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Showing posts from June, 2020

A Nudge to Catastrophe

America stands on a precipice. That is not hyperbole.  That is fact.  Ripped by political tension and growing inequality laid bare by a pandemic it is showing the age of an almost 250 year old republic. Add to that lingering racial prejudice and lack of empathy we are clearly at a crossroads of where to turn next.  One of those choices ends in complete disaster. Time to get Vegas odds?  No.   Time to think.  Yes. Exactly what I feel has been on the decline. Critical thinking.  Every man, woman and child needs to above all develop this faculty if not for anything then for self preservation.  Of themselves therefore their community and consequently of this species. The so called rapid pace of innovation and development is often making headlines but as well known historian Yuval Harari points out someone has to take the contrarian if not realistic view of what the unintended consequences of all this development mean for humanity. I would posit that even the intended consequences bear larg

The Two Popes

Rarely in Hollywood is a production with two protagonists popular. The film titled 'The Two Popes' was produced by the silicon valley disruptor media company called 'Netflix' unlike the legacy studios with big budget blockbusters, and has two lead roles.  It is a biographical narrative into the lives of two of the contemporary Bishops of Rome, the Holy See or what are commonly called - Pope.  The leader of over a billion Catholics globally the papacy is a powerful institution. The film traces the arc of the era of a German born and controversial cardinal Ratzinger who became the Papa or the Pope after the death of John Paul II.  Then it moves into the parallel life of the Archbishop of Argentina Jorge Bergoglio who is visiting Rome to hand in his resignation to this Pope.  It starred Sir Hopkins, a popular Welsh name, playing the role of Ratzinger against a not so popular Welsh actor called John Pryce who plays Bergoglio. The real life story is interesting, complex and