Dear President Obama, The news today had several stories about meetings you held with major supporters in which you (so the news goes) indicated support for the Keystone XL pipeline. Please do not do this, and stick to your earlier opposition. Sometimes democracy fails us when the majority acts against the interests of others. We have many safeguards against the tyranny of the majority; this was a major concern that shaped the basic institutions of our government. This is just such a case. I hear you arguing that the economic benefits of jobs that will be created will out weigh… Read More
Continue ReadingScore One for Flourishing
David Brooks has a good [column](http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/02/opinion/brooks-freedom-loses-one.html?hp) today. Here’s the money quote. > The proponents of same-sex marriage used the language of equality and rights in promoting their cause, because that is the language we have floating around. But, if it wins, same-sex marriage will be a victory for the good life, which is about living in a society that induces you to narrow your choices and embrace your obligations. Brooks is rightly cutting through the current political rhetoric about rights and equality, both of which are important, to point out that flourishing (he called it the good life) requires limits… Read More
Continue ReadingDon’t Bite the Hand that Feeds You
A few weeks ago, I [responded](http://www.johnehrenfeld.com/2013/03/solutionism.html) to a NYTimes opinion piece by Evgeny Morozov on the subject of ‘solutionism.” He has published a few more on the same technological theme, the latest being an article on March 31, 2013. His current [piece](http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/31/opinion/sunday/morozov-machines-of-laughter-and-forgetting.html?partner=rss&emc=rss) criticizes technology for its tendency to support mindless actions. > . . . “Civilization,” wrote the philosopher and mathematician Alfred North Whitehead in 1911, “advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking about them.” Whitehead was writing about mathematics, but technology, with its reliance on formula and algorithms, easily fits his dictum… Read More
Continue ReadingResearch Using Crowdsourcing
I want to try an experiment and need the cooperation of those who read this blog. I have been putting together an article on the importance of getting the concept of sustainability right. If you have been following my blog for a while, you know that this is a persistent theme in my writing. Now that I am retired and working from home, I have limited access to the usual resources that frame research and analysis. To substitute for conventional literature searching, I want to try out a process analogous to crowdsourcing for financial capital. Capital for me is intellectual… Read More
Continue ReadingAn Exceptional Video
This 2-minute video was done on a high school project. It’s worth watching twice.
Continue ReadingWow! Systems Thinking Is Cool
Continuing the thread of the last post, this week’s email letter from Gil Friend’s “Natural Logic” business picks up on systems thinking and contains another quote about complexity. He writes: > One big idea:�Systems thinking. [Part 1.] > It’s trending. It’s cool. It’s not a panacea. (Hunter Lovins and I would blast a klaxon horn at our Presidio MBA students whenever they used “systems thinking” as a selling point in their pitch presentations—as though it were a self-explanatory magic bullet—instead of demonstrating how they’d actually use systems thinking to identify and deliver value that would otherwise slip through the cracks… Read More
Continue ReadingYvon Chouinard Speaks
A week or so ago, Gil Friend reported on what Yvon Chouinard said at a recent Greenbiz Forum conference. Here’s the quotes he reported: If all these companies are doing all these great sustainability things, why is the world still going to hell? It’s the obsession with growth!�Companies that have been in business for 500-1000 years focus on three priorities: quality, innovation, and controlled growth….�We’ve been growing 25-30%/year, in a recession, while other companies are hurting. We must be doing something right.�Every time we’ve done the right thing for the planet, we’ve made more money…. [Makower: It’s the hardest thing… Read More
Continue ReadingWatch This Video
I may have posted this earlier. I particularly like the first four minutes or so. I find that part of the video a good depiction of spirituality. The rest of it projects sustainability as flourishing.
Continue ReadingComments Needed or Missing
A month or so, this blog was switched to a new server, creating a flood of spam comments. Shortly thereafter, I added a spam filter to try to manage the flow. I discovered today that the filter was putting everything into the spam file, which I did not monitor carefully before trashing all the contents. So if your comments have not showed up, I apologize. I am “tweaking” the filters to find a happy medium. I would prefer a few false positives, spam getting through, to missing your comments. If you do send me comments that disappear into thin air,… Read More
Continue ReadingWe Are All Users
I am currently taking a course named after one of the texts we are using, *The New Jim Crow*, by Michelle Alexander. The main theme is the scandalous mass incarceration of young black men as a result of the “War on Drugs” policies over the past several decades. Bolstered by several Supreme Court decisions that supported police sweeps without significant grounds, the young black male population has become virtually decimated in many urban communities. They have been jailed for either drug possession or drug dealing, most often without a trial, being induced to plea bargain with prosecutors threatening draconian mandatory… Read More
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