The Humanist
May/June 1996
Volume 56, Number 3 |
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The Condom King of Thailand
by Gloria Frydman
Mechai Viravaidya is a man with a mission: to make
condoms "as common as cabbages" in Thailand to promote family
planning. His astonishing success has led him to take on new
projects: everything from rural development and reforestation to
primary health care and AIDS prevention.
Cover Story:
Black Holes: How Secret Military
and Intelligence Appropriations Suck Up Your Tax Dollars
by J. Whitfield Larrabee
In 1995, Congress approved a military budget that was
$7 billion more than the Pentagon requested. Where is this
money going? The scandalous financing of the B-2 bomber and the
secret National Reconnaissance Office "slush fund" provides a damning
indictment of the federal government's "business as usual."
Trooping To Bosnia: An Ode to
Virtual Democracy
by Gregory D. Foster
As the military deployment to Bosnia indicates, we
have long since given up on the thorny complexities of real
democracy, preferring a more user-friendly simulation instead.
Ratings and the V-chip
by Barbara Dority
In this election year, cynical politicians of both
parties have passed sweeping censorship laws that will profoundly
affect both television and the Internet. But which should we worry
about more: freedom of speech or the undiscriminating tyranny of the
V-chip?
A Declaration of the Independence
of Cyberspace
by John Perry Barlow
A leading voice from the cyber-frontier calls on
government censors to understand with whom they meddle, learn from
the new social experiment of the Net, and then butt out.
Forecasting The Future of Religion:
The Next 50 Years
by Jeffrey S. Victor
Even as the influence of supernaturalism continues to
decline in modern society, revivals of fundamentalism have erupted
the world over. How do we explain this seeming contradiction? Only by
examining the crucial differences between "institutional" and "folk"
religion.
The Wheel of Violence
by Kathy Sitarski
Violence comes in many forms, and for victims and
perpetrators alike it always takes its toll. But if we are ever to
create a less violent society, we must first come to grips with the
complex causes and the equally complex effects of this phenomenon.
Creative Controversy Free Will: A
Human, Fuzzy, Chaotic Process
by Paul Geisert and Mynga
Futrell
Most people agree that "free will" exists, even if
philosophers have had a hard time over the years trying to explain
it. Perhaps some new light can be shed on this subject by utilizing
the concepts of chaos in science and fuzzy logic in
math.
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