In my latest Epoch Times column I warn against chasing trends in fashion, food or public policy.
“remember that neither scientists nor laymen learn to see the world piecemeal or item by item. Except when all the conceptual and manipulative categories are prepared in advance – e.g., for the discovery of an additional transuranic element or for catching sight of a new house – both scientists and laymen sort out whole areas together from the flux of experience. The child who transfers the word ‘mama’ from all humans to all females to his mother is not just learning what ‘mama’ means or who his mother is. Simultaneously he is learning some of the differences between males and females as well as something about the ways in which all but one female will behave toward him. His reactions, expectations, and beliefs – indeed comma much of his perceived world – change accordingly.”
Thomas S. Kuhn The Structure of Scientific Revolutions: 50th Anniversary Edition
“But though Kidd knew a great deal about Sir Claude – a great deal more, in fact, than there was to know…”
G.K. Chesterton “The Strange Crime of John Boulnois” in The Wisdom of Father Brown https://gutenberg.ca/ebooks/chestertongk-wisdomoffatherbrown/chestertongk-wisdomoffatherbrown-00-h.html
In my latest Epoch Times column I unearth and reprint a set of principles I outlined when the 21st century was young and fresh to guide is through an uncertain future, and claim that I have been largely vindicated. I also challenge my fellow pundits to do likewise (and scoff at politicians’ forecasts) because I say you should listen to the person who gets it right not the one who offers soothing but inaccurate platitudes.
In my latest Epoch Times column I discuss the odd way that people’s views on COVID, climate and Ukraine tend to align… and the validity and limits of the connection.
In my latest Loonie Politics column, and just in time for him to become the butt of endless memes over his absurdly inflated biographical claims, I ask how Mark Carney could be seen as the Liberal party’s saviour then turn out to be so preposterously awful a candidate.
“We are incessantly told that past periods were very bad; and I cheerfully agree that they must have been most horribly bad, if they were really worse than the period we are asked to praise.”
G.K. Chesterton in G.K.’s Weekly January 18, 1930 quoted in “Chesterton for Today” in Gilbert: The Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 27 #3 (Jan.-Feb. 2024)
“A society is in decay, final or transitional, when common sense has really become very uncommon. Straightforward ideas appear strange and unfamiliar, and any thought that does not follow the conventional curve or twist, is supposed to be a sort of joke.”
G.K. Chesterton in G.K.’s Weekly November 2, 1933 quoted in “Chesterton for Today” in Gilbert! The Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 27 #4 (March/April 2024)