Lessons to be Learned from the Fall of Afghanistan

I think there are a few very broad lessons we Americans can learn from the rapid fall of the Afghan government over the last few days.

Welcome!

I write as The Practical Utopian because my twin desires are to be:
• Down-to-earth — I try to write short pieces explaining big ideas that will be broadly useful;
• Idealistic — I write with the goal of helping all of us achieve better outcomes, both for ourselves and for those around us.

A multiethnic democracy in which no particular ethnic group is in the majority

The simple fact of the matter is that the world has never built a multiethnic democracy in which no particular ethnic group is in the majority and where political equality, social equality and economies that empower all have been achieved. We are engaged in a fight over whether to work together to build such a world.

— Danielle Allen, 13 Aug 2017

The Weight

I recently came across the Playing for Change Song Around the World video of Robbie Robertson's composition “The Weight,” and it made me want to think – and write! – more deeply about how this song works, and what it means, and the timeless nature of its appeal.

Built with Notenik

Available from the Mac App Store, Notenik can be used for taking, organizing, formatting and publishing notes, with each note consisting of multiple fields, as well as chunks of text of any length. This latest version of The Practical Utopian website has been built using Notenik.