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Martin LeFevre - Meditations
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Martin LeFevre is a contemplative and philosopher.
His sui generis “Meditations” explore spiritual, philosophical and political questions relating to the polycrisis facing humanity.
lefevremartin77@gmail
Martin LeFevre - Meditations - Latest News [Page 19]
Nagasaki And The Incorrigibility Of Man
Monday, 8 August 2022, 11:02 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
I knew a Marine that fought on Tarawa, which had the highest American casualty rate of any battle in World War II. Who saw dozens of women clutching their babies and children as they jumped from the cliffs of Saipan as US forces approached. And who ... More >>
Thinking Machines And Human Beings
Thursday, 4 August 2022, 12:00 pm | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
What will become of humans when thinking machines outthink us at every turn? That's about to be the new human condition. As a reviewer of the book, "Seven Games" (checkers, chess, Go, backgammon, poker, Scrabble and bridge) quips: "Every ... More >>
Time Is Thought And Thought Is Time
Friday, 29 July 2022, 1:51 pm | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
A high, thin layer of clouds fills the western sky, blunting the warmth of the sun and giving the land a subtly somber cast. The little stream on the edge of town is full enough to create a cascade over a step of rocks as it wends it way through the ... More >>
Healing The Scars Of Psychological Memory
Tuesday, 26 July 2022, 3:08 pm | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
‘Trauma’ is a word that seems to be on everyone’s lips lately. What are people referring to, and why is there so much of it? Can we heal ourselves of trauma? Colloquially, I think people are referring to the emotional damage from the accumulation of bad ... More >>
A Teachable Moment – For Joe Biden
Friday, 22 July 2022, 2:13 pm | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
As readers of ‘Meditations’ know, I pretty much gave up on America and Americans years ago. But I still care about what happens in the nation of my nascency, especially in the context of the future of humanity. For the sake of humanity, and this country, ... More >>
Human Beings Can Meet This Moment
Thursday, 21 July 2022, 10:45 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
An inquiry with a friend generated remarkable insights into the question: Is this a moment of Olympian magnitude in human evolutionary history? The question is a much deeper version of a shallow and obtuse featured op-ed in the New York Times entitled, ... More >>
What Is Your Theory Of Human Nature?
Tuesday, 19 July 2022, 2:35 pm | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
A telling sentence by a conservative pundit jumped out at me: "They had no illusions about the depravity of human beings." Given what is happening in the world, that worldview seems to be confirmed. But is it a self-fulfilling prophecy? ... More >>
Pouring The Foundation Before The Collapse
Wednesday, 13 July 2022, 10:50 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
Many people feel that the old world order has to completely collapse before things will truly change. While that may be so, few realize that the foundation for a true order has to be poured before the collapse occurs, or nothing will essentially change, ... More >>
There Is No Evolution Of Consciousness
Monday, 11 July 2022, 10:50 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
It’s become a commonplace in the West to comfortingly believe that “everything is always evolving forwards even when it looks like things are moving backwards.” But each week that conceit becomes harder to sustain. For one thing it’s simply ... More >>
The Proprioception Of Thought
Wednesday, 6 July 2022, 11:25 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
Proprioception -- sometimes called the ‘sixth sense’ -- refers to “the body’s ability to sense movement, action and location.” It’s accomplished by proprioceptors, specialized neurons located within muscles, tendons and joints. Can it apply to the ... More >>
Oh Canada, Stop Following America
Monday, 4 July 2022, 9:53 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
Though I still feel young (most days anyway), I’m old enough to remember Pierre Trudeau. Not only remember, but respect him as one of the few true political leaders of the 20th century. My feeling about him was confirmed a few years ago when I attended ... More >>
‘Sentient’ AI, and What Differentiates Us As Human Beings
Monday, 27 June 2022, 10:10 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
Have you heard the one about the Google engineer who was fired because he declared that the AI program he’d been working with, called LaMDA, has a soul? It’s darkly fitting that as more and more humans lose their souls, AI engineers are seriously ... More >>
Imagining ‘Umwelts’ Is Unnecessary
Wednesday, 22 June 2022, 10:24 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
Rows of magnificent cumulus are piled up to the east. It’s an unusually cool afternoon before a protracted heat wave is due in California. I seize the opportunity and drive to Upper Park, parking near the last gate at the end of the gravel road. It’s less ... More >>
Indict The Bastard
Friday, 17 June 2022, 10:26 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
Having predicted the election of George Bush (twice), Barack Obama, and most notably, Donald Trump, you would think I ‘d have voice in the United States. You’d be wrong. But since what passes for democracy in America hangs in the balance, I must ... More >>
Is Universality A Western Idea?
Thursday, 16 June 2022, 10:32 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
Most people acknowledge that human beings are essentially the same wherever they live on earth. Yet there’s also a strong belief that ethnic and cultural differences are primary, and that universality is a Western construct. It cannot be both – ... More >>
Refusing To Procreate
Friday, 10 June 2022, 10:11 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
Many young people, in America, China and around the world, are choosing not to have children. In the West, their reason is a generalized sense of hopelessness about the future of humanity, often expressed in shorthand -- “climate anxiety.” “Climate ... More >>
Intelligent Life, Meditation And Transmutation
Wednesday, 8 June 2022, 9:44 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
It was the philosophical obsession that largely defined the first 15 years of my adulthood. After having a life-changing ‘mystical experience’ at 18 of the separative nature of thought as opposed to the seamless wholeness of nature, I began asking: More >>
Expansion Or Negation Of Self?
Thursday, 2 June 2022, 11:50 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
By invitation in the last few days, I attended a zoom reading and discussion of Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself.” Considered his masterpiece, the poem fuses the ‘divine I’ with the egocentric I in an originally and quintessentially American ... More >>
I Have Never Felt So Ashamed Of America
Thursday, 26 May 2022, 10:17 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
It’s very difficult to write about the kind of evil that erupted again in America yesterday. Nineteen elementary-age children and two teachers were slaughtered by another 18-year-old acting out of bottomless hatred for people and life. America ... More >>
Response To An Optimist’s Worldview
Tuesday, 24 May 2022, 10:59 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
Lynn is a life coach for business executives. This email exchange took place this weekend after a stimulating phone conversation on Friday. It reflects the worldviews of two people living on different planets. I’ll leave it to the reader to decide ... More >>
