Usually, we think of grammar as just the invisible seams in a sentence. It’s just the list of some arbitrary rules that keep nouns and verbs functioning so we can convey meaning. But what if grammar actually has a social side, a side that alters how we judge human character? What if we are to...
The great paradox of the modern human condition is that we build our entire societal narrative around the triumph of the independent will, at least in the Western world. Yet, when we are confronted with the actual lived experience of absolute freedom, the human psyche often just pushes the panic button. What do we do...
Many years ago, when I was still playing with studio photography, I created a series of colour photographs called ‘Fairytale gone bad’. There was a picture of Cinderella walking out of the ‘Lost and Found’ with the second glass slipper. There was one of Rapunzel with her hair cut short and her long braid lying...
When I was in high school, our maths teacher showed us a circle. Not that he introduced the shape to us; we were, thank goodness, more advanced than that as teens. The circle was used to depict a model explaining extremes and the golden mean. Not exactly the one we used to use for ourselves...
Imagine sitting at your desk on a random Tuesday, working, when a digital form appears on your screen. It asks you to click a button to deny someone’s health insurance claim flagged by the system as not meeting the expected standard. You know they desperately need it and that the system is not entirely fair....
What if the reason people fall down these massive ideological rabbit holes isn’t actually because they’re inherently gullible? What if it’s because they are just desperately, almost biologically, starved for a sense of agency and that very lack causes it? What if rigid political dogma isn’t this fundamental personality trait that you’re just born with;...
Imagine the Hansel and Gretel story with a twist. When Gretel realises the witch plans to cook them, she starts figuring out how to push her into the oven. But Hansel lies down on the floor of the cage and says, ‘No. I will wait. The world is wrong and at fault here so I’ll...
Recently, two things happened almost at the same time. First, I was completely ignored due to a mix of someone else’s anxiety and my own containment. I became invisible even though the task and responsibility were mine to carry. Second, a friend of mine was accused of being a perpetrator for appearing in the wrong...
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