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Martin LeFevre - Meditations
Scoop Contributor
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 24]
Martin LeFevre: The Will Is Never Free
Thursday, 20 August 2009, 10:44 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
Driving into Upper Park, the beauty of the escarpment sweeps away personal and political concerns as soon as it comes into view. And simply taking the half-mile walk to the overlook of the gorge spontaneously induces a meditative state. More >>
Martin LeFevre: The Zombies Are Angry
Friday, 14 August 2009, 4:05 pm | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
Is the mammoth display of anger on the part of the walking dead at town hall meetings across America a last gasp of reactionary zeal, or the ominous sign of things to come? It’s hard to say, but it’s a most interesting spectacle to watch. More >>
The Unmet Sorrow of Hiroshima
Friday, 7 August 2009, 4:53 pm | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
Here we are again, 64 years and tens of thousands of nuclear weapons later, commemorating the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Perhaps it’s because my first political memory, at ten, is of the Cuban Missile Crisis, that the issue of nuclear proliferation ... More >>
Martin LeFevre: Racism In America
Wednesday, 5 August 2009, 2:24 pm | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
To people outside of the United States, the ongoing story of the white cop arresting a well known black professor from Harvard in his own home, and the furor over Obama saying the police acted “stupidly,” must seem like inside baseball. More >>
Martin LeFevre: Beyond Optimism and Pessimism
Tuesday, 28 July 2009, 9:30 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
Optimists and pessimists pose a dilemma for philosophers, and for humankind Is the world getting better, or growing worse? And does one’s attitude toward the future largely determine the future? More >>
Martin LeFevre: Forty Years From the Moon
Saturday, 25 July 2009, 1:44 pm | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
This week America has been celebrating the moon landing 40 years ago, when Neil Armstrong took man’s first steps on another world. That tremendous technological accomplishment, born of intense Cold War rivalry, was the apogee of the American spirit, which is ... More >>
Martin LeFevre: The Meaning of Life
Friday, 17 July 2009, 11:54 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
At the only sandy ‘beach’ in Lower Park, a big group of parents and children frolic in the water. It’s a lazy summer afternoon when the temperature reaches nearly 110 degrees. More >>
Who Lost Russia, and America?
Friday, 10 July 2009, 12:05 pm | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
Barack Obama’s trip to Russia, calling for a partnership with America’s former Cold War enemy nearly 20 years too late, brought up some painful memories. More >>
Iran: Leaders, Followers, and Global Revolution
Friday, 3 July 2009, 4:00 pm | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
Progressives around the world were transfixed by the brief cri de coeur in Iran. Nearly all coverage and analysis stayed safely within the nation-state box. But there was one aspect of the spontaneous movement that went virtually unreported: it had ... More >>
Martin LeFevre: Hobbits and Human Evolution
Wednesday, 1 July 2009, 12:23 pm | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
Most people have heard of the Hobbits, and I don’t mean the creatures from Tolkein’s imagination. I mean the strange little island hominid in Java that co-existed with modern humans as recently as the Dutch colonial period. More >>
Martin LeFevre: The Personal Has No Place
Monday, 22 June 2009, 11:21 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
With dogs barking in front, back, and on one side of the house this morning, I couldn’t think, much less write, so I drove to the parkland. More >>
Genesis Revisited: Darkness and Evil
Friday, 12 June 2009, 12:52 pm | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
When I first moved to this northern California town over a decade ago, there were still areas along the creek just outside of town that were quite wild. I would sometimes cross paths with coyotes, long-eared rabbits, and rattlesnakes. An encounter with ... More >>
Artificial Intelligence Is an Oxymoron
Wednesday, 10 June 2009, 10:46 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
Here in California, Silicon Valley types are still enamored with the idea that computers have brought humankind to “the edge of change comparable to the rise of human life on Earth.” More >>
Martin LeFevre: The Life of the Mind, and Heart
Monday, 1 June 2009, 12:35 pm | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
Fifteen meters upstream, a merganser mother preens on the rocks as she stands guard over her three chicks playing in the shallows of the creek. Out of the water she appears quite large, irrespective of the brown baffle on her head. Her spotted brown ... More >>
Obama v. Cheney
Wednesday, 27 May 2009, 11:10 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
There aren’t too many days like the 21st of May 2009 in the political life of this nation. A popular American president was compelled to sequentially debate a disgraced vice-president over an issue—torture—that has destroyed America’s credibility ... More >>
Where Did Man Go Wrong? Part Four
Thursday, 21 May 2009, 5:16 pm | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
The great irony of evolution is that, though it took billions of years to evolve a brain capable of awareness of the sacred through self-knowing, employing time prevents us from the realization of that potential. Most people believe, consciously or sub-consciously, ... More >>
Barack Now Has Blood On His Hands
Tuesday, 12 May 2009, 3:30 pm | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
Focus Pakistan. The Obama Administration has been leaning heavily on a shaky, dollar-dependent Pakistani government to get tough on the insurgents. The result? Hundreds of thousands of internal refugees, ripe pickings for the extremists. Many people saw this coming, ... More >>
Martin LeFevre: Learning From Hummingbirds
Wednesday, 6 May 2009, 11:02 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
It was a very windy day, with gusts up to 50 miles per hour. You would think the hummingbirds would be hunkered down somewhere. But a small fleet of them put on an incredible show in the backyard. More >>
Martin LeFevre: Where Did Man Go Wrong? Part Three
Monday, 4 May 2009, 9:41 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
Over 40 years ago, the eerily prescient film “2001: A Space Odyssey” conveyed a vision of human transmutation. In it, evolutionary leaps are caused by a mysterious external intelligence, operating at crucial junctures in our evolutionary history. More >>
The Best Spiritual Movie Ever Made
Friday, 24 April 2009, 9:37 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
The best film I’ve ever seen with religious themes is “Black Narcissus.” Filmed in 1947, it deftly delves into the clash between Eastern and Western traditions; the conflict between the sensual and spiritual dimensions of human being; and ultimately, ... More >>
