The internet has facilitated an explosion of information. Unfortunately, the information literacy skills of most information consumers have not kept pace. Amidst all the noise online, effectively determining what is true or false requires conscious, deliberate, and thoughtful effort. These days anyone who adopts a belief or makes a claim based on information they have … Read more
In the early days of the Internet there was a great deal of optimism. In a 2010 survey of technology leaders, 85% agreed that the “social benefits of internet use will far outweigh the negatives over the next decade.” Eleven years later, it has become clear just how naïve those opinions were. Anonymity The fatal … Read more
A newborn baby is extremely selfish. We lovingly forgive them of this character flaw because they are completely vulnerable. We understand that their demands are simply an attempt to bring their world back into balance. They are trying to survive the only way they know how. No one is born with good character; It’s not … Read more
But it is not given that one man should possess that which is above another, wherefore the world lieth in sin. Doctrine and Covenants 49:20 This scripture is very specific about the current imbalance of wealth in America and the world. First it says “it is not given.” This means that God did not set … Read more
Too many Americans still believe the story they were taught in school about our government: the “two-party system,” “free and fair elections,” and “consent of the governed.” If you still believe this fairy tale, you haven’t been paying attention to what has happened to the Republican party in recent decades. To use a common metaphor, … Read more
Last week I encouraged all Mormon Democrats and other left-leaning members of the Church of Jesus Christ to stand as witnesses against the lies, inhumane policies, and corruption of the Republican Party and the right-wing media. (See “Mormon Democrats need to stand as witnesses“). To “stand” in this context does not mean rising to one’s … Read more
What is the ethical and moral responsibility of a person who sees and understands the truth when others do not? What if those who do not see the truth criticize and ridicule the one who does? What if the blind ones actively persecute the one who sees? Knowing the truth Joseph Smith had this problem … Read more
In his 1962 book, Capitalism and Freedom, Nobel Prize-winning (1976) economist Milton Friedman (1912-2006) expressed an optimistic vision of commercial exchange that emphasized the idea that both sides could win and that such exchanges were essentially civil. The possibility of co-ordination through voluntary co-operation, rests on the elementary—yet frequently denied—proposition that both parties to an … Read more