![[Everyday] Psychophilosophy](https://everydaypsychophilosophy.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/cropped-10-21-16-unsquished-everydaypsychophilosophy-header.png)
The Mind of a Terrorist
There’s nothing more dangerous in this world than a humiliated man. — Kai Anderson, American Horror Story: Cult It’s hard to turn on the news these days with humans committing more and more extreme acts against one another. Whether that is explicit terrorism or a horrific mass shooting, in response to these events, we often (rightfully) feel anger. Anger, though, is often a “secondary” emotion. That is, we use anger to protect...
Sins of Science
Racism is man’s greatest threat to man–the maximum of hatred for the minimum of reason. — Abraham Heschel I am outraged by the explicit racism that transpired this weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia, and I am livid at hearing others defend it. To quote Marco Rubio: “The organizers of events which inspired and led to the Charlottesville Terrorist Attack are 100% to blame…When [an] entire movement [is] built on anger...
The Immigration Ban
Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me: I lift my lamp beside the golden door. — engraved inside The Statue of Liberty On Friday, January 27th, President Trump signed an executive order banning citizens of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen from entering the US. That includes all...
Questioning Our Beliefs
The human understanding when it has once adopted an opinion draws all things else to support and agree with it. — Sir Francis Bacon If humans could answer one question to solve the world’s problems, it would be this: How do you persuade someone to believe something other than what they do? Or so begins my free course on the psychology of persuasion. But I stand by that claim: if we could convince political parties to compromise...
Xtreme!
Perfect good sense shuns all extremity, content to couple wisdom with sobriety. — Moliere As gray as the world really is, people are seeing it more and more as black and white. Acts are either good or evil. Opinions are either right or wrong. You’re either Team Edward or Team Jacob. Is that joke too dated? You probably thought either yes or no. Although there are plenty of issues that arise from viewing the world in these...