Earl R. Smith II's Blog, page 33
May 30, 2019
Anti-culture, counterculture and the search for an alternative reality
Earl R. Smith II, PhD Chief@Dr-Smith.info Dr-Smith.info There is a rising interest amongst much of the population in finding an alternative to the cold, bureaucratic, and mechanized world that Liberalism has brought about. Books like the Benedict Option by Rod Dreher are beginning to attract more attention. The Singaporean experiment with something called Confucian Communitarianism,…
May 29, 2019
It’s Community that Made Humans Successful
Earl R. Smith II, PhD Chief@Dr-Smith.info Dr-Smith.info One of the pillars of Liberalism is the individual freed from any non-selected associations. But, more and more, we are discovering the dark side of individualism. In the past when our ancestors faced predators or major challenges, they worked together to survive and overcome. They formed communities for…
May 24, 2019
Your Value as a Human
Earl R. Smith II, PhD Chief@Dr-Smith.info Dr-Smith.info A major trend in American society, and indeed more broadly across developed societies, during the last decades of the 20th century was the commodification and monetization of everything. Two trends advanced this process. The first was mass production which commoditized virtually everything. Your uniqueness was shared by hundreds…
May 4, 2019
A Devil’s Bargain?
Chief@Dr-Smith.info Dr-Smith.info An article in the Atlantic titled When Your Amazon Purchase Explodes, (https://www.theatlantic.com/technolog...) describes how shoddily made lithium-ion batteries purchased through and shipped by Amazon are exploding/catching fire. They can cause serious injury and even death. The article asks the question: “How do they keep ending up in consumers’ hands?” The article tells of…
April 26, 2019
Some Things Mister Huxley Said
Chief@Dr-Smith.info Dr-Smith.info Sometimes, with great thinkers, it’s useful to look past their principal thesis and consider some of the ancillary observations they’ve left behind. In 1932 Aldous Huxley published Brave New World. In it he describes a world of genetically modified, chemically domesticated citizens and a society based on an intellectual hierarchy. Science, according to…
April 14, 2019
Medicare for All
Chief@Dr-Smith.info Dr-Smith.info Billionaires with Cadillac health coverage are telling you that the US cannot afford Medicare for all. In a recent opinion piece for CNN, Dean Baker debunks that absurd contention. “Medicare for All” (https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/01/opinio...) is not a fantasy lays out in detail the experiences of other countries with universal healthcare. It’s time that we…
April 5, 2019
Is one impact of Liberalism the erosion of a sense of community?
One of the principal criticisms of Liberalism is that it has resulted in the disintegration of local communities and substituted for them manifestations of the dominance of the market and monetization. Ray Oldenburg puts it this way: “If the small town and its urban extension, the neighborhood, nurture an “interest in people and their infinite…
April 4, 2019
After Liberalism
As the Liberalism of Adam Smith and John Locke enters its terminal phase, it is important to look forward to what will replace it. I believe that such replacement will have to give more weight to the community than the individual. It will have to emphasize responsibilities rather than rights. There must evolve a better…
March 23, 2019
The Times They Are A-Changin’
Chief@Dr-Smith.info Dr-Smith.info In 1964 Bob Dylan released an album. The title song, he said, was meant to be “an anthem of change for the moment”. For those of us who came of age during the 60s, the song resonated. But, as I reread the lyrics, I find that the song was apocryphal in ways that…
March 22, 2019
Union Membership & Income Distribution
Chief@Dr-Smith.info Dr-Smith.info The country seems at the beginning of a substantial rethinking of the policies that have guided American society since the end of the FDR administration. The old maxim that, “they who ignore history, are doomed to repeated it” seems to be increasingly relevant. More and more, Americans are looking back on the decades…
