1,190 words
The most interesting thing about the writers of TOQ isn’t why we write, but why we came to write from the perspective that we have. Wanting to express oneself in print isn’t that rare. High IQ people have their journals and books while even the less intelligent have MySpace. (more…)
2,003 words
Jonathan Safran Foer
Eating Animals
New York: Little, Brown and Company 2009
Why do we behave morally? There’s reciprocity and looking out for our genes. For many (most, I hope) of us there’s a natural dislike of cruelty. We try not to be responsible for any extra suffering in the world. Humans also desire approval from others and usually being a scoundrel isn’t good for your reputation.
2,292 words
B. R. Myers
The Cleanest Race: How North Koreans See Themselves and Why It Matters
Brooklyn: Melville House, 2010
It’s always seemed to me that if human beings were naturally more inclined to buy into a blood based nationalism than some kind of universalistic ideology than this would be strong evidence that racial loyalty had a genetic basis. (more…)
