29 Apr, 2022
Recently, I noticed a question from The Well, a collaboration between Big Think and the John Templeton Foundation. In my view, their question was wrong as it contained an implicit answer: What's our responsibility towards the next generation? The neutral version of the question is the one in my title above. I believe in stewardship (in Dutch: rentmeesterschap)....
28 Apr, 2022
Allegedly, Putin was convinced that his invading army would be welcomed with flowers by Ukrainian citizens (eg, DailyMail, Yahoo News). Perhaps, some people wanted him to believe that nonsense - deliberately. Some people argue that Putin already lost the war on day 1, like historian Yuval Noah Harari in the Guardian. Why continue something (eg, a war) that you...
22 Mar, 2022
Some people believe in sanctions. Others argue sanctions don't work and hit the wrong people. What are the alternatives to sanctions? Essentially, sanctions are punishment for bad behaviour. Hence, there's an analogy with parents (or schools) raising children: (1) reward, (2) punish, or (3) do nothing (a.k.a. condone). Bad behaviour by children triggers various...
13 Jan, 2022
Last weekend, I asked her whether she was self-sabotaging us. She said no. I asked if she was sure about that. She started doubting but still declined. I recall that I was self-sabotaging in my past and I thought that I recognised that behaviour in her. It doesn't really matter anymore as the damage is beyond repair. In my view, self-sabotaging is a conflict between...
1 Dec, 2021
Recently, I noticed a quote stating that "The opposite of love is not hate; it’s indifference." This quote is often attributed to Elie Wiesel. Quote Investigator (QI) found an "earliest close match in [] “The Beloved Ego: Foundations of the New Study of the Psyche” by prominent Austrian psychologist Wilhelm Stekel". "There is no love without hate; and there is no...
11 Nov, 2021
In his 1742/1768 poem, Thomas Gray wrote two famous last lines: “[..] where ignorance is bliss, ‘tis folly to be wise”. The old English word "folly" means foolish; bliss is "a state of complete happiness or joy". My blog’s title is a paraphrase of those two lines. Small human problems often arise from misunderstandings and/or wrong assumptions. Both can be solved...
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