Blog Archives

THE MINDSET LIST OF QUEEN ELIZABETH MONROE: DIAMONDS ARE A BIRL’S BEST FRIEND

by Tom McBride

The Mindset List of Queen Elizabeth Monroe: Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend They’ve never been together before—until now. They are arguably the two most iconic women on the planet after World War II. Nearly eighty years on, few on the globe would not recognize their images. They are both royals, albeit in different modes. They both proved, and continue to prove, the enduring truth that diamonds are a girl’s best friend, whether on the head or around the neck. 1 Both were born 40 days apart in 1926, the future British queen as Elizabeth Windsor and the future Hollywood queen as Norma Jean Mortenson. 2 Marilyn took as her surname the American president who declared an American empire in   Read on »

The Biblical In-QUIZ-ition: A Scriptural Ultra Sound Just for YOU!

by Tom McBride

the Biblical The Biblical In-QUIZ-ition: A Scriptural Ultra Sound Just for YOU! By Ron Nief with Tom McBride Nowhere in the Bible does it say you must KNOW the Bible in order to go to Heaven. But once upon a time in America people not only kept the Family Bible in a pride-of-household place. They read it daily. Above all, it was the linguistic sea they swam in. Hundreds 0f familiar phrases emerged from its tissue-thin pages. The Bible was a linguistic way of life.  That was a while ago. How familiar are you with those days of yore? This little quiz—our own version of the old “inquisition” of the Late Middle Ages—is a quick and dirty way to find   Read on »

THE MINDSET LIST OF ANXIOUS ADOLESCENCE: A Teen’s Brain on Social Media

by Tom McBride

The Mindset List of Anxious Adolescence: A Teen’s Brain on Social Media The great social media platforms permit teens, and the rest of us, to network, find interesting acquaintances, and share inspiring moments. Social psychologists and parents say that social media also makes teens anxious. Adolescence is a tough time anyhow—all those self-esteem and developmental issues—but social media platforms, combined with recession, pandemics, and political bitterness, make things even worse. Lots of kids do fine with Facebook and Instagram and all the others, but many will struggle and find social media a paradoxically addictive burden. Here’s the pubescent mindset of an incessant process that some experts think is becoming a national problem. 1.  Our social sciences teacher said people our   Read on »

THE HAVANA SYNDROME MINDSET LIST: A Famous Medical Enigma

by Tom McBride

THE MINDSET LIST OF HAVANA SYNDROME Other than UFO sightings, few unexplained events have gotten as much attention as has the so-called HAVANA SYNDROME, a series of incidents reported especially by American (and some Canadian) diplomats all over the world. These personnel and their families say that they have experienced a wide array of symptoms, including disorientation, imbalance, nausea, confusion, concussion, deafness, and fatigue. A few of them have been unable to return to work, and a Congressional bill, bi-partisan, and signed by the president, has supplied benefits for American government employees who experience brain and heart injuries, Havana Syndrome is a cause for alarm and mystery. But it has not happened in a vacuum but in a mindset. It maps onto   Read on »

THE MINDSET LIST OF MICROMANAGING PARENTS

by Tom McBride

THE MINDSET LIST OF MICROMANAGING PARENTS There’s nothing quite like starting a 40year trend. And, even better, doing it quickly. By the end of Regan’s first term Stranger Danger, Play Dates, Bike Helmets, and Satanic Panic were all big cultural trends, and they have yet to exhaust themselves. By the 90s “Velcro Parents” and “Helicopter Parents” had entered the lexicon.  They’re still growing strong, with children’s self-esteem and safety on the line, and a growing trend towards consumerism in daycare, summer camp, grammar and elementary schools, and even colleges and universities. So far, it seems, graduate and professional schools have escaped. Such parents and guardians have mindsets. Read on.  1 Stranger Danger has always been a thing.  2 A Play Date is rarely a bad idea.    Read on »

THE MINDSET LIST OF AMERICAN BIBLICAL ILLITERACY

by Tom McBride

THE MINDSET LIST OF AMERICAN BIBLICAL ILLITERACY  By Ron Nief and Tom McBride (niefr@beloit.edu and mcbridet@beloit.edu) There was a time when bible stories were taught in school as literature. No more. Surveys confirm a dramatic decline in church membership and attendance, particularly among young people. Biblical illiteracy is up there with financial illiteracy. “People revere the bible but nobody reads it,” concluded a Gallup poll. Our concern does not relate to a decline in faith and morals. Our issue is that, today, with little exposure to the hymns and classic stories of Joshua, David, Paul, and Lot’s wife, generations are coming away with little understanding of important scriptural references that fill great literature and pop up in rock lyrics and   Read on »

Our Newest List: A TRIP DOWN CENTURY LANE…..If You’d Been 18 a Century Ago

by Tom McBride

A TRIP DOWN CENTURY LANE: On Being a Teen-Ager in 1922 Suppose it were a hundred years ago, you were eighteen, and trying to get your life out of the blocks. Well, there was reason to be optimistic. Sure, Germany had hyperinflation and Italy had something new called “fascism,” but the major powers were disarming, the “movies” were getting longer, the presidents of the world were talking on something called “radio,” and Ireland and Egypt were free states at last. Edward, that dashing new Prince of Wales, promised to be a great king someday. That League of Nations would keep mega-destructive wars from ever happening again. And if you were an American, then your president was as handsome as a   Read on »

THE MINDSET MOMENTS LIST: How To Avoid Hardening of the References Around Your Grandchildren

by Tom McBride

Tom McBride and Ron Nief called them “Mindset Moments.” They are the settings in which you have made a witty point or perceptive observation, yet you have been met with blank stares. The message is clear that your inciteful observation has fallen flat. And your audience doesn’t know what you are talking about. These “moments” provided the impetus, 25 years ago, when Tom and I were still of sound mind at Beloit College, for the creation of the Mindset List and several books. It was a list we shared initially with faculty colleagues and, eventually, with audiences around the world with the warning:                           BEWARE OF HARDENING OF THE REFERENCES. An intriguing setting for these Mindset Moments today has come   Read on »