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Don’t Wait Until Afternoon

I keep coming back to these photographs. It was taken in Nepal on the same day — the photograph on the left in the morning, the one on the right in the afternoon.In the morning, the river is flowing peacefully through the village. The mountains are green. The houses are colorful. Life appears ordinary, almost beautiful in its simplicity. And then, only hours later, the landscape is buried beneath mud. More than a thousand lives have been lost or remain missing.It is difficult to comprehend such a transformation. But perhaps there is something here that goes beyond this tragedy. We live in a dualistic world — a world of opposites: joy and sorrow, creation and destruction, beauty and suffering. And as painful as it is to accept, tragedy is inevitably part of such a world.If it isn’t a devastating flood or landslide, it may be an invasive cancer, a devastating accident, dementia, or a war. We don’t get to choose whether tragedy will visit us. What we can

The American Values That Brought Me Here

My recent posts about Marxism on the left, Hitler on the right, and everything in between have generated more comments than anything else I’ve posted on Facebook lately. I’m genuinely grateful for the thoughtful and civil conversations. We may not agree, but I’ve appreciated the willingness of many of you to engage seriously with me and with one another.I’d like to bring this little series to a close — with a personal reflection.I believe extremism on either end of the political spectrum ultimately undermines something more important than any ideology: our national unity and the fabric of our society.It turns friends into enemies. It divides families. It makes us suspicious of people who happen to see the world differently. And it can take us to places where we stop seeing the humanity in one another. And it damn sure should never mean vilifying Jews — or anyone else because of who they are.There’s another danger I’ve been

Democratic Socialism Is Not Communism

I received a comment today saying that “DSA is a Marxist ideology that is just one step away from full-blown communism.” It struck me because the word “communism “seems to be spreading around political conversations these days as a label for almost anything on the left.I don’t consider myself a democratic socialist. But I also don’t think we strengthen our political arguments by treating very different systems as though they are the same.As we discussed, democratic socialism draws substantially on Marxist ideas about economic power and ownership. It seeks to move beyond capitalism toward greater public ownership and control of the economy. That can include public ownership of major industries, for example.Communism, as the term is generally understood today, is associated with Communist Party rule, highly centralized political power, and significant restrictions on political freedoms, including freedom of speech and political oppositio

A Correction: What I’ve Learned About “Democratic Socialism” in the American Context

A few days ago, I shared a post about the distinction between Nordic social democracy and “democratic socialism” as the term is used in contemporary American politics.Since then, I’ve done some more reading and thinking about what “democratic socialism” means — and I’ve learned enough that I wanted to follow up on that earlier post.My original point was simple: the Nordic countries are generally described as social democracies, not democratic socialist countries. Their economies remain fundamentally capitalist, with private ownership, competitive businesses, and market economies, combined with relatively high taxes, strong labor protections, and extensive social programs.The more I looked into democratic socialism in the American context, however, the more I realized that the distinction is even more significant than I had initially appreciated.Democratic socialism is not simply a continuum — a more generous version of Nordic social

Nordic “Social Democracy” Is Not “Democratic Socialism” as Used in the U.S.

A political chart I came across today got me thinking about how easily we use political labels without stopping to ask what they truly mean.The chart grouped the Nordic countries under “democratic socialism.” That caught my attention.Having spent much of my life thinking about how we measure, classify, and report things, I’m always a little uncomfortable when important distinctions get blurred.The Nordic countries — Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Iceland — are generally described as “social democracies,” not “democratic socialist” countries, as some American public officials have characterized them.These Nordic social democracies have capitalist, market-based economies, private ownership, and competitive businesses, alongside relatively high taxes and extensive social programs.Democratic socialism as used in the U.S., on the other hand, is a political ideology that seeks greater public ownership of the economy. In p

Geographic Knowledge Gives Us a Framework for Understanding the World We Live In

I saw this post and it reminded me of my years in American college. People would ask me where I was from, and then ask, “Where is Iran?” I would jokingly tell them, “It’s about 60 miles south of here,” and, to my amazement, many believed me.Years later, as a professional, I encountered something that made me see those experiences differently.I worked at the federal educational statistics agency responsible for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), including its geography assessment.On the 2018 NAEP geography assessment, only 20% of eighth graders said they took a course mainly focused on geography, and nearly three in 10 scored below the Basic level. That means they lacked fundamental geographic knowledge, such as identifying continents, oceans, and major cities and interpreting simple maps.The image you see is about American adults, not eighth graders. And that makes it particularly striking to me. These are adults who have bee

Even In Struggle — There’s a Quiet Hope

Even In Struggle — There’s a Quiet Hopehttps://medium.com/media/b7eb0a8ee68d96e855f7bfa6a95f4c40/href

Everything Changes — Except This

https://medium.com/media/c81182be55faefea4083edc093d3e347/href

Does Iran Hold All the Cards Now?

Iran has now laid out the conditions it says the United States must meet before it will consider the conflict resolved: end all military aggression against Iran and its regional proxies, lift the naval blockade, withdraw U.S. naval and air forces, pay for war damages, lift sanctions, and release frozen Iranian assets.When I first read these demands, my reaction was: Is Iran really in a position to make demands like these?But then I started thinking about something very familiar to me as an Iranian: the mentality of negotiation in the Persian bazaar.You don’t walk into a bazaar and immediately reveal what you’re willing to pay — or what your bottom line is. You first try to understand what the other side needs, what constraints they are operating under, and how much room they have to move.I suspect there is some of that thinking behind Iran’s demands. Tehran knows America’s constraints, and it knows that Washington cannot simply ignore t

The Situation Is New. The Reaction Is Old

Sometimes we change everything around us, only to discover that we brought the same problem with us. Eckhart Tolle has a name for it: the emotional baggage we carry from past experiences, hurts, disappointments, and unresolved reactions. What I find especially interesting is how much that baggage can shape the way we experience a completely new situation.Think about someone who gets angry easily over small things. If they move to a new city and change jobs, it’s tempting to think that a fresh environment will bring a fresh experience.But if the inner pattern hasn’t changed, the same reactions are likely to follow. The new job may come with a supportive boss and friendly colleagues, but before long, the person feels unappreciated, overlooked, or disrespected.I’ve noticed this in my own life, too. Sometimes I think, “If only this situation were different, I would feel different.” And occasionally that is true. Some situations really are difficult, and we sho

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