The Handmaid’s Tale has been much talked about ever since the famous novel became a miniseries on Hulu. Like any good dystopian story, the novel wasn’t meant to ask “what if” about the future so much as “how so” about the present. Dystopian stories warn us of what might happen tomorrow. Great dystopian stories plumb deeper, asking what it is about us now that could bring us there.
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The “Moving the Goalposts” Fallacy
Don’t you hate it when a friend agrees to a set of rules in a game and then complains about them? They try to claim they actually won by weaseling their way out of the contractually agreed-upon rules?
This is a logical fallacy in argument known as moving the goalposts. This fallacy is commonly considered a version of the special pleading fallacy. After a claim is shown to be false, an attempt at making a special exception is made. Continue reading
5 Reasons Why Trade Sanctions are Bad Foreign Policy
So, you hear a lot about sanctions when countries are at odds with one another. You’ve probably heard some about it recently too. A sanction is one country, attempting to penalize another country, places trade restrictions on that country. This also includes imposing tariffs and “freezing” another country’s assets. These sanctions amount to a nation holding hostage another nation’s ability to trade.
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New Short Story Published in The Common
A Week of Being Out of Touch with America
This week, if we learned anything about America, it’s that we have a country out of touch with itself.
This past week, Pepsi tried a commercial in which a high fructose carbonated soda can bring the entire country together by solving racial differences. How? By reinforcing racial stereotypes.
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Reading Flannery O’Connor’s “The Displaced Person”: Part III
Part III—Jesus was just another dirty Refugee
In the third act of Flannery O’Connor’s short story, having stood on the assumption that none of the world’s miseries are her responsibility, Mrs. McIntyre justifies her own lack of care for those in her care, rejecting the call of the Gospel. Expecting her employees to be grateful to work for her, she hypocritically fails to embrace gratefulness. Like someone who only reads half of the creation account, she wants to be a master without being a caretaker. The world revolves around her.
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Reading Flannery O’Connor’s “The Displaced Person”: Part II
Part II—All the Colorful, Useless Peafowl
[Read part I here]
In part two of O’Connor’s story, Mrs. Shortley has left the farm and Mrs. McIntyre is left with the displaced Pole and her black workers. We’re given more insight into her character through her conversations with the older farmhand, Astor. While Astor remembers well her husband, the Judge, Mrs. McIntyre is haunted by her late husband. Astor has noticed two things: The decline of the peacocks and the incline of Mrs. McIntyre’s greed.
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Reading Flannery O’Connor’s “The Displaced Person”: Part I
For fans of Flannery O’Connor, “The Displaced Person” is a a short story that occupies a special place, not only because it exhibits her love for peacocks, but because of its more overt religious themes. The story takes place on a farm, the inciting incident being the hiring of a “displaced person” (or refugee) from Poland. O’Connor, a devout Catholic, is one of America’s most famous writers, known for her southern stories of grotesque people encountering beautiful grace.
5 Questions for Mike Rugnetta about the Genesis Creation Story
I’ve followed and appreciated from “day 1” what Crash Course has done to educate people. Anyone with neutral net access can get entertaining, thought-provoking introductions to various subjects, getting a quick survey of topics.
The downside, of course, is that these speedy courses can reduce or misrepresent complex and nuanced understandings of the world.
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Forsythia: A Poem
Forsythia
I walked my dog about the day
After a mild snow melting
The pavement soaked by
The gushing of swollen
Grasses saturated and dark
Littered with chunks of snow.
The air was fresh and crisp
My flannel sleeves rolled up
And beside the damp Bradford pears
Broke the yellow forsythia blooming
the first of bushes of the spring
In these rusty Virginia hills.
CALEB COY 