Category Archives: society & culture

Painful Truths

Posted on October 15, 2021 by midiguru

Recently a friend posted a story about how, in an English class somewhere, the teacher was reading aloud from To Kill a Mockingbird, and how the use of the word “nigger” in a passage in the novel was painful for … Continue reading →

Posted in random musings, society & culture | 1 Comment

Music as Property

Posted on September 22, 2021 by midiguru

In most parts of the world, and in European/American culture until about 200 years ago, music was not something that could be owned. Musical traditions were freely shared among musicians. If you heard a troubadour play a particular tune, and … Continue reading →

Posted in music, society & culture | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Stop the World, I Want to Get Off…

Posted on September 19, 2021 by midiguru

The story was behind a paywall, so I didn’t read it, but the headline got me thinking. Apparently a professor in the music department at some university in England has resigned in protest at the retooling of the music curriculum … Continue reading →

Posted in music, society & culture | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Wrangling over Rights

Posted on July 9, 2021 by midiguru

Yesterday one of my Facebook friends got into an online discussion with one of his friends about abortion rights. It seemed to me that his friend was being dangerously silly. His friend posted a link to an essay that he … Continue reading →

Posted in random musings, society & culture | Tagged , | Leave a comment

In Praise of Rationalism (sort of)

Posted on June 1, 2021 by midiguru

When society is in turmoil (as it generally is), sorting out what’s really going on can be quite difficult. Various people may and probably will have very different views of an incident, a trend, or a belief system. Their ideas … Continue reading →

Posted in random musings, society & culture | Leave a comment

Theo-What?

Posted on April 30, 2021 by midiguru

Four or five years ago I decided I needed to do something to broaden what we might call my social circle — my contacts with other humans. I had had some losses during the five years before that (Owen, Kelly, … Continue reading →

Posted in random musings, religion, society & culture | Tagged , | 13 Comments

The Text

Posted on April 12, 2021 by midiguru

Interpreting words on a screen can be a fraught undertaking. I’ve found myself in a few interactions on Facebook where feelings were hurt and friendships damaged. In asking myself whether I might be to blame or need to do things … Continue reading →

Posted in fiction, random musings, society & culture, writing | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Us vs. Them

Posted on April 10, 2021 by midiguru

Group loyalty is such a basic human instinct that it’s likely to seem perfectly natural to us. We don’t even notice that an instinct is swaying our thought processes. I got to thinking about this this morning when I read … Continue reading →

Posted in random musings, society & culture | 4 Comments

Privacy in Public

Posted on April 9, 2021 by midiguru

My friend Rachel posted a cartoon on Facebook, and she was disturbed by my reaction to it. I’ll post the cartoon below, but maybe a little preamble would not be amiss. Although, since this is about gender diversity, maybe “amiss” … Continue reading →

Posted in random musings, society & culture | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Whose Lives?

Posted on April 3, 2021 by midiguru

One of my Livermore friends (naming no names) posted a truly offensive image on Facebook saying “Police Lives Matter.” I pointed out to her that this slogan is bullshit. I didn’t use the term “racist bullshit” in my reply to … Continue reading →

Posted in random musings, society & culture | Leave a comment