Laurence Mesirow
I am a writer who has been concerned about the effects of modern technology on human living environments and human behavior for many years.
How Technology Is Becoming More Interesting Than Ideas
My Saturday morning entrepreneur group has been an ongoing theme in this column. And this is very simply because so many of the situations that unfold at its meetings are extremely relevant to my...
Robots here! Robots there! Robots everywhere!
As modern technology invades more and more areas of our daily lives, we are increasingly surrounded by more and more layers of mediated experience. All the layers of screen reality: movies, television, video games,...
Perfection For Eternity And In The Moment
Perfection is that to which we aspire in many of the phenomena in our lives, whether they be objects, activities, processes, interactions, relationships or atmospheres. It is that which makes something flawless and complete. ...
What Is Really Being Cancelled Out With Cancel Culture
The notion of cancel culture refers to the boycotting or shunning of someone whose behavior or speech is deemed in some way objectionable or controversial. The boycotting or shunning can damage a person’s reputation...
Recreation, Work, Meditation, And Feeling Human
Recreation refers to those activities that we do for enjoyment and that don’t relate to making a living. Ideally, recreation helps us to relax or helps us to express strong passionate enthusiastic feelings. Either...
The Different Purposes of Our Daily Purposes
A purpose is the place where we are going when we try to finish our little daily tasks, our larger life schemes, and our still larger personal evolution. It is the end point that...
How Symbols Interpret The World For Humans
A symbol is something that represents something else. A symbol can be a mark, a sign, a number, an icon, an actual material thing, a plant, an animal or a human being. Various animals...
Trying To Maintain Some Natural Life In Modern Technological Society
Frequently in this column, I have talked about a dichotomy between traditional societies and modern societies. Traditional societies is a grab-bag term, an all-encompassing term which I use to describe everything from preliterate tribes...
Is Polarization The Only Way We Have To Feel Alive Today?
In many ways, American society seems more contentious and more divided than it has been in a long time. In politics, the long-simmering conflict between Democrats and Republicans that started under President Reagan is...
Abolishing Police Departments, Abolishing Communities
If ever there was a blatant case of throwing the baby out with the bath water, it’s in the movement in the U.S. to defund or even abolish police departments. There is no question...