0
POPSLiberty redefined Our democracy requires us to maintain a balance between cooperation with others and self reliance ( between society and individualism). I agree with this letter-writer that we had gone much too far in the direction of narrow self-interest. We had forgotten there was such a thing as altruism.
6
POPSBig Oil's Charm Offensive The money grabbers are putting on masks of altruism, hoping we won’t notice their pockets bulging with our dollars – and hoping we won't demand that Congress take away the billions of dollars they get each year in tax subsidies. Oil company image ads aren't fooling anyone. Their attempts to appear touchie-feelie are as hopeless as hanging an air freshener on the tail of a hog. Couldn't have said it better myself. By the way, notice how the gas prices fell after people stopped consumming so much gas. Let's keep this in mind when prices start going up again. It truly is all about supply and demand.
12
POPSE.O. Wilson Returns to the Hive With Superorganism Tome Group evolution meant that altruism and self-sacrifice — i.e., morality — might be as much a part of our genetic heritage as hair and eye color.Many prominent biologists, led by Richard Dawkins, author of The Selfish Gene, said no, there was no such thing as a superorganism: Evolution worked on the genes of self-serving individuals only, not groups.
3
POPSDoes Religion Make People Nicer? In small hunter-gatherer bands or subsistence farming villages, it's pretty easy to keep track of just how cooperative your neighbors are. But when groups grow to encompass thousands and eventually millions of strangers, a Big-Brother-in-the-Sky can watch how your fellow citizens behave when you can't. And even better, Sky Big Brother can punish them with eternal damnation if they swindle you. One big downside is that groups have different Sky Big Brothers, which means that "the same mechanisms involved in ingroup altruism may also facilitate outgroup antagonism." In other words, kill the infidels!
4
POPSThe U.S. Needs to Open Up to the World It's better for everybody to have a stake in society than to have a resentful underclass bent on wrecking things. To many Americans, this sounds like socialism, big government, the nanny state. But so what? The result is: Europe has less gun crime and homicide, less poverty and arguably a higher quality of life than the U.S., which makes a lot of us wonder why America doesn't want some of what we've got. America as a gated community won't work, because not even the world's sole superpower can build walls high enough to shield itself from the intertwined realities of the 21st century. There's a better form of security: reconnect with the rest of the world, don't shut it out; stop making enemies and start making friends. Perhaps it's asking a lot to expect America to act differently from all the other empires in history, but wasn't that the original idea?
7
POPSSocial welfare programs do not keep a country from prosperity
The Nordic states have also worked to keep social expenditures compatible with an open, competitive, market-based economic system. Tax rates on capital are relatively low. Labor market policies pay low-skilled and otherwise difficult-to-employ individuals to work in the service sector, in key quality-of-life areas such as child care, health, and support for the elderly and disabled. The results for the households at the bottom of the income distribution are astoundingly good, especially in contrast to...American social policy. The U.S. spends less than almost all rich countries on social services for the poor and disabled, and it gets what it pays for: the highest poverty rate among the rich countries and an exploding prison population. Actually, by shunning public spending on health, the U.S. gets much less than it pays for, because its dependence on private health care has led to a ramshackle system that yields mediocre results at very high costs.
1
POPSOIL-SUDAN-DARFUR Undermining China's Influence, under the very valid mask of Human Rights. Two sided sword. Watch out what we support and for what reason. US under Bush does not seem to be the truthful leader of Human Rights. GTMO-ABU GRAIB- ETC
6
POPSAre Meerkats Naturally Altruistic?
For centuries, there's been a debate over whether true altruism exists among humans. Helping others at our detriment is risky behavior, evolutionarily speaking. Say you're overcome with an urge to give your last piece of bread to someone else. The other person eats, but you don't. Ultimately, after enough of these selfless acts, you'll starve and die, and your dangerous habit of helping others should die along with you. In the animal kingdom, altruism poses an equally prickly problem to explain. Why some animals exhibit generosity is a real mystery to biologists. It's not like they're thinking about the tax write-off they can get by donating money. Meerkats have one of the most cooperative societies in the animal kingdom. These African desert dwellers are perfect subjects for an investigation into altruism. For one, they live in a harsh habitat, quite a long way from easy street. Danger lurks around every corner because they sit at the bottom of the food chain.
19
POPSHow a simple mathematic formula is starting to explain the bizarre prevalence of altruism in society This new mathematic model for society’s evolution is particularly interesting because not only it reveals a logic behind the large numbers of cooperators that we know exist in all human societies, but also it gives us a glimpse of the principles that can help “pushing” them into a better, fairer, path. Evolutionary game theory is a mathematical approach used to study (and predict) the evolution of social interactions, in which the study of conflict and decision-making is treated – like its name indicates – as a game.
19
POPSThe Tyranny of Niceness Related to passive-aggression as a cultural descriptor rather than an individual pathology. Fear of authority, chronic anger, bitterness, and the masochistic self-disempowerment of submission (see Fromm).
1
POPSWithout your help they have no hope. 75% of all bone marrow donations do NOT require a general anaesthetic. So says 26 year old Adrian Sudbury in his Baldy's Blog. His leukaemia has just returned. If you are aged between 18 and 49 you can help. There's a video on the site showing how easy it is. If you can give blood you can sign up and help save lives.
2
POPSThe Psychological Causes of Political Madness it does not celebrate the ethics of consent or the blessings of voluntary cooperation. It does not advocate moral rectitude or understand the critical role of morality in human relating. The liberal agenda does not comprehend an identity of competence, appreciate its importance, or analyze the developmental conditions and social institutions that promote its achievement. The liberal agenda does not understand or recognize personal sovereignty or impose strict limits on coercion by the state. It does not celebrate the genuine altruism of private charity. It does not learn history’s lessons on the evils of collectivism. What the liberal mind is passionate about is a world filled with pity, sorrow, neediness, misfortune, poverty, suspicion, mistrust, anger, exploitation, discrimination, victimization, alienation and injustice.
6
POPSPraise or cash? Your brain doesn't care. If compliments don't work try flattery. Cash as a last resort. Praise is a lot more economical, and often a lot more productive. The main complication - anyone can pay cash, paying compliments can be a fine art.
8
POPS18 Unconvincing Arguments for God A student asked what would convince me that God exists? I named a few miracles that would at least convince me that something supernatural exists. But the question stuck in my mind and I naturally began to think of what wouldn’t convince me. Thus, if the goal of these students was to evangelize an atheist, it seemed perfectly appropriate that I give them a list of what wouldn’t work, so they could creatively come up with some new arguments, as their class title suggests. I meant this to be educational and in no way condescending, and that is how I hope the students perceive my presentation.
4
POPSChoosiness & Cooperativeness Historically Linked This is an scientific abstract from a research group who is studying the effect of choosing to be associated with people who cooperate and the ways that this cooperation can encourage others to choose them. It's too bad that Nature magazine couldn't have been more COOPERATIVE and released this research a free article, then more of us would have access to it and could CHOOSE to learn more about Nature and its parent organization. Hmm! Maybe that is the point the staff at Nature is choosing not to cooperate with the "great unwashed", so we will not choose to cooperate or even try to learn more about them. Maybe they fear the loss of their exclusivity?
2
Pops
Newest Clips
Latest Comments
Most Pops
Print
Save
Turn on live update