Archive for the ‘philosophy’ Category
The myth of selfishness: Part 3 - A new gift economy
If society is in tune with human proclivities it works better, because people enjoy what they do. You only have to look at small boys playing “hunting”, or notice the difference between the incentives necessary to get people to sit in an office shuffling papers compared with those required to get people to dance and [...]
The myth of selfishness: Part 2 - The Rise of Capitalism
Much of this has a European focus, and I apologise for that, especially because colonialism and its devastating effect on the world are consequently not given proper attention. The focus of the article is narrow and designed as a contrast to the situation described in Part 1 - Ancient Economics. By the way, I’m no [...]
The myth of selfishness: Part 1 Ancient Economics
This article is the first in a series. I’m leading up to something and it takes quite a long time to get there, but it’s generally about my idea that people are far less self-interested than it appears.
NB:
In the following I have used the term “traditional culture” to refer to the ancient and complex social [...]
The Tao te ching
From Trace elements:
Our culture is based on control, codification, and the application of force to achieve the ends we desire. We live in a world composed of resources and subject to analysis, and we’ve reached a point where the problems inherent in this approach are becoming clear, from global warming to the greed which allows [...]
Living the decaf life…
Following a post by Robin Warner, a rant on decaf.
You see, I have a guiding principle which steers me away from decaf. It’s based on the idea that fun is temporary - nothing lasts forever and you can have too much of a good thing. So when you enjoy something, really enjoy it. Don’t be [...]
