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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 27]
Martin LeFevre: Obama's "I Still Believe" Speech
Wednesday, 16 September 2009, 12:25 pm | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
Having traveled across America for the first time in the early ‘90’s, a Russian business colleague hailed as a prime example of perestroika and partnership, made a memorable comment. “Initially Americans are very friendly and nice people, but ... More >>
Martin LeFevre: Sentient Life In the Universe
Tuesday, 8 September 2009, 2:48 pm | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
The last full rays of a setting sun stream over my left shoulder as I stand on the edge of town looking out over the fields toward the foothills. Over a mile away, something flashes in the sunlight. More >>
Martin LeFevre: Obama’s Vietnam?
Friday, 4 September 2009, 1:19 pm | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
A decision Barack Obama is about to make will determine whether he begins to lead America out of its morass, or becomes a failed, one-term president. And if he fails, God knows what rough beast slouches toward Washington to be born. More >>
Martin LeFevre: What Change Really Means
Wednesday, 2 September 2009, 10:36 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
The animal spotted me jogging up the path in the park. It stopped and turned about 75 meters ahead, and then again at 50 meters. It was the size and shape of a dog, but moved like a cat. More >>
Martin LeFevre: Can International Law Evolve?
Friday, 28 August 2009, 12:12 pm | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
A leading international lawyer representing defendants in international criminal tribunals, Guénaël Mettraux, says that Guantánamo detainees should “be placed under international control and their trials held on neutral ground.” That’s ... More >>
Martin LeFevre: Bolt From the Blue
Wednesday, 26 August 2009, 1:43 pm | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
In the same stadium that Jesse Owens made a fool of Hitler and the Nazi credo of Aryan superiority, Usain Bolt of Jamaica smashed the 100 and 200-meter records in the Track and Field World Championships last week. Bolt may have even eclipsed Owens, ... More >>
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 >>
