Category Archives: society & culture

Ghost Stories

Posted on October 25, 2022 by midiguru

No, I’m not going to tell you how to write a story with ghosts in it. What interests me are the ghostly ideas that drift, unexamined or even unnoticed, across the pages of even the most realistic fiction. I don’t … Continue reading →

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Heretics R Us

Posted on October 22, 2022 by midiguru

In 325 A.D., the emperor Constantine arranged a conference among the Roman world’s Christian bishops. Accounts vary, but about 300 bishops traveled from near and far to the city of Nicaea, in what is now Turkey. Constantine paid for their … Continue reading →

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Slinging Bullshit

Posted on September 3, 2022 by midiguru

Tonight on Facebook one of my friends posted some images of a thread about how a Harry Potter game has some implied anti-Jewish bigotry in it. I haven’t seen the game, but the description made it seem pretty bad. So … Continue reading →

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Get It Right, and Get It Written

Posted on August 2, 2022 by midiguru

I’ve written two novels that are historical mysteries. One of them is unpublished, and I’ll probably never get around to revising it, because it has problems. The other, While Caesar Sang of Hercules, I think worked pretty well. You can … Continue reading →

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Game Night!

Posted on July 26, 2022 by midiguru

We’re living in a sort of Golden Age of board games. When you say “board games,” many people surely think you mean Monopoly and Scrabble, or possibly checkers. But modern board games have advanced miles past those dusty classics. Today’s … Continue reading →

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White Light

Posted on July 22, 2022 by midiguru

I won’t pretend to be comfortable with the idea of identity politics and “centering marginalized voices.” I would prefer to look at how things are now for individuals rather than agonize over past wrongs done to large groups. But I … Continue reading →

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I vs. We

Posted on July 22, 2022 by midiguru

Classical liberalism is the belief that the individual is, or ought to be, autonomous. “Liberal” means “free.” Liberals believe that, wherever possible, the individual ought to be free to make [his/her/their] own decisions and choose [his/her/their] own actions. As an … Continue reading →

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Micro What?

Posted on July 21, 2022 by midiguru

As I read The Rise of Victimhood Culture (good book, I recommend it), I’m thinking again about the concept of microaggressions. Is there such a thing? If so, how would we distinguish microaggressions from simple bad manners? One point that’s … Continue reading →

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Freedom’s Just Another Word…

Posted on July 20, 2022 by midiguru

I have no idea who Dave Chappelle is. He could be a Marxist or a member of the KKK. And I don’t think it matters. A friend posted a statement on Facebook today that he copied from something called First … Continue reading →

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The Mind Parasites

Posted on June 29, 2022 by midiguru

Religion is a mind parasite. Yes, your religion too. Like other parasites, this one is subject to the normal processes of evolution. We tend to think of evolution strictly in terms of DNA, but DNA is not required. All that’s … Continue reading →

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