What motivates this blog post is the quote from King George III above, which appeared on one of my Pinterest boards: Dobson’s Improbable Quote of the Day for June 4. It had a lot of resonance for me: while George III said it aloud, a lot of people — including me — feel that way, at least from time […]
History and Society
You’re Not Being Reasonable!
I’m embarrassed to admit that I’ve gotten myself into way too many online arguments about politics and religion over the years (though I have gotten better), and I’m not happy with either my own behavior or others. All the cognitive biases (see my encyclopedia in Random Jottings 6) are on display, and hardly anyone actually […]
The Three Americas
Abdul Aziz Al Saud, first monarch of Saudi Arabia, wanted his nation’s borders based not on geography, but on the migration of tribes. The British High Commissioner, Sir Percy Cox, lost his temper and started yelling, but Ibn Saud had a good point: a nation is not necessarily the same thing as a state. A […]