Take your dreams seriously. This means taking some action on your dream, almost every day. If your dream is capable of being realized, then you’ll see the progress that springs from action. If your dream is not possible to actualize, … Continue reading
Category: Daily Dose of Reason
Competition
Competition can absolutely be rational. I applaud the value of team sports, both for players and spectators. It’s an optional value, but definitely an objective value in life. People can compete for unhealthy or healthy reasons. You won’t likely know … Continue reading
Magical Thinking Can’t Make Someone Think
One form of “magical thinking” is the false belief that someone can “be stopped” from a self-destructive or self-defeating course. The magical thinking starts with the belief, “I should be able to stop him/her.” What follows is, “If I cannot … Continue reading
Government Is Not Your Friend
I read that banks are finding new ways to pass on costs to customers. Examples include higher annual fees on credit cards, elimination of “rewards” programs and the elimination of grace periods for late payments, even one-day grace periods. These … Continue reading
The Variable that Psychiatry Forgot
In less enlightened times, people assumed that mental and emotional distress — severe anxiety and depression, for example — had no cause, other than maybe supernatural. Today, it’s assumed that these are totally caused by brain chemistry. But has it … Continue reading
Self-Esteem is for Thinkers
The disappearance of certain sayings from our culture provides some insight as to why there’s so much wrong in the world today. One of these sayings is: Say what you mean and mean what you say. Basically, this refers to … Continue reading
A Loser Even If He Wins
I’m reading a lot about the Great Depression these days. One thing I read is that President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the socialist/fascist of his time (as Obama and company are today), stayed popular even though the economy did not improve … Continue reading
Rewriting History
Sometimes people rewrite history. They do so after the end of a marriage, romantic relationship or friendship. Rewriting history, in the sense I’m talking about, means altering the facts to suit your new conclusions. It means leaving your own errors … Continue reading
Whose Side Are You On, Obama?
There are two aspects to fighting terrorism. One is police enforcement, and the other is foreign policy. The Bush administration could, at least, handle the police enforcement aspect. They could not handle foreign policy because they chose to appease, rather … Continue reading
The Unnamed Provider
Other people are not entitled to your time; nor are you entitled to theirs. If someone purchases your time, then they’re entitled because you gave your voluntary consent to provide some of your time for that purpose. This applies to … Continue reading
Mother
Someone recently asked me about controlling mothers — in other words, why are so many that way? There can be many causes, but the most likely one is a false belief (on the part of the mother) that a parent … Continue reading
Insanity, Contd.
It has been said that insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, while still expecting different results. If this is true, so is something else: Insanity is thinking the same things over and over again, expecting different … Continue reading