by beth | Oct 18, 2026 | Politics
Asabiyyah: The Hidden Engine of Community Survival Peter Turchin extended a concept first developed by the 14th-century Arab polymath Ibn Khaldun. The term Khaldun used is asabiyyah, which Turchin adopts in his work on cliodynamics. At its core, asabiyyah represents...
by beth | Oct 17, 2026 | Uncategorized
Tainter’s Theory of Complexity and Collapse Joseph Tainter has developed a theory of why civilizations collapse. He describes this idea in a book entitled The Collapse of Complex Societies. Very briefly, human societies continuously adapt to solve emergent...
by beth | Oct 16, 2026 | Uncategorized
The Cynicism Trap: Why Thinking the Worst Doesn’t Make You Smarter I read an article in The Washington Post on cynicism, entitled “Cynical people are often seen as smarter. Here’s why that may not be true.” When exploring why that stereotype isn’t...
by beth | Sep 29, 2026 | France
I visited the Citadel of Besacon in September 2026. [The Frence has the c with a tail in the name, but I’ve ignored that here. It’s pronounced “buh-zahn-sohn”] You might ask what is a citadel and how does it differ from a castle. You might ask google,...
by beth | Sep 1, 2026 | France
I was in Auxerre, so I went to the cathedral. I take pictures of a lot of churches, because they are interesting to look at and there are a lot of them. The cathedrals are especially amazing. This particular one is named for Saint Stephen and is in Auxerre,...
