Adam Briggle

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Notes from a Field Philosopher

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A Father’s Prayer
Apr 22, 2021 · original
When you were five, we’d get out your little step ladder in front of the bathroom mirror. We’d paint our faces in shaving cream, and you and I would shave together. You would study me to know just the right way to do it. Tilt your chin, go slow, wipe the slate clean. You wore your “puma hat” for a full year because you hated that long hair. And it was always Diego, never Dora. Cowboy boots, Buzz Lightyear, and Spiderman. We’d pretend your closet was an elevator or a rocket ship taking us to the moon. Kung Fu Panda got you into taekwondo. You had a black belt before you turned ten. You held the door for strangers who said, “What a fine young gentleman you are raising!” They were right. I was wrong. Being so incredibly dense, the Thanksgiving when you were six and your sister was two, I raised a glass to give thanks “for my girls.” Mom corrected me: “Give thanks for your kids.” She was alw
The American Virus Shit Storm
Mar 28, 2020 · original
From fracking to transgender rights, I keep bumping into questions of political jurisdiction. Cities, states, the federal government…Who shall rule? It’s a foundational question in political philosophy. America has embraced a federalist approach with power distributed in a variety of ways across jurisdictions. Though often confusing and contentious, this system has many virtues. But it is a recipe for disaster when it comes to the coordinated action required to respond effectively to a pandemic. Earlier, I wrote about how the coronavirus might rip America apart at the seams. That was four days ago when we had 46,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19. Now we are at 117,000 cases, more than any country in the world. The tension between “flattening the curve” and “getting back to work” is growing, and it is starting to manifest along these contested lines of power and jurisdiction. As Ezra Klein
Will the Virus End America?
Mar 28, 2020 · original
The coronavirus pandemic has upended the world. It’s hard to keep track of the enormous changes and make sense of the bigger picture. Massive uncertainties make it nearly impossible to see around the corner. Yet we must keep trying to peek into the future. As I do so now in the United States, I see something ominous: The tension between public health and economics is going to escalate into a war. The sides will split, roughly, along partisan divides, fueled by alternate media filters and entrenched epistemic tribes. Different realities with different experts and leaders will march into battle in a war with deadly consequences. Federal, state, and local governments will be giving deeply mixed messages and directives. Businesses will be caught in the middle trying to navigate the urge to get back to work with those graphs showing the coming death toll if we succumb to that urge. The result
Equality Ordinance for Denton
Jan 6, 2020 · original
So, you like the idea of an equality ordinance for Denton . But you don’t quite know how to talk about it. Well, here are some ideas. #1. Dude, everyone deserves equality before the law. That’s so American! #2. It is legal in Texas for a boss to fire someone, a landlord to evict someone, or a business to refuse service to someone just because of their sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. That is so un-American! (see #1) #3. A 2015 survey found that 45% of transgender workers in Texas report not being hired for a job because of their gender identity or expression. Further, 26% report losing a job, and 22% report being denied a promotion because of their gender identity or expression. (WTF – again, see #1) #4. Despite what you read in the comments section of the DRC, this doesn’t give anyone “special rights” or “special treatment.” If an equality ordinance guaranteed
“Critical Infrastructure”
Apr 22, 2019 · original
Four years ago, I was arrested in an act of civil disobedience. Along with two of my friends, I was blocking the entrance to a fracking site in Denton. That site should not have been active, because a few months prior to our protest the residents of Denton voted to ban fracking within our city limits. It was our community’s decision to protect our air, water, and neighborhoods. Yet the Texas Legislature overturned our democratically-enacted ban. So, when the trucks and drilling rigs came rolling back into town, my friends and I tried to stop them. We knew what we were doing was illegal according to the new state law. But that law is unjust – it deprives communities of their ability to protect residents from a uniquely invasive industry. We were handcuffed after about an hour of protesting. We were then sent to jail on misdemeanor charges of trespassing. The Texas Legislature is now consi
Maturity and the Green New Deal
Feb 9, 2019 · original
See if you can spot the problem with this survey question: “Some members of Congress are proposing a ‘Green New Deal’ for the U.S. They say that a Green New Deal will produce jobs and strengthen America’s economy by accelerating the transition from fossil fuels to clean, renewable energy…How much do you support or oppose this idea?” When a team of researchers from Yale and George Mason Universities asked this question, they got overwhelmingly positive responses. And it was bipartisan: 92% of Democrats and 64% of Republicans (57% of conservative Republicans) supported the GND. This was a poll conducted back in December when few people had yet to hear of the GND. Needless to say, it seemed like a ray of hope that an idea this big could capture widespread support in a polarized age. But there’s that problem. Did you spot it? It’s the first word: ‘some.’ Some members of Congress, you say? We
Consent, Burlesque, and Queer Morality
Oct 21, 2018 · original
A review of “ The Best Little Shop of Whorrers in Texas ” – spoiler alert – Sidney, who works at the Vape Hole Lounge on the courthouse square in Denton, has they/them/their pronouns. When they are misgendered by the moralizing and bigoted Furry Oldwitch, the crowd yells its disapproval. Furry wants to “Make Denton Great Again” by shutting down Miss Tawdry’s Rubber Chicken burlesque joint on the other side of the square. Boo! The only thing standing in his way are his own sexual hypocrisies, portrayed in riotous flare in a strip tease that culminates in swirling, glittery Buccees pasties. The crowd howls in delight as the Rubber Chicken is saved and Sidney falls into the arms of Miss Tawdry. This is Denton politics as portrayed by the Salty Lady Burlesque in their musical, “The Best Little Shop of Whorrors in Texas.” It is a glamorous celebration of queer bodies and cultures told through
Climate Change and Philosophy Change
Aug 5, 2018 · original
Everyone is talking about the New York Times feature on climate change by Nathaniel Rich. In “ Losing Earth: The Decade We Almost Stopped Climate Change ,” Rich details the history of climate science and politics between 1979 and 1989. He argues that there was a window of opportunity where bold action could have taken place given bipartisan support for climate policy and even a receptive fossil fuel lobby. Ultimately, though, action didn’t happen. Why? Rich blames human nature: “human beings, whether in global organizations, democracies, industries, political parties or as individuals, are incapable of sacrificing present convenience to forestall a penalty imposed on future generations.” In other words, it doesn’t matter which social organization they adopt, humans are selfish and short-sighted and, thus, bound to trample over ecological limits. While acknowledging his good history, crit
So, we’re Not Doomed?
Feb 1, 2018 · original
Finding Hope in the Decline of Coal There may be as many as two billion habitable or earth-like ‘exoplanets’ in our galaxy. It would seem that the odds of encountering intelligent alien life are high. Yet we have yet to make first contact. That raises Enrico Fermi’s question: “Where is everybody?” One answer known as “the great filter” is that civilizations self-destruct once they reach a certain level of technological development. I can imagine God, eating popcorn, watching all these tragedies unfold – each in its unique way – as time and again supposedly smart creatures wink out of existence. Maybe this isn’t tragedy. Maybe it is all designed by a divine, morbid sense of humor. When Donald Trump was elected to lead planet earth’s most powerful and wealthy nation, I could imagine God sitting up and paying attention. Here it comes – another one bites the dust! In their 2014 book, The Col
The Untimely Lesson of Coco
Jan 4, 2018 · original
(warning: spoilers follow) The new Disney film Coco looks at a timeless dilemma in an untimely way. The dilemma is that between individual and community, between the free self and the claims of family and tradition. By having a living boy dwell among the dead in the spirit world, the film shows the full depths of our contradictory human experience. Our birth sets us on a biography that no one else can share or inhabit from the inside. Our death folds us back into the same cloth. We are at once unique and selfsame. We are, en masse, alone. Each culture has its own response to this push and pull. The modern west is founded, naturally, on the celebration of the individual. Tradition is seen as irrational, family as arbitrary and stifling, and the community as burdensome. Coco , however, is set in a premodern villa. We know this, because, work life and home life have not yet been thoroughly

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