Critical Thinking: Credence and Veracity
Critical Thinking and Policy Development and Analysis introduced the concepts of credence and veracity and said they were two sides of the same coin. The coin’s value depends on its credence and veracity. The figure above aligns credence with…
Critical Thinking: Correlation, Causation, and Control
During the fall, I like to step on acorn shells and crack them. There is a satisfying crunch sound that helps to break the monotony of several miles on the neighborhood trails. I understand it is a silly thing…
Faustian Bargain Part 3: Beyond the Bargain to a Sustainable Compassionate Conservatism
This is a three-part series on developing the concept of compassionate conservativism to develop effective policies and solutions that address the problems of poverty and its threat to sustainable liberty and prosperity. Both the left and the right entered Faustian…
Operant Conditioning, Path Dependency and Societal Revolution, Part 3
Source: Discovering Neptune So how do dark philosophers (see Part 2) propagate the dark gospel and create the changes they seek? On the surface, if we only look at the racial aspects, we may reach some misleading and even harmful…
Reconstructing History, Part 6: Culture, History, and the Future
Culture is a difficult topic. For some, any discussion of culture, especially looking at them objectively for the results they produce, is a third rail. I discussed this at length in Part 5—Does Culture Matter? of the Maskirovka series. Part…
Reconstructing History, Part 5: The Education Institution and Creating History
Before we get too far into this discussion, let us look at the concept of “institution”. From an academic perspective, Ostrom and North provide two complementary definitions. Elinor Ostrom, in her path-breaking book, Governing the Commons: The Evolution of…
Part 5—Cutting the Puppet Masters’ Strings
Abstract: Critical thinking and mindfulness are the two-fold path to citizen resiliency and independence from media induced memes. “A lie doesn’t become truth, wrong doesn’t become right and evil doesn’t become good just because it’s accepted by a majority.” —…
Part 1: Political Movements—Maskirovka and Words Hide Meanings
Abstract: Do words and terms matter? Can political groups hide their agendas in nice sound bites in a game of maskirovka? Maskirovka 2.0 is a continuation of the old military approach, to which we must add new whole of-government tools,…
Operant Conditioning, Path Dependency and Societal Revolution, Part 2
As in Part 1 of this series, first a disclaimer. I am of the philosophical line in the discussion below. I think we should teach and be models of virtue because it is right and good and not because…
Standards, Cultural Relativism, and Broken Windows
This blog builds on the prior blogs Virtue: religion and philosophy, what does the founders’ vision embrace? and Virtue and Pandora’s Box: Effective Policy. Pandora’s Box discussed the damage some Victorian virtue policies wrought, but said the social justice movement’s…
