The US justice system was founded on a principle of “innocent until proven guilty.”  This was imperfectly enforced but generally held and even improved over the years.  Recently, things have taken a darker turn.  “Show trials”, very common in the Stalinist era in Russia, have made their way into American life.   These show trials may happen on college campuses, maybe through the media, or maybe even in the judicial system.  The point is to humiliate and destroy your opponent in a show trial, not to seek justice.  
 
The world has always been a dangerous place, to varying degrees, and even now modern life comes with risks. It pays to be careful because danger is still there. One lack of insurance, one tragic miscalculation, one day of bad judgement, one un-pc word in the wrong place, or being too wrapped up with the wrong person can lead to a lifetime of regret.   Boundaries are important, I’ve learned this the hard way.  My favorite writer, Nassim Taleb says that being successful in any endeavor is largely about taking small risks and avoiding ruin. Major risks are there in the form of people you encounter too.  Some people are hell – bent on causing trouble. It’s better as Taleb says in his book by the same name, to become “Antifragile.” Who controls your life?  Are you anti-fragile?  The people you can’t criticize are the people who have power over you.  Set healthy boundaries.  
 
There are negative, and destructive, and yes even evil people out there.  
They hate you for who you are.
They don’t want you to succeed.
They take joy in your pain.
They are petty, bitter, manipulative, and narcissistic. 
They are jealous.  
They don’t want to cooperate, they want to suck the life out of you.  
 
I don’t care who you are, there are people in you encounter in life who you should avoid.  These people really exist, especially now.  
 
We live in an ideological age. As Russell Kirk says “ideology is political religion.” Ideology blinds people to reason and ties them to tribal instincts and emotions.  Ideology is driven by pure emotion and communicates with rhetoric (emotional communication) not dialectic (logic).
 
Are you in, or are you out? 
 
Certain cultural influences in the US are pushing a type of monomind ideology and this way of being and thinking has infected the culture like a meme- a sociological virus. It’s so invasive that it’s become what the Italian theorist Gramcy called “common sense.” Dr. Frank Furedi of the University of Kent has brilliantly written about this quite a bit too, on the culture of fear, fear-mongering, and the “call-out” bullies in the culture of offense.  People are afraid, and for good reason. There are people out there looking to get you, especially if you work or are dependent upon a large bureaucratic organization.  If you have a family to support, it’s even more perilous.  
 
So why does it matter to you?
 
Some people you just need to avoid. They can make your life a living hell.
 
Don’t be paranoid but be real. Set boundaries.  Some people are toxic.  Spend time only with people who want the best for you and who celebrate your accomplishments.   
 
People consumed by ideology are not interested in a debate or discussion. At best, they want to call names and attack people, at worst they want to lie, cheat, and ruin people’s’ lives, possibly even through physical harm. 
 
Ideologues, sociopaths, and emotional vampires may be a small minority of the population but they’re out there. Avoid them at all costs.
 
Avoid them at work, in your personal life, and in public. If possible, don’t allow them into your organizations. Ideologies are pathologies to the host. They must be avoided or removed from the host or they will suck the life out of it. Their power play is manipulative. They pose as victims and appeal to the host’s sense of decency and goodwill. Beware. 
 
Don’t argue, don’t explain, don’t apologize.  You more than likely did nothing wrong.  
 
If you’re stuck with them at work, avoid them or nod along as best you can when they start rehearsing their memes and empty platitudes. When topics come up and you can sense a trap, then gracefully bow out.  Don’t ever be alone with them and document all your communication. 
 
Some people you just need to avoid. 

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Read Next: My Super Simple Philosophy 
 

What is Postmodernism?
 
Everyone should know what postmodernism is, because we live in a postmodern world.  
 
The premodern world was tribal, communal, and all individuals were embedded in a cultural situation.  
 
The modern world saw the onset of individualism and utopianism (anything is possible and humanity can be perfected), which led to many pathological ideologies like fascism, communism, and eugenics.  
 
People in the modern world believed that they could create a type of heaven on earth, a utopia.  Some people in our current postmodern world still have premodern and modern beliefs and systems of thinking, but the culture we live in is predominately postmodern.  
 
If I had to sum up postmodernism, I would characterize it with this simple phrase:
 
Nothing is true and nothing means anything.    
 
We have all been conditioned to think this way, whether we realize it or not.
 
Postmodernism also has these characteristics:
 

• Epistemological and moral relativism- This basically means that nothing is true, or better, either in values, morals, or even in science, denying the existence of truth in any realm.
• Pluralism- coexistence.  
• Irreverence– complete commitment to ironic distance, and profane (anti-sacred) ways of living.  
• Self-Referentiality– every person is his own god and judge of what is right and wrong. 

 
At first glance, this postmodernism doesn’t look too bad in some ways, in that it appears to be laisse faire- live and let live, especially the pluralism.  It would be more acceptable if it really were this way.  The problem with postmodernism is that instead of a true and tolerant plurality developing, it often makes it impossible to build agreement and it fragments the social world, as people retreat into various camps.  Postmodern people have not changed human nature, they have only retreated into tribes and into increasing social isolation.  This is one reason conflict has increased so much politically in the US.  
 
Postmodernism is leading to a conflict in the US between cultural forces and anti-cultural forces, which don’t cut clearly down any one political line, and which many people are not even aware is happening. 

The end of history will be a very sad time. The struggle for recognition, the willingness to risk one’s life for a purely abstract goal, the worldwide struggle that called forth daring, courage, imagination, and idealism, will be replaced by economic calculation, the endless solving of technical problems, environmental concerns, and the satisfaction of sophisticated consumer demands. In the post-historical period there will be neither art nor philosophy, just the perpetual catering of the museum of human history. 
 
– Francis Fukayama, The End of History
 
The quote above by Francis Fukayama in his famous book, The End of History, is telling.  Many naïve people believed that with limitless diversions, humans would drift into a postmodern bliss of tolerance and freedom, thus “ending history”.  The opposite is happening, as the world is beginning to be made anew, with a slow re-enchantment of pious devotions to things bigger than the self, and a gnashing for meaning.  
 
Many people don’t want to live meaningless, masturbatory lives.  They want to care about things, that make life worth living. Postmodernism is the embodiment of a doomed system, a faulty way of looking at the world.  It is an anti-culture that doesn’t support human life, and like a 3-legged table with enough weight it will collapse.   Real people make real cultures, so an anti-culture cannot last over the long haul. Any true culture must confront an anti-culture, by its very nature.  
 
Perhaps in the future, every one of us postmodern people will come to the table again and start to discuss what is good, true, and beautiful and then discuss how to proceed accordingly.  And make a new and healthy culture by keeping the best of the old ways, and reforming the rest.  If we don’t the future may not be happy and free.  Awareness is a good first step. 

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Most people who like to read can name a writer that has made a profound impact on them.  I'd like to hear about yours.  

One that comes to mind for me, who I have quoted quite a bit, is Roger Scruton.  

He has had a significant influence on me because for years I tried to fit together the pieces of the puzzle on some seemingly contradictory things:

• The US and UK are two of the wealthiest countries in the world.
• The US and UK are billed as the most "modern" and "progressive" in the world.
• The US and UK have the highest rates of mental illness in the world.
• The US and UK are the most individualistic, alienating, and atomized modern places in the world.
• There is a connection between culture and mental health.
• Scruton writes about love of home and about making a place in the world, and how this is necessary for a healthy society, including mental health.
• His work invokes many themes- art, science, music, architecture, sports, religion, sex, family, agriculture, philosophy, friendship, and politics.  
• All of these subjects are connected, just as all subjects are connected.

These are some quotes I wrote down from a series of essays I read of his, in a book format called "The Roger Scruton Reader." Enjoy:

10 Quotes from One of My Favorite Writers, Roger Scruton
 
“Without tradition, originality cannot exist: for it is only against a tradition that it becomes perceivable.  Tradition and originality are 2 components of a single process, whereby the individual makes himself known through his membership in the historical group.”
 
“There is an iron law of domination. Society requires organization and organization breeds control.”
 
(On modernity) “We are emphasizing the contract, but disregarding the membership.”
 
“We can, at any moment, turn away from desecration and ask ourselves instead what inspires us and what we should revere…We can turn our attention to things we love- the woods and streams of our native country, friends, and family, the ‘starry heavens above’ – and ask ourselves what they tell us about our lives on earth, and how that life should be lived.  And then we can look on the world of art, poetry, and music and know that there is a real difference between the sacrireligious, with which we are alone and troubled, and the beautiful with which we are in company and at home.”
 
“Aesthetic judgement matters, that it is not merely a subjective opinion…And, so it seemed to me, the aesthetics of modernism, with its denial of the past, its vandalization of the landscape and townscape, and its attempt to purge the world of history, was also a denial of community, home, and settlement.  Modernism in architecture was an attempt to remake the world as though it contained nothing save atomic individuals, disinfected of the past, and living like ants within their metallic and functional shells.”
 
“Real freedom, concrete freedom, the freedom that can actually be defined, claimed, and granted, was not the opposite of obedience but its other side.  The abstract, unreal freedom of the liberal intellect was really nothing more than childish disobedience, amplified into anarchy.” (commenting on the French riots of 1968 of which he was an observer)
 
“It was to observe, to know, to understand. And so I acquired the consciousness of death and dying, without which the world cannon be loved for what it is.”
 
“We should aim, not for a world without power, but for a world where power is peacefully exercised and where conflicts are resolved according to a conception of justice acceptable to those engaged in them.”
 
“Freedom consists, not in the absence of domination, but in the presence of a domination congenial to those contained by it.”
 
“To speak of coercion where there is need is to render freedom unobtainable.”
 
Philosophy isn't for everyone, but if you like reading about the intersection of everything, I recommend his work.

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Read Next: Walking is Meditation 
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I’ve identified what I think is the most prominent health concern in America.  I've written about it quite a lot in the last few years, mainly because I've lived it. It’s not cholesterol, BMI, or organic foods.  It’s not related to medicine, insurance, or doctors or hospitals.  Not that those things don’t matter.  The issue is a little bigger and deeper and even harder to solve than that.  It’s even related to all those issues, but it transcends them and involves crime, mental health, and physical activity levels and much, much more.  
 
It isn’t always easy and I’m sure many won’t sign up for the task, but I’ve come to believe that one thing we need to do is to make a home in the world.  Every epoch seems to offer its challenges- war, famine, conflict, change, or something else like infectious disease.  For example, more people died of the flu epidemic in the early 20thCentury than in all of World War I, which was by far the deadliest war ever.  
 
Most of human history’s primary challenge and focus was survival, because those needs were pressing and immediate.  This made compromise necessary so that the young could have enough to eat, shelter, and security.  Social arrangements now seen as harsh, repressive, and confining were at their very basic level about surviving, in that every person needed to do what the group expected so that the group would survive.  
 
So, a code was in place in pre-modern times for what people were expected to do for the survival of the collective.  What was rational was what helped the group survive.  People did mostly what they were supposed to do- sacrifice themselves for the group to live on.  In the past, home was a given, and if you survived you probably had a home by default. 
 
For many reasons- economic growth and technological growth and change being the two primary ones, modernity has a different problem.  We’re lucky. Survival is a given in our world. No one is starving in the USA, or without a roof.  We’re going to all survive from things like this.  But home is not a given in the modern age.  As a matter of fact, home is quaint, laughable, and sentimental to many, a thing of the past. To many more it’s something worth seeking and loving, but also hard to find.  It’s just the nature of the beast.  And a lack of home has a big impact on health.
 
Forces of modernity push us away from home.  Better jobs, unlimited choices, diversions, entertainments, sprawl, unlimited hobbies, and unlimited places beckon.  The exit ramps are always there.  My grandpa was a farmer, part-time.  He didn’t really have any hobbies, or a lot of options, but he did live a very good life. His generation was the last grounded generation in America, then came the baby boomers.  
 
The hipster, appropriating various other cultures but existing in none himself, and afraid to attach himself to anything, even a sports team, is the mascot for the modern world.  For many moderns, even if they aren’t hipsters, they can relate to this detached feeling.  We don’t necessarily hate, but we don’t love either.  We’re nice, usually.  But we don’t really care like we should.  And we know it.  We don’t feel embedded in a community.  Sporting events, some of which I attend personally, are one place we go to be alone together.  As are movies, the museum, or the shopping center.   Crowds and crowds of people, mostly all strangers engaged in banal activities.  Usually this is fine, but sometimes it isn’t.  We all still crave home.  And for many with less talent and less resources, the modern world can be particularly harsh and alienating.   
 
I love Walker Percy’s writing and his concept of the ‘sacrament of the ordinary’ as a path to take to deal with what Percy himself called “the malaise”.  The malaise for Percy was two divergent downfalls of humanity, both of which were distinct to modernity, and opposed to making a home in the world.  One is a human life (whether rich or poor) so consumed by materialismthat the human person is thrown back on nothing but his body and the will’s temporary needs, whether for food, sex, diversion, or material gain.   This person is the addict, the hedonist, the pleasure-seeker, checking out every chance possible, the attractive young female attention seeker on Instagram, as well as the Ivy League, BMW- driving country club golf course executive rushing from one fancy dinner to one meeting to one vacation repeatedly.  These to Percy, envy though they could be at opposite ends of the socioeconomic ladder, are exactly like each other in their complete oblivion to the transcendent, to eternal things.  None is a neighbor, none is a friend to the community.  None is a true citizen.  None has truly made a home in the world because both are caught up in daily distractions.  
 
The other extreme is the detached, represented by Percy in “The Moviegoer” (the title and main character of his Pulitzer prize winning novel), above it all, trapped in their head and objectivism, so removed, so far above it all (and at times smug and condescending) that they don’t engage in anything related to home either.  Just like the distracted, simpleton, and visceral pleasure-seekers, they haven’t made a home in the world, but theirs is the opposite path.  He or she goes to the other extreme and checks out in a different way, but the result is the same- the avoidance of all attachment to anything meaningful, especially home. If the materialist is flying too low for home, the detached is flying too high.  
 
Most of us can see glimpses of both caricatures in the way we are pushed to live, to consume, or on the other hand to distance ourselves from it all, rejecting meaningful but hard connections.  One day we want to escape in our books, our thoughts, our privacy, and the next day we want to just experience carnal pleasure and stop thinking beyond that instant gratification.   At some point though, the reality of what makes for a healthy life catches up with us. We all need a home, both physical and at the same time transcendent.  We need a daily home to live in and a home to go to.  We need to make a home, somewhere between the two unhealthy extremes.  And that takes work.  
 
Some things are eternal. Home is where meet each other eye to eye and face to face.  I like the Hebrew word “Shalom” when it comes to home, which means something like peace- and / or harmony, wholeness, completeness, prosperity, hello, and goodbye. As the Jewish theologian, Martin Buber taught it is “I and Thou”, Not I-I, or I-It, or It-It.  Home forces us to deal with the eternal things about life that never change- love, loss, other people and all their flaws and ours, disappointment, and boredom.  The eternal is real and we need it, and one way or another we will meet it.  Home is about covenant relationships, about the physical world, and about the fact that our work should be ordered properly to the eternal things.  We all should make a home in the world. 
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