The Useless Tree

Taoism

  • Teenage Suicide: Losing Their Way

        Another sad story about suicide in China: …Recent statistics from the Chinese Association of Mental Health show that suicide has become the No 1 killer of Chinese people between the ages of 15 and 34. Suicide accounted for… Continue reading

  • Taoist Counterinsurgency

          Getting ready for work this morning, I was, as usual, listening to NPR and was struck by a story on the difficulties US soldiers face in their counterinsurgency strategy in Iraq.  Here’s a quote from the transcript:    … Continue reading

  • Back Home

         I am now more convinced than ever that the authors of the Tao Te Ching are wrong about traveling ("the farther you go, the less you know").  After a week in the Netherlands and France – a wonderful… Continue reading

  • Humane Treatment of Animals

        An op-ed in today’s NYT discusses the issue of humane treatment of animals, especially farm animals destined for slaughter and human consumption.  The author, Nicolette Hahn Niman, draws upon her personal experience to make the key point: As… Continue reading

  • Baudrillard and Chuang Tzu

         Jean Baudrillard is (not) dead.  From the Guardian: Jean Baudrillard’s death did not take place. "Dying is pointless," he once wrote. "You have to know how to disappear." The New Yorker reported a reading the French sociologist gave… Continue reading

  • Flexible Family Values

         A good op-ed in today’s Washington Post gets at the ways in which globalized modernity (or modernized globalization) undermines traditional family structures and engenders new social practices.  The author, Harold Meyerson, focuses on the divergent experiences of different… Continue reading

  • Taoism and the Transformation of Marriage

        A couple of stories today keep the issue of the transformation of marriage in the media spot light.  First, the Washington Post notices the relationship between marriage and social class: As marriage with children becomes an exception rather… Continue reading

  • CCP Saves NYSE

         Yes, it seems to me that the Chinese Communist Party gave a very big helping hand to the New York Stock Exchange today.  Think about this for a minute: The Chinese government is also a huge factor here.… Continue reading

  • The Tao of Stock Markets

        A little upset today on world stock markets: Stocks in the United States plummeted today after a surprising plunge in the Shanghai market provoked worries worldwide about the global economy and the valuation of share prices. The Dow… Continue reading

  • Narcissism

     This review in the NYT caught my eye just now: Vacuousness and self-absorption, it appears, never go out of style. In a new play with an unpublishable title, Michael Domitrovich introduces five 20-somethings who are awash in both — irritating… Continue reading