by Guy Burgess We are, individually and collectively, falling into a complex series of mutually-reinforcing traps that are dramatically complicating efforts to deal with the COVID-19, racism and a wide range of other serious social problems. These traps, like all traps, are deceptive and easy to fall into without really…

by Guy Burgess From its earliest days, human society has been plagued by greedy individuals determined to dominate, oppress, and exploit others. Social evolution has been shaped by a continuing struggle between these individuals and the larger society that they seek to oppress. Many of history’s greatest accomplishment have been…

By Guy Burgess The five previous stories present us with an urgent question: how are we going to get through the pandemic and its associated economic collapse in our hyper-polarized time without falling into an even more destructive escalation spiral that increases hostility, undermines our problem-solving ability, and poses a…

by Guy Burgess The one book that I required my sons to read as part of their college education was John Kenneth Galbraith’s Short History of Financial Euphoria which traces the history of bubble markets and associated crashes back to the Tulip Mania of the 1600s. …

By Guy Burgess There is always a reason to hope that today’s hyper-polarized acrimony will correctly be interpreted as evidence that we have allowed things to go too far and that cooler heads ought to prevail. Unfortunately, we don’t tend to respond to threats in such conciliatory ways. Rather, we…

As bad as things are in the United States, there are, unfortunately, a lot of ways in which things could go from bad to worse. For example, if large numbers of people lose faith in the ability and willingness of law enforcement to protect them from criminal activity, they are…

By Guy Burgess A big part of what makes the United States so hyper-polarized and dysfunctional is the terrible mathematics of “mobilize the base” politics. …

By Guy Burgess Since the start of the Trump Presidency, Heidi Burgess and I have been trying to add our voices to calls for a revitalized, 21st-century democracy. This democracy would build on democracy’s past ideals, but would more effectively address the many shortcomings and inequities that are at the…

By Guy Burgess and Heidi Burgess February 14, 2020 When I think back on the things that I learned as a graduate student, there are a few big ideas that have, over the years, stood out as having done an exceptionally good job of explaining some critically important (and frequently…