PODCAST

Musings of a Middle Aged Man

David Olson

Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch"intrate (Abandon hope all ye who enter here)

society & culture

All Episodes

00:03:11

Wish You Were Here (Mon)

Musings of a Middle Aged Man ·

2025/05/11

Complete transparency. I was a nightmare growing up. A stubborn, mean, self-centered person approaching the world with a confrontational attitude toward anyone who would get in my way. I was regularly a punch first and ask questions later philosopher. The word sorry was not in my lexicon and was only uttered under threat of punishment. Despite my arrogance, my verbal violence, my overall negative demeanor, my mother still loved me. It wasn't until I had my own children that I understood the

00:04:05

The Saving Serpent

Musings of a Middle Aged Man ·

2025/05/09

Any doubts the Bible is not misogynistic are dispelled by the third chapter in the first book when Eve ate from the tree and "suffered" her eyes being opened to reality. The story implies open eyes are a bad thing, an inescapable curse. Vision is only a bad thing if the chattel is owned rather than a partner in equal standing and can help the enslaved understand and long for freedom.

00:03:22

Holy or Sacred?

Musings of a Middle Aged Man ·

2025/05/06

Given the opportunity or, if I had written it myself, a level of intelligent creativity that often eludes me, I would replace the word holy in the opening quote with the word sacred. True, the two words are often used interchangeably and frequently used as synonyms, however, there are subtleties altering each quote's personality.

00:03:53

Violent Inclusion

Musings of a Middle Aged Man ·

2025/05/02

The insidious aspects of groups come when the individual is seen as a cog in the system often filling roles that do not make use of their unique interests, skills, and abilities. Even worse, they frequently succumb to groupthink, a dehumanizing state where individual opinions are shunned placing the non-compliant thinker in danger of being ostracized.

00:03:19

Admirable Leaders (Sort of)

Musings of a Middle Aged Man ·

2025/04/29

There are a couple of religious leaders I begrudgingly admire despite their association with the cults of organized religion. Or, as Christopher Hitchens calls them and others of their ilk, the enemy. My admiration comes from a single utterance unique to each of them but are closely related in essence. The first of the leaders, Pope Francis, currently struggling to stave off his end of life, when he proclaimed, much to the dismay of the zealotry, who fear losing personal power above all, that all

00:03:21

Nature of Nature Words

Musings of a Middle Aged Man ·

2025/04/25

I find it fascinating that words not only can be used to describe objects and fill in the gaps needed to understand action and non-action on a subject but also color entire society's attitudes toward the subject. Take, for example, the compound word wilderness. It is derived from the individual words wild, meaning savage coupled with doer, meaning beast. Together, they describe a savage place of untamed beauty useful, as in the case of Little Red and the canines she tormented to frighten

00:03:50

Where to Invest?

Musings of a Middle Aged Man ·

2025/04/22

By general standards, at 4,434 unique posts, and counting, I am a prolific blogger. Of course, quantity does not necessarily equate with quality. At a mere average of 24 views per post, my offerings are barely a wart on the ass of influencership. Not that my goal is to achieve notoriety as an influencer. They tend to be entitled bottom feeders expecting the world to bow to their presence and shower them with free stuff while I am attempting to become more humble.

00:03:47

A Nation Once Again

Musings of a Middle Aged Man ·

2025/04/18

rowing up, I recall watching a made-for-TV movie about two Irish boys, one Protestant and the other Catholic, plucked from the 'Troubles' plaguing Northern Ireland. They were sent to the US and housed, temporarily, with a US family. The twist? The sponsoring parents, a mother and father, were a Catholic and a Protestant living in harmony, well, as harmonious as any marriage can be. I was blissfully unaware of the sectarian violence bloodying Belfast so was confused as to why the boys were

00:03:17

Impactful Television

Musings of a Middle Aged Man ·

2025/04/15

The three most impactful events I've ever seen on television are the moon landing in 1969 magnificent for human ingenuity overcoming complex problems using nascent computer technology to set foot on the mysterious celestial body that has intrigued humanity (and animals and plants) since time's dawn. Next comes in 2001 when two planes crashed into the Twin Towers, including their subsequent collapse, highlighting for the ten millionth time the deadly danger of letting religion run amok in

00:03:32

The Ultimate Cult

Musings of a Middle Aged Man ·

2025/04/11

The scary thing about cult members, zealots if you will, is they are able to twist any information, even if it is directly opposite their position, to prove their case by utilizing mental gyrations that defy all logic, including pretzel logic. Most of the time they appeal to the source of their information to prove their source, an alarming usage of circular logic a type of logical fallacy where the conclusion of an argument is assumed in one of its premises.

00:02:57

A Love Deficit

Musings of a Middle Aged Man ·

2025/04/08

It feels as if my parents did a disservice to me and my five siblings when they filled us with buckets of no strings attached love. They loved us as unique individuals through thick and thin, come hell or high water, for better or worse, in good times and bad, and against all odds.

00:03:30

Empathy is Suffering

Musings of a Middle Aged Man ·

2025/04/04

The challenge of empathy is, that if you don't have empathy for others, you lack the necessary empathic ability to realize you lack empathy. This enables you to commit unspeakable acts because you don't know or even care how the recipient of the acts feels. The terms to describe a person with an empathy deficit include sociopath, psychopath, and narcissist.

00:02:57

Art is a Necessity

Musings of a Middle Aged Man ·

2025/04/01

Diversity is necessary for any endeavor...another triggering Boomer topic who see DEI programs as giving jobs to lesser skilled minorities when it was instituted to overcome lesser qualified white male candidates being hired over better qualified minorities.

00:03:21

Earth Languages

Musings of a Middle Aged Man ·

2025/03/28

Personally, I can't fathom the mind that would shun languages or people simply because they are different. This closed mindset is anathema to learning and growth. And if we are not growing then we might as well be dead. There is little difference between the two.

00:01:32

Beginngs & Endings

Musings of a Middle Aged Man ·

2025/03/25

New beginnings. A blank book decorated for the first time with 179 pages eagerly (I hope) anticipating their turn for the ink to wax eloquently, to wane dispassionately, to invest time in growing my creative abilities while purging the existing slop, infecting my mind, heart, and soul.

00:01:31

Imagination Asylum

Musings of a Middle Aged Man ·

2025/03/21

A crucial factor creating a separation gulf between man and other animals is our ability to imagine, to create what-if scenarios to stretch our understanding of existence and the laws governing existence. Even more astonishing, it allows us to create something that never before was known or imagined by another, in a sense, making us gods in our own right. The creation can be as beguiling as an abstract painting, as intricate as a well-crafted story. There is also the nefarious path

00:03:19

The End of the USA is Nigh

Musings of a Middle Aged Man ·

2025/03/18

The "land of the free and home of the brave" has devolved into "land of the oppressed and home of the fearful." Tell them this and they will yank out their concealed carry guns and, maybe spit in your face, to exhibit their bravery not realizing the gun they are toting is the hard evidence they live in abject fear. This partly explains the rise of Christian Nationalism and the propensity to frame everything as good or evil, black or white, shunning any nuances or shades of gray

00:03:11

Victims of Religion

Musings of a Middle Aged Man ·

2025/03/14

I experienced an aha moment the other day, a mega-watt lightbulb moment illuminating a truth previously hidden in the deep shadows cast by my lack of awareness, disdain for religion, and a closed thought to an idea that seemed radical at the moment but, upon reflection, a fiber of common sense truth. I imagine it was similar to the lightbulb moments such as Newton formulating the theory of gravity, Einstein's insights leading to his theory of special relativity, tRumpers when they finally

00:03:12

Arrogance or Hubris?

Musings of a Middle Aged Man ·

2025/03/11

Is it profound arrogance or simple hubris that drives humanity to believe we are separate from nature and have dominion over the natural world? Sure, we mostly have dominion over ourselves within the boundaries established by the government but to extend self dominion of our natural selves to claiming dominion over nature is a stretch that makes sense only to religious and political zealots.

00:03:04

Blind Does as Blind Is

Musings of a Middle Aged Man ·

2025/03/07

A stark contrast separating science from religion comes about from science being dedicated to discovering what they don't know so they can fill knowledge gaps whereas religion is happy to claim God is the answer filling any blindspots with mythological nuances no matter how fantastical, improbable, or irrational. It is a form of willful blindness by people terrified of reality, no different than the popular myth of ostriches hiding their heads in the sand to trick predators into thinking the

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