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I look forward to your thoughts, Morley. And thank you for taking a chance on the book. I am not entirely sure if this experiment in a reading discussion was a failure or just off to a weak start. On the one hand, it was already clear at the start that the timing was challenging for a number of peop...

Oh. Just searched for the term on the BYU conference talk archive. You can search for it yourself and browse the context. https://www.lds-general-conference.org/ It's clearly used in the conjugate in question in a talk in 1898. It's appearance in conference jumps in the 1960s but it is as old as Utah.

The two GA/Presidents I'm looking most closely at are J. Reuben Clark and Joseph Fielding Smith since they seem to have been the major players resistant to the influence of open inquiry and scientific evidence that challenged the metaphysical and mythic aspects of faith. Of interest but not definiti...

It's a good question. My first thought was to see if it was at all prominent in the Reformation period in the mid-1850's as a statement of belief or as a question asked by the "home missionaries". It seems clear it wasn't where belief in the truths of the restoration was spoken of but not as profess...

So what are the safeguards against authoritarianism? Kotkin notes the fact communist countries that liberalized their economies could maintain one party rule. But once liberalism was introduced into the social order the regimes fell. He notes this is why China isn't likely to give into pressures on ...

For purposes of clarity Kotkin's five dimensions included: 1) Mechanisms of coercion. You know, black vans and phone calls confirming your loyalty. 2) Source of income or revenue streams. He notes natural resource extraction is ideal whereby oil, diamonds or other minerals can be sold to fund the re...

And that brings us to the point: we are talking about how law is to be written, not what one would say to a pregnant female friend who wanted to discuss her personal situation. And law is a very blunt instrument, but alas a necessary instrument. Of the opinions shared in the Dobbs decision I think ...

To build on the thoughts above, I think the post by Gad some time ago on authoritarianism as discussed by Steven Kotkin is worth revisiting. Link: https://discussmormonism.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=155191 The lecture Gad linked to that was given at Stanford within the last few months is, in my opinion...

On the other side, to believe ending the biological processes of life of a fetus at nine months just prior to it being born vs allowing it to be born and then taking it's life are distinctly different is no less a rejection of the scientific facts around the state just prior and immediately followin...

For those who did not read but have some interest, the first two thirds of the book cover Orwell's life with major attention given to the aspects of 1984 they helped inform. It also spends a fairly large section on the contemporary writers who contrast with Orwell, most notably H.G. Wells, climaxing...