Jason A. Merchey's Blog, page 7
July 12, 2022
What Can Values & Virtues Do in Dark Times?
Someone recently asked me what my "main take-away" is, my most distilled version of my message. In other words, what am I thinking about when it comes to Values of the Wise, my 2022 book on wisdom, considering the state of the world, and based on all the readings I'm doing these days.
What follows is a concise encapsulation of what is on my mind and in my heart when I think about personal growth, and what psychology and philosophy mean to me:
The post What Can Values & Virtues Do in Dark Times? appeared first on Values of the Wise.
July 6, 2022
Abortion Rights (and Wrongs)
Abortion is one of the hot topics du jour—unfortunately one of ten or twenty that are now crowding each other for center stage. Indeed, America is riddled with social problems and plagued by a tearing of the social fabric that holds this heterogeneous and highly class-based country together. Though gun violence, the vast Right-wing conspiracy to subvert democracy in 2020-2022, and economic troubles do prey on my mind, I think abortion is quite relevant to values—and therefore it concerns me here on this blog.
Indeed, abortion is all about values: First and foremost, the right a woman has to control her own body (autonomy, or privacy, or freedom, or equality, perhaps).
Secondly, the so-called rights of the unborn child.
The post Abortion Rights (and Wrongs) appeared first on Values of the Wise.
July 3, 2022
Social Justice on This July Fourth Holiday
This is one of the hardest starts I have had writing a blog – and usually they just pour out of me. I think it is because the present topic is very disturbing to me as a Jew, a liberal, a person who is fairly educated. I also have feelings of hatred inside me, and that is uncomfortable and hard to deal with – obviously, I don't want to vomit a screed of ill-conceived hatred onto your screen. At any rate, I will try to share some of my feelings and a few thoughts as well!
The topic: what has become of almost half the population of the United States, vis-a-vis social justice, racism, privilege, demagoguery, and authoritarianism.
The post Social Justice on This July Fourth Holiday appeared first on Values of the Wise.
June 30, 2022
The Republican Party is a Clear and Present Danger
Things keep coming across my desk that strike the same note of fear and anger: the skullduggery, chicanery, and corruption the modern Republican Party is engaging in is a clear and present danger to the fabric of American society. We must not take this lightly, be cowed into silence, or shrink from this grave danger. Obviously, no one has to agree with my take on vigilance, patriotism, or decency—or any other value, political stance, or threat assessment—but I believe it is imperative that we stay cognizant of just how extreme, dangerous, and self-aggrandizing this broken Republican Party is.
The post The Republican Party is a Clear and Present Danger appeared first on Values of the Wise.
June 25, 2022
Dignity as an Antidote to Partisanship and Economic Despair
E. J. Dionne of the Washington Post suggested (a while ago now) that dignity is an antidote to partisanship and economic despair, and can be the best way to defeat Trumpism, which is now (2022) a scourge on the Republic. Dionne indicates that dignity is the urgent need in the United States now. His 2020 book is indeed titled: Code Red: How Moderates and Progressives Can Unite to Save Our Country. Dionne has been an intelligent voice in politics for decades, so I would like to explore this idea a bit in this blog. Ideally, it leads to less tribalism, despair, anger, and gloom that has cast a pall over America as of late.....
The post Dignity as an Antidote to Partisanship and Economic Despair appeared first on Values of the Wise.
June 21, 2022
A Time of Unprecedented Tribalism in America….
Now is a time of heightened threat, trouble, tribulation, and tumult for America.
We are beset by anxiety, risk, lack of clarity, fear, and in-fighting.
I really worry that we are facing a panoply of dangerous (and often self-created) problems!
Can we rise to the occasion, or will we crumble in the face of myriad threats and internal vulnerabilities? Will we listen to "our better angels," as Lincoln put it? Or tear ourselves apart as we did in the Civil War?
The post A Time of Unprecedented Tribalism in America…. appeared first on Values of the Wise.
June 17, 2022
Wisdom: From Whence Does it Come?
Yikes! Controversial and possibly incendiary topic alert! It's won't be that bad. Here is the reason for the title: I published a book of quotations about values and wisdom in 2003. It must have had 1,000-1,500 quotes, just one after another, based on the value the quote represented (e.g., truth, justice, wisdom, passion, etc). No one had any problem with the Emersons, MLKs, John F. Ks, or Helen Kellers, but one person did not like my use of a quote by Hitler. He was Jewish, I imagine, and found the book unpalatable. He wrote me back with something along the lines of: "There is no way I could endorse a book that features a quote by Hitler." So the questions arise: What is the purpose of wisdom? Could Hitler possibly have hit upon a vein of gold in his otherwise dank and unproductive mine of ideas? Was the professor wise, or foolish? How do we know when someone is imparting wisdom, or dropping a load of bull?
The post Wisdom: From Whence Does it Come? appeared first on Values of the Wise.
June 14, 2022
Dealing with the Challenges and Pain of Life
Wisdom is a complex topic. If you look it up in the dictionary, you will get a paper-thin definition—correct perhaps, in as far as it goes. What I tried to do in my 2022 book on the subject is to go beyond mere definition to metaphorically painting a picture of the phenomenon. In this blog, I will get into one aspect of wisdom: what I might term an efficient perception of how the world works, what humans are like, and how we can best cope with the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,” as Shakespeare put the vicissitudes and the turbulence we each face in life. This is existentialism; personal growth; the development of the self.
The post Dealing with the Challenges and Pain of Life appeared first on Values of the Wise.
June 11, 2022
What is the Nature of Human Nature?
Conventional wisdom says that human beings are selfish, tribalistic, violent, greedy, and so on. There is plenty of evidence for this when one looks at the sordid, dark history of humankind. We are talking of course about human nature—what people are and how we tend to behave as a whole, by and large, over time.
This blog explores the nature of human nature.
The post What is the Nature of Human Nature? appeared first on Values of the Wise.
June 7, 2022
Managing and Integrating Emotion is a Part of Wisdom
This blog offers some high points from the second chapter of the book Wisdom: A Very Valuable Virtue That Cannot Be Bought (2022). The chapter involves managing and integrating emotion, emotional intelligence, integrating emotion with intellect, using both halves of the brain (figuratively, more than literally)—all in an effort to be wiser and live with more self-control, happiness, and satisfaction.
The post Managing and Integrating Emotion is a Part of Wisdom appeared first on Values of the Wise.
