I was recently in a meeting that included someone who moved here from outside the United States.  He and his wife had been here about 10 years.  At the end of our meeting as we were talking about various issues, he made an interesting observation.  He said “it has been curious for us to see that Americans seem to always need an enemy.”  Of course, many Americans I know would cheerfully say, “Then get out!” I thought it was an insight worth thinking about.  Not only do we always seem to need an enemy, it seems that at times if … Continue reading Enemies and What to Do With Them

Without the internet, there would be no Justin Bieber, no way to spread our urban legends so quickly, and no way to keep up with the Kardashian-ization of civilization.  Wednesday Yahoo news had among its usual stories a new turn on the “Man bites dog” archetype.  “Man is accidentally shot by his own dog.” Apparently, a 46 year old man in Brigham City, Utah “got a behind-full of birdshot courtesy of his loyal canine companion when he was out duck hunting over the weekend.”  He and the dog were traveling in a boat and the man stepped into a marsh … Continue reading Dog Shoots Man–and so it begins

A recent Huffington Post tweet cited a Wall Street Journal article that listed the eleven college majors with the highest levels of unemployment at present.   The list includes several fields of psychology, history, miscellaneous fine arts, military technology, library science, linguistics and comparative literature, and computer management and security.  What are we to make of this?  Are we, when push comes to shove, a society of people who consider mental health a luxury, prefer our books unshelved, our literature uncompared and operate on the internet without updating our McAfee subscription?  Are  we doomed to repeat the lessons of history and … Continue reading The Right Stuff for Finding a Job–What Should I Major In?