David Boles: Human Meme

Suspension of disbelief, as it is often understood today, traces its formal articulation to the English poet and philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who coined the phrase “willing suspension of disbelief” in 1817 in his critical work “Biographia Literaria.” Coleridge proposed that readers and audiences consciously set aside the knowledge that what they are witnessing is artificial in order to be moved, entertained, or enlightened by the piece of art before them.

Imagine, for a moment, the United States without its Department of Education—a federal entity established in 1979 to oversee and coordinate national education policies. This department, though often a target in political debates, plays a pivotal role in shaping the educational landscape of the nation. Its elimination would not merely be a bureaucratic adjustment; it would trigger scary and far-reaching consequences across the educational spectrum.

The fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century was not merely the collapse of a political order or the ruin of marble monuments. It was the slow eclipse of an entire world – a complex tapestry of cultural practices, technical know-how, intellectual traditions, and spiritual paradigms – many of which vanished forever. Historians often highlight the sack of cities and the demise of imperial authority, yet beyond the smoking ruins lies an even greater tragedy: the loss of ways of life and thought that had no true successor. Reconstructing these forgotten dimensions of Roman civilization requires equal parts scholarship and imagination. What follows is an academic meditation on those elusive losses – facets of Roman society unique to their time, only partially understood today, and largely without modern analog. Each represents a thread of human experience that was severed in the aftermath of Rome’s fall, leaving later generations in a poorer world, often unaware of what had been lost.

Let's talk about something that might have happened to you, or someone you know: going to the doctor and getting a blood pressure reading that seems way too high. But what if that number isn't the real story? What if it's just a temporary thing that happens when you're in a medical setting? We're going to talk about "White Coat Hypertension," and why, even though some doctors might not think it's a big deal, it's actually a real thing we should be paying attention to.

When we speak of wonders, we often conjure images of iconic structures like the Great Pyramid or the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. But obscured by the passage of time and the focus on well-trodden historical paths lie numerous marvels that were equally – if not more – fascinating, yet are far less known today. These "forgotten" sites offer unique insights into human ingenuity, societal structures, and the complex relationship between civilizations and their environments.