Month: February 2022

For years I’ve argued that Pilate, the Roman governor of ancient Judea, is the prototype of contemporary thought.

During his interrogation of Jesus at trial, the prisoner declares, “Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my Voice.” In response, Pilate utters these (in)famous words, “What is truth?”

Like Pilate, we tend to blanch at the word “truth.” For one thing, it betrays unwarranted confidence. It’s too definitive, too black and white. It’s not inclusive enough. It might offend. “Your” truth and “my” truth necessarily differ. Besides, to assume such a level of understanding – that objective truth might exist – seems, well, arrogant.

No, we must avoid “epistemic closure,” that intellectual cul-de-sac of closed-mindedness that prevents us from being open to new ideas and new discoveries. Ideologically, it’s like being frozen in amber.

Continue reading “Virtual Reality”

When I was a kid, we often would travel to Pennsylvania during summer vacation. The reason is that my father’s ancestors had immigrated to Philadelphia in 1721, settling eventually near Reading. Generations lived in the area. And though my father was born in New York City and grew up mostly in Philadelphia, his mother’s sisters still lived in Bethlehem.

One of the things I remember most vividly about those trips was the lush green cornfields that seemed to stretch endlessly into the distance. It was quite a change from suburban Connecticut.

But the most extraordinary sight, hands down, had to be the Amish. We’d see them riding along the side of the road in their black horse-drawn buggies, impervious to the rush of traffic which, or so I imagined, zoomed around them with no small amount of annoyance, if not imperiousness.

How strange they looked, the men with long beards, suspenders, and large straw hats and the women in flowing dresses, mostly black, with white embroidered headdresses and matching white aprons tied around front. It seemed like a different planet.

Continue reading “East of Eden (Part II)”

Believe it or not, the photo above depicts not a fictional Hollywood supervillain but the real Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chair of the World Economic Forum, which meets, famously, every winter in the tony alpine resort village of Davos, Switzerland.

The gathering draws the world’s richest and most powerful elites – tech oligarchs, billionaires, media titans, celebrities, top corporate executives, heads of state, royalty, high governmental officials, central bankers, and representatives from prominent international non-governmental organizations (NGOs), including but not limited to the United Nations and the World Health Organization. The Pope has even been known to get into the act!

The days-long event also clogs up the local airport with carbon-spewing private jets, this despite the WEF’s constant apocalyptic harping about “climate change”!

Continue reading “Creepy”