The Nature of the Unnatural

Consider: we think of paper when made by human beings as an artificial substance – a relatively benign one, but artificial nonetheless – but when made by wasps for a nest, the paper is natural. Every building is artificial, but a beaver dam is clearly natural. A tool made by an octopus or a crow feels more “natural” than something made by a human.

Now More than Ever: On Virtue Signaling

This concept, virtue signaling, then leached out of this column written by a mid-rate British columnist like heavy metals leaching into the soil. This term has become a common accusation of people on the right against people on the left, and the general message is quite simple: why are you pretending to believe in something?

Against Enclosure: Garrett Hardin's "The Tragedy of the Commons" is a House Built on Sand

So, yesterday, I made the tremendous sacrifice of reading “The Tragedy of the Commons” by Garrett Hardin, so you don’t have to. Hardin is not the canny thinker that they believe he is, and reading the original “Tragedy of the Commons” article he published in Science on 13 December 1968 shows just how flawed his reasoning is – and how bankrupt future ideological edifices built atop it are.