Humanity began its conquest of nature with the invention of agriculture (ok probably earlier than that but agriculture being the cause of everything bad in the world is part of my whole shtick!). The predictable surpluses that farming produced meant that agricultural communities grew faster than their free counterparts. Being locked to the same piece of land meant the strong knew where to find the weak. Warlords naturally emerged. Agriculture and the state are deeply intertwined. [Read More]

“Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times.” - G. Michael Hopf [Read More]

Something I’ve been thinking a lot about recently is the distinction between beliefs and actions. If you’re anything like me, you likely spend a lot of time in your own head. You intellectualize everything. You might even get the idea that you have a coherent political philosophy and that it matters what that political philosophy is. At least, that’s what I do and that’s how I think. [Read More]

Sustainability isn’t sustainable. It implies that the goal of environmental work is to insure a balance between human greed and the health of the biosphere that is similar to the present, only extended indefinitely into the future. The current status quo is unbearable. Sustainable design optimizes human systems to have as small of an impact on the surrounding environment as possible. This approach to re-designing institutions ignores that human systems are and will be deeply embedded in... [Read More]

COVID-19 has claimed the lives of 120,000 Americans (probably an underestimate) since it arrived in the US in January. The murder of George Floyd by a cop last month sparked protests against racial injustice, along with riots, across the world. More than 40 million Americans are unemployed as the country enters the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. Clashes between the Indian and Chinese Armies lead to 20 Indian deaths. All of this has happened since... [Read More]

I love walking. I live in downtown Houston, which is one of the few places in this car dominated city where you can conceivably walk to get everything you need. The street grid is city blocks are short and the streets are one way, so I can ramble around wherever I want while avoiding cars pretty easily. [Read More]

Hurricanes are eminently physical. You can literally feel the air change as they get closer. Typically the few days before a hurricane hits are extremely hot. The clouds turn a strange orange color. Then, the first fronts of the storm come. It starts to rain, constantly. In the beginning the rain is like a normal thunderstorm, albeit a bit more windy. You can here an occasional clap of thunder, but nothing crazy. As the hurricane continues to... [Read More]