02 Sep 2026

The Comforting Illusion That We Humans Are in Charge

By Joel Lorentzen
1049 SEP 2026 Corn & Pigs Uncommon Sense Joel Lorentzen River Cities Reader.png

Take, for example, corn. You probably didn’t expect that. But however you might measure intelligence, it is probably only valid if corn’s is higher than ours. In the fauna realm, if a Martian landed in my community and reported back to their spaceship on who is in charge down here, they would almost certainly have to say “pigs.”

25 Dec 2025

Urbanization and the New American Divide

By Joel Lorentzen

Political Ideology Is Not Driving Socialisim's Rise in Global Cities, Structural Stability Amidst Unseen Resources Is

Over my 67 years in the Midwest, I’ve watched generations leave small towns for larger cities. I understand the appeal: opportunity, stimulation, anonymity, convenience. Alongside this pervasive trend, a political shift is taking place: socialism has become more acceptable and capitalism less revered, especially in the nation’s largest metros.

31 Oct 2023

Declaration of Dependence

By Joel Lorentzen
The blindfold is being yanked off lady justice.

Reading the words of Common Sense, the Declaration of Independence, the Federalist Papers, and the Constitution makes obvious to me how learned our founders were in governance and human nature, and how they captured both in the idea of our nation.

30 Sep 2023

A Climate of Skepticism

By Joel Lorentzen
The climate non-skeptics are lulled into hapless orthodoxy, and the skeptics are quieted into non-pa

The article “Why EROEI Matters” by David Turver (Eigen Values, Substack.com) fascinates me. It gets my skeptic up. I won’t upstage Mr. Turver by summarizing it, but EROEI (Energy Recovered On Energy Invested) is a great way to compare the efficacy of energy sources, and his article is an excellent critique of our policy direction. You should read it.

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