Explain Nation

 Animals and humans have a built-in alarm system: the hormone cortisol.  Animals may stray away from their family to get some food, freedom, or sunshine. The sun increases the brain hormone serotonin which is responsible for a joyful feeling. After a while, before an unseen predator attacks, cortisol rises to make them feel anxious, restless, generally feeling bad and not knowing why. At this point, the animal would rush back to its family or herd. In the company of those we love, like or trust, the brain chemical oxytocin shoots up. Oxytocin gives us a good feeling. Anxiety and fear make animals and humans irritable and even hostile. But avoiding trouble is the response if the threat is too big. Evolutionary scientists noted that animals who were not easily scared were the first to die. Humans also try to displace the cortisol surge by getting angry. We kick the trash can, curse someone, or unfriend people on social media. Some deal with it by praying or meditating. When we a...

First of all, I recognize the sorrow of the victims and survivors of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and tsunamis. I pray that measures and alert systems in the future will keep us safe because earthquakes will keep coming if life on earth must survive. Earthquakes are how we feel plate tectonics. They’re the movement of rock plates on the crust of the earth and the mantle below it. It is our planet’s recycling system and always-charged battery. 1. Shakes happen when blocks of earth slip past one another. Gradually, cold slabs of rocks fall into the earth’s underground oven while freshly-baked plates rise to warm the seafloor. Without this cycle, oceans will freeze. 2. The sinking rocks pull carbon dioxide down with them. Carbon dioxide is good for earthly life but too much of it can make the planet overheat.  3. When rocks sink, they also bring with them dead organisms. They are recycled and returned to the surface as nutrients to feed marine life and to maintain the chemical com...

In Georgias, Plato warned that the populace is easy prey for charming politicians with hidden agenda. He argued that democracy can collapse into tyranny. Plato was validated. In the book How Democracies Die, Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt recalled that many dictators “ascended the despotic throne” riding on popular vote. In the past two centuries, many countries widened the base of people allowed to vote. It was a clear attempt to make societies more egalitarian but had risks and tradeoffs. Harvard professor Jennifer L. Horschild commented that decision-making in terms of tackling issues and choosing leaders have “become of lower quality” as a result of expanded suffrage. I wish not to put down the lower classes. But it’s true that lack of education and lack of access to the right information can make people become easy victims of liars, especially in the era of fake news. Even today, mass education has not ensured a better-informed electorate. In the book Too Dumb for Democracy, D...