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The Sanctity of Human Life vs. the Sanctity of Conscious Life: A Durkheimian Perspective

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  The recently leaked Supreme Court draft to overturn the 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision has caused a political uproar because the court’s leaning is not in alignment with the opinions of most Americans. A recent poll from Pew Research shows that only about 10% of Americans are anti-abortion hardliners, and that the vast majority of the country has nuanced views on this issue. The pluralistic view is to seek compromise and avoid coercive measures that force one’s own beliefs onto the rest of the population. With the abortion issue, the common ground could be increased access to birth control since studies have shown that this will significantly reduce the number of abortions. But the fact that sacred moral values are nonnegotiable makes it difficult to have this conversation. This is a moral conflict between opposing groups. There is the sanctity of human life for the anti-abortionists (and some that are morally opposed to abortion but still pro-choice because of additional counterba
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Climate Wickedness Informs Climate Solutions

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Many of us are concerned or even alarmed over climate change. On the surface, mitigating climate change doesn’t seem like it should be that complicated. All we have to do is transition off of fossil fuels, and we could do that with the technology we have right now. But once we start trying to actually do it, it becomes apparent that not everyone is motivated to support these changes. To some, the solutions seem to be worse than the problem. This is what makes climate change a “wicked problem”. Climate scientist Michael Mann doesn’t like to apply the term wicked problem to climate change because it can be interpreted that the problem is unsolvable and create a sense of hopelessness that would inhibit action. Other words like denial , which is the natural human state but is often interpreted as an insult, or uncertain, which is often interpreted as being synonymous with unsure , run into the same problem. It’s like the Ministry of Truth from Orwell’s 1984 is decimating the language we
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A review of "Don't Look Up" and what we should take away from it

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    Don't Look Up was an amazing movie with amazing characters! It's an extended metaphor about science denial that uses the situation of an imminent comet impact. While the film is very direct in its approach, there are also subtle messages embedded in the story.     ( Spoiler Alert : watch the movie first before reading ahead if you plan on seeing it.)     One of the most important messages was that of building political will. President Orlean was initially more concerned with the midterm elections than addressing the comet and blew off the scientists. As Kate later explains to the audience, the president changes her tone as soon as a scandal makes taking action on the comet politically advantageous.     This is the way our actual political system is structured. Politicians are acting rationally when they take actions that improve their poll numbers and avoid taking risks that could potentially drop their approval ratings. There isn't much room for integrity in poli
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Location: New York, NY, USA
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Let's start working together to stop gun violence

Mass shootings are in the news every few months, and this justifiably sets off a gamut of emotions in the mainstream media and on social media. The gun issue isn’t a perfect split between the two dominant ideological subcultures in the United States, but it comes close. Both sides typically condemn the mass shootings, but they fight over where the fault lies and how to prevent the next one. When issues become contaminated with social meaning, rational arguments take a back seat to group identity. The following is my attempt to distill this issue down to general principles in order to make sense of it. We all want to stop mass shootings from happening, so let’s understand each other, have empathy for one another, and figure out how to work together on this. The emotional response to guns makes sense in terms of the Harvard psychologist Dan Gilbert’s (not the owner of the Cavs) Personal, Abrupt, Immoral, and Now (PAIN) model. It’s personal; guns are used by other people with intent to
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