Free Course: Eliminate Your Inner “Nice Guy” and Pass Girl’s Secret Tests

Is Social Media Taking Over Your Life?

Posted June 29, 2017

It is easy to lose yourself in social media without realizing it. If you feel sometimes that your life consists entirely of going from Facebook to Whatapp to SnapChat to Twitter, you are not alone. Millions of people, young and old, feel the same. It is wrong to say that all human relationships have become

The Pleasure Of Hating

Posted June 23, 2017

There is no end of commentary on the venom and vitriol that is so characteristic of contemporary politics. Though history shows that current American politics remain tame compared to the unhinged fury of 19th century brand, the civility industry is always primed to express umbrage at what it perceives as the latest “new low” or

Your Money In Britain—After The Election

Posted June 9, 2017

Tired, hungry, shocked, exuberant—this describes my general condition as I write this. Nearly every commentator and pollster, with the exception of YouGov and Survation, called it wrong. Far from a landslide Tory victory and a devastating Labour defeat, we awoke this morning to the loss of the government’s majority and a resurgence of the party

How To Become A World-Class Wit

Posted June 2, 2017

It has occurred to me lately that there is an abundance of comedy, a great deal of snark, a surfeit of indignation, and an endless mine of hate in the public sphere. But there is very little wit; more specifically, there is a conspicuous absence of the Wit as a public personage. I feel this

Is Friendliness Possible With All Your Political Opposites?

Posted June 1, 2017

This may be one of the most pressing questions of our time. Some weeks ago I wrote about hypocrisy and the forces that push us toward it. That article was concerned mostly with being true to your feelings about certain views held by an autonomous mass of people; a thing not difficult to do in

Why You Should Think Like Plato—Sometimes

Posted May 26, 2017

The Greek philosopher Plato was a native of Athens. Born in 427 B.C.E, he was of distinguished aristocratic lineage on both his mother’s and father’s side. He came of age during a time of extraordinary change and crisis in Athens. The Mediterranean empire that the city-state had established in the middle part of the 5th

3 Leadership Lessons From The Roman Emperor Julian

Posted May 18, 2017

The Roman Emperor Julian, also known as Julian the Apostate, was born in 330 C.E. He was the nephew of Constantine the Great, the first emperor to be baptized into the Christian faith (the actual baptism occurring just before his death). Julian’s was a time of great change and transformation in Rome. Diocletian had in

Reasons For Alarm And For Calm

Posted May 12, 2017

It has been one of those weeks in political news that is impossible to ignore. Donald Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey set off a wave of mostly negative opinion against him. Even the most conservative of columnists and bloggers have voiced alarm at the sudden and inexplicable sacking of the country’s top law

Why We Are Looking More Alike—And What It Means

Posted May 11, 2017

I spent the Easter weekend in Oxford, England. Before leaving, I took the opportunity to visit the Natural History Museum that is attached to the town’s world-famous university. It contained an impressive exhibition on evolution. There was much I already knew, but a few things I didn’t. The most intriguing fact I learned concerned the

The Trouble With Happiness

Posted May 5, 2017

I was walking down the street the other day when I was assailed by two Mormon missionaries. “What makes you happy?” one of the young women asked. The question was posed as an introduction to what I knew would be an attempt to evangelize the merits of her faith. I had no time at that

How To Face A World That Has No Boogeymen

Posted April 21, 2017

While on the patio of a favorite restaurant, having my wine and enjoying the rare sunshine that comes to these parts, I overheard a conversation among a group of three middle-aged men seated next to me. One of them was especially loud and quite violent in his protest against the school his daughter attended. He