Politics and Society
-
Adam Smith: The Moral Dimensions of Economic Life
Personally, I am informed by both a Continental-Philosophical tradition and a communitarian Christian religious background that criticized Adam Smith as hostile to charity and a theoretical bastion of “self-interest”; it would not be a stretch to say that both modern economics and its critics have failed to connect Smith’s moral anthropology to his more famous… Continue reading
-
Contrived Individual Responsibility: the Danger of the New Conservatives
“…it is physically impossible to pick oneself up by one’s own bootstraps…” Continue reading
-
The Human Person and History in the Age of Mass Reproduction
That which withers in the age of mass reproduction is the authenticity of the individual. Continue reading
-
Post-Easter: Resurrection
The most valid intuition of the “religionless religion” is their awareness that the vast majority of people today, i.e., those who “cannot believe”, are encountering Christ, even though they cannot adjust to the idea that life acquires meaning only when one “joins the Church”. Continue reading
-
ONE FEAST, DIVERSE DISHES: Inviting Canadians to a Feast of Stories
“…our “politically correct concerned” society fails to provide new avenues for intellectual dialogue outside traditional intellectual engagement; so where can we find such opportunities? ” Continue reading
-
Hannah Arendt: Politics – Authenticity, Mass Society and the Private Realm
Arendt invokes the realm of privacy, which is the realm of persons who are significant others to the individual. These significant others are the context for the emergence of an individual. In other words, the realm of privacy includes our social sphere where each of those significant others has a reciprocal relationship with each other. … Continue reading
-
A Ritual Nurturing of Freedom
“…with the surprising eradication of relatively unconscious structures that housed and empowered a certain inspiring model of human flourishing, we may want to reconsider how we have housed and empowered human flourishing.” Continue reading
-
The Crack in our Oppression
The mass-market hegemony resists the moral examination of the world that could stand up to the use of arbitrary power that we have seen with our eyes and have heard with our ears. Continue reading
-
Enemy or Pariah in Ukraine: Two “Wars” and a Call to Peace
Biden and NATO’s response will be to treat Russia as a pariah while Ukraine understands very well that Russia is an enemy. Continue reading
About me: I am a career educator and traveler at heart. My written work includes academic writing in philosophy and linguistics, English acquisition, and most intently in the areas of spiritual engagement with reality and what that means for our public lives.
My education is a mixture of formal study in philosophy, political theory, Biblical studies, and history, along with professional teaching certification in TESOL and in cognitive testing, and international teaching.
My travel experiences include a range of countries in Asia, Europe, Africa and North America. I have lived in Canada, the United States, Germany, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Thailand. From those places I have traveled to many others besides.
I am a child of the 70’s and a “family man.” That means I have two wonderful kids who have been round the world with me.
Lastly, I am married to a wonderful woman since 2004. She is my partner, my friend, and my muse.
Thanks again for stopping by,
Raymond Klassen - Ideals and Identities 