, and for his hop across the pond he is consecrated in five centuries of history texts for discovering America. If it wasn’t for Christoph Colon, so the child’s thinking goes, we wouldn’t be here. Or we would have gotten here later…or maybe earlier. Following an alternative reading, we learn that the Norwegian, Leifr Eiriksson, was traipsing up and down the Newfoundland coast in the 11th century, establishing a settlement at L’Anse aux Meadows nd trading with the local Native Americans, whose ancestors, if anyone, can be credited with the discovery of America when they crossed the Bering Land Bridge from Siberia round about 16,000 years ago. Columbus starts to look more like a footnote, yet his story persists.
The granddaddy of inclusive history, Howard Zinn, has been telling the American story, minus myths and half-truths, since the 1980 publication of his book, A People’s History of the United States. He has some remarks on the spurious content of history textbooks and why we would expect it in a nation rather keen on wealth and power.
He elaborates with a recipe for a democratic-socialist society based on equity and popular welfare. It includes no passports, immigration quotas, and a redistribution of wealth. Sound do-able?
Ten billion. That’s the number of farm animals killed each year in the U.S. for
human consumption. To give that figure some jaw-dropping perspective,
New York Times food columnist Mark Bittman remarked that a chain of
that many animals end to end would reach the moon and back five times.
It’s a staggering number, and even the most gung-ho steak eater may
cringe at the conditions of the cages, degree of disease and injury,
and methods of killing at factory farms. Farm Sanctuary was started
over 20 years ago to provide a haven for animals saved from the mass
production chain. On farms in upstate New York and in California,
hundreds of sheep, cows, chicken and the like are nurtured after being
rescued from abhorrent factory conditions. This past weekend, Farm
Sanctuary held its annual gala and honored Sharon Gannon and David
Life with a humanitarian award. The founders of the Jivamukti Yoga
Centers have increasingly devoted their time and resources to animal
rights and the promotion of veganism. When they both stopped by Big
Think, they each articulated their passion for ending cruelty toward
animals. Speaking directly about factory farming, Sharon Gannon made
an eloquent plea for the ethics of veganism.
As to the future of animal exploitation, David Life was understandably
uncertain. However, he offered a ray of hope in his belief in the
human power of transformation.
Local, biodynamic, raw, live, green. Yes, organic foods are fine way to reduce your carbon footprint, but they can also guide you on your spiritual course. Keeping a yogic path at mealtime means you are causing the least amount of harm to other species, harm that comes around to visit you one way or another via karma. If contorting your body into unusual positions for an hour every morning isn’t appealing, you can always spiritualize your fridge.
David Life, Co-founder of Jivamuki Yoga and all-around spiritual guru, has some tips. Pranavores unite.
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