I'm a retired philosophy professor at Centre College. My last book was Posthumanity-Thinking Philosophically about the Future (Rowman & Littlefield, 2004). I am an anti-capitalist. OpEd News Member for 784 week(s) and 3 day(s) 124 Articles, 1 Quick Links, 215 Comments, 0 Diaries, 0 Polls
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Wednesday, January 25, 2017
The contradiction in Democrats' identity politics The Democratic Party in the Obama era thought it could emphasize identity politics while ignoring class politics (economic inequality). However, racist (or sexist or homophobic) laws and customs are social evils for the same reason as policies favoring the wealthy.They violate the commitment to equal rights and equal dignity that is essential to a healthy democracy.Identity politics without class politics is a contradiction.
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Monday, January 2, 2017
Impunity for the elite and solitary confinement for the poor: the spectrum of American injustice If ordinary persons, especially poor ones, commit even a minor crime, our legal system inflicts harsh punishments. But prosecution and prison are now seen as inappropriate for the elite.Among the worst excesses of our penal system is solitary confinement, a form of torture endured by over 80,000 American prisoners today. What happened to Candie Hailey at Rikers Island is a sickening example of what our society has become.
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Monday, November 28, 2016
Will we normalize a morally unfit President? Do we owe Trump"respect" as head of state? Does this racist, misogynist liar respect us, the American people? As a birther for 5 years, he has urged disrespect for President Obama. His narcissistic, juvenile image of women as having value only as objects of his sexual appetite amounts to disrespect for half of the American people. The incessant lies and contradictions in his statements and tweets amount to fake speech.
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Tuesday, November 1, 2016
Sensation in an artificial hand: another step toward our posthuman future Research in biotechnology is directed toward restoring normal functioning. There is too little attention paid to the ways in which this rapidly developing technology will enable us not only to restore, but also to enhance our bodies and their capabilities (physical and cognitive). The latest announcement about creating cutaneous sensation in prosthetic arms and hands is an example. We need more reflection on these implications
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Wednesday, October 5, 2016
Is capitalism inherently anti-democratic? Competitive markets create winners. We have the biggest market of all. Federal and state election campaigns cost lots of money, which big market winners give to those who will enact their agenda at the expense of everyone else. Result: plutocracy. Does it have to be this way? What about the Nordic states with their vibrant market economies? To call them capitalist misses a fundamental difference between them and us.
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Sunday, September 11, 2016
"Free-trade" agreements promote a capitalist world government TPP and TTIP are part of a continuing effort by international corporations to impose a global economic system that weakens the ability of national governments to look out for public goods such as health, education and the environment.The fact that Democratic President Obama is leading this effort shows that in America today, there is one plutocratic Party, with two branches vying to serve one corporate agenda.
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Monday, August 8, 2016
Fiddling while the Doomsday Clock ticks The start of the Doomsday Clock signaled a new era in human history: one in which humans had acquired the power to destroy their planet but lacked the wisdom and institutions that would make its use unlikely. American politics puts the Earth at risk of either overheating or lapsing into a nuclear winter of extinction.
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Monday, June 20, 2016
The election we could have had Sanders took on the neoliberalism peddled by both parties but with different packaging. The GOP wraps it in nativism, jingoism and anti-intellectualism. Democrats coat it with liberal-identity politics, and minimal social programs as scraps from the tables of the rich. The billionaire class will tolerate either package, as long as their status and power are not threatened by a clean election and the prospect of redistribution.
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Monday, May 16, 2016
From Palin to Trump--the GOP's degradation of American politics When Palin endorsed Trump, we were reminded of what would have happened if (then) 71-year old John McCain had won in 2008 and then died or became incapacitated in office: a dangerously unfit person would have become President. In 2016, however, the party's base chugged the kool-aid by putting a Palinesque nominee at the top of its ticket. Why must the GOP base be lured by vulgarity and misogyny?
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Monday, April 4, 2016
Bernie's huge "single issue" is a big threat to Hillary Sanders has shown that it is possible to fund a national campaign without the corrupting influence of big corporate donations. This has embarrassed Hillary Clinton. She wants to distract us from her reliance on big money from Wall Street, the health-care industry and fossil-fuel firms. Her dodge is to rhetorically shrink the Sanders campaign to a tunnel-vision focus on only o0ne of many important issues. But it doesn't work.
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Tuesday, March 15, 2016
Bernie Sanders vs the Clinton-Obama establishment With the election of Reagan, the GOP became implacably anti-union and anti-government (except for military spending). Under the leadership of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama,the Democrats have become the party of socially liberal members of the One (or .1 or .01) Percent. Sanders opposes Hillary Clinton because she promises more of the same. He is up against the tectonic rightward shift of American politics since Reagan.
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Saturday, January 30, 2016
Obama's drone war is immoral and counter-productive The Obama administration is deceiving the American people when it claims its drone strikes are surgically precise and effective, making the US safer by "targeted killing" of terrorists with minimal collateral damage. It is killing hundreds of civilians, including children. It terrorizes entire communities with constant overhead cruising by drones, an arrogant display of power that helps recruit ever more terrorists.
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Friday, January 1, 2016
Get out of Afghanistan! The Afghan Taliban now holds more territory than in any year since 2001. Obama's decision to keep 9,800 troops in Afghanistan to prevent it from being used as a "safe haven for terrorists" is dishonest nonsense. There is no vital American interest in seeking a "lasting political settlement" between the Taliban and the corrupt and incompetent Kabul regime. We need to admit failure and get out now.
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Saturday, November 14, 2015
Danish 'socialism' is good for business Republicans claims that a government big enough to support a robust safety net is a threat to our freedom and prosperity. Bernie Sanders' self-imposed label of "democratic socialist" and his praise for Denmark are a gift to the GOP, allowing it to invoke images of a Soviet-style economy and overbearing government. However, the real Denmark has BOTH a thriving free-market capitalist economy and generous social programs.
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Thursday, October 15, 2015
Lessons from the Syrian inferno In responding to Syria's humanitarian disaster, the U.S. needs to abandon the arrogant fantasy that it can destroy an established government and create from scratch a replacement regime to its liking. It should be willing to cooperate with Russia and Iran both to defeat ISIS and other jihadists, and to manage a transition that would include the Syrian regime. The alternative is further bloodshed and chaos.
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Tuesday, September 1, 2015
Climate Change: Has "stupid" become a GOP brand? The stupidity Jindal warned about is not low intelligence or IQ, but rather the choice not to use what intelligence and knowledge we have. It is willful stupidity.One of its most dangerous manifestations is climate change denialism. The U.S. military's grown-up thinking about global warming contrasts with the GOP's attempt to discourage any preparation for the threats posed by global warming. Consider Miami Beach's flooding.
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Monday, July 20, 2015
Factory farms and Republican labor policy Factory farms treat animals as pure commodities--objects to produce and sell, not as subjects with perceptions and feelings. How much deprivation or pain these animals endure is simply irrelevant unless it affects profits. This ruthless calculus is the capitalist value system unchecked by moral or other values. No decent person should want a society's managers or rulers to apply such a calculus to any animal, incl. humans.
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Tuesday, June 16, 2015
The hypocrisy of the U.S. indictments of FIFA officials Despite the righteous tone of Attorney General Loretta Lynch's announcement of the indictments of FIFA officials, the Obama administration has tolerated Wall Street corruption on a massive scale. The harm done by corrupt FIFA officials pales in comparison to the economic and social cost of the financial crisis caused by reckless Wall Street criminals who have gone unpunished.
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Friday, April 24, 2015
Can we empathize with social robots? The accelerating computer revolution is not just about rapid growth in the raw calculating power of machines. It has lately gone in a new direction that challenges the popular belief that even the most intelligent machine is merely that--a thing rather than a person. How could a future human with neural prostheses and other synthetic body parts (e.g. hips or knees) reject the very idea of a robotic self?
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Monday, March 16, 2015
Evolution and the clash of fundamentalisms The fundamentalist syndrome includes rigid adherence to a set of basic beliefs and passionate rejection of whatever challenges them. These beliefs define a community and create a sharp distinction between believers and outsiders. The nemesis of Christian fundamentalism is science fundamentalism--the claim that science is the only source of truth about the world. The former distorts faith and the latter misrepresents science. |