This is a very high-powered book. Stressful thinking is wreaking havoc on the lives of so many in our fast-paced world. davidji offers a comprehensive course written in a language that you can grasp and apply immediately, all within the covers of one book. I loved it and am recommitted to in-the-moment destressifying.

Dr. Wayne W. Dyer, #1 New York Times best-selling author of I Can See Clearly Now

I love the genuineness and raw simplicity of davidjis powerful message. His style is inclusive and inviting rather than exclusive and elitist. Bottom line: I want to have an outlook on life just like davidji.

Laurent Potdevin, CEO, lululemon

davidji is a master teacher who illuminates a better way to be human by bringing bleeding-edge research to life and showing practical ways to change your mind-set about stress.

Shawn Achor, happiness researcher and New York Times best-selling author of The Happiness Advantage

davidjis fundamentally human approach gets at a simple truth: if we are happier, healthier, and more aware of our inner motivations, we will perform better in our jobs, be better parents or spouses, and be more present for our clients. This is true because, thanks to davidjis guidance, we have a better understanding of what peace of mind is and how to achieve it.

John W. Thiel, CEO, Merrill Lynch

davidji is a wonderful teacher who brings joy and awareness to the world.

Deepak Chopra, M.D.,New York Times best-selling author of The Future of God

davidji has written a powerful, practical, and inspiring manual to help us understand and radically transform our relationship to stress. Written with a brilliant blend of clarity, compassion, and wisdom, it enlightens the mind and uplifts the heart.I highlyrecommenddestressifyingas essential reading for anyone who wants to live a more peaceful and joyful life!

Dr. Barbara De Angelis,#1 New York Times best-selling authorof Soul Shifts

Im a huge fan and a lucky friend. I love being in davidjisgreat, robust, rich, delicious, deep, peaceful, funny, people- and animal-loving presence. Hes a wonderful teacher, anddestressifyingis a book we all need to read and embrace.

Kris Carr,New York Times best-selling author of the Crazy Sexy Cancer book series

davidji is a divine teacher and a soulful leader. In his book destressifying, he offers a practical guide to managing stress with grace. In a world where stress has become an epidemic, this book is a must-read. davidjis wisdom and tools will clear the blocks to the presence of peace we all long for.

Gabrielle Bernstein,New York Times best-selling author of Miracles Now

If Id read this book as a beginning meditator, Id have avoided a lot of false starts, perceptual errors, and backaches.Reading it now, many years into my own practice, I still found jewels that enriched and brightened my meditation and my life.davidji is a gentle, kind, patient, clever teacher whose words can help lighten your stress and facilitate your quest for greater wisdom.

Martha Beck,New York Times best-selling author of Finding Your Way in a Wild New World

davidji is an incomparable teacher. The depth and breadth of his wisdom is unsurpassed. With davidji, the Blue Courage team of police officerswho teachthousands of cops annuallyhave laughed, cried, learned, grown, and transformed. davidji has the solutions that protect those who protect us. Through davidji, hearts are healed, souls are inspired, spirits are ignited, and minds are expanded. Oh yesand lives are saved! In a modern world desperately in need of greater awareness and resilience, destressifyingis your must-read! Thank you, davidji!

Michael J. Nila, police commander (Ret.), Blue Courage founder and managing partner

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destressifying: The Real-World Guide to Personal Empowerment ...

Personal Empowerment Through Horses

Author: Kit Muellner, LICSW, EAGALA Certified and CEO of H.O.P.E. Ranch Bullying isnt just about schoolkids or athletes. Its rampant in many workplaces, no matter the industry. It is said that workplace bullying has become a national epidemic. In fact, the Workplace Bullying Institute, which has been around for 20 years, conducts studies on the []

Rain or Shine, the Saturday, October 7th Rendezvous & Carnival is on! This is no problem for us at the Ranch. We have a great big arena that can hold the carnival games, silent auction, animals, crafts and more! Get the kids out of the house and into the Arena for a fun day at []

H.O.P.E. Ranch is a is a beautiful 8-acre ranch in the hills southwest of Rochester, Minnesota/ We specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental and emotional problems through traditional psychotherapy methods and equine assisted psychotherapy. Our team of EAGALA Certified Psychotherapist Horse specialists and mental health counselors have years of experience and employ methods designed to deliver positive mental health outcomes.

H.O.P.E. Ranch not only helps individuals but also Corporate teams through retreats and exercises designed to improve how your organization functions. Get out of the conference room and onto H.O.P.E. Ranch for your next corporate retreat.

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Hope Ranch Personal Empowerment Through Horses

One Stop Healing

Massage Therapy for your body.

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Call or email for a FREE 30-minute consultation. 207-653-9792

Phone sessions are available.

Oils in a Session

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Therapists all over the United States and Canada are learning about this amazingly effective therapy and using it to treat their clients and achieve effects that are cumulative, long lasting, and many therapists report their results as being miraculous.

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Gua sha meaning scraping, is a traditional Chinese medical treatment in which the skin is scraped to produce light bruising. Practitioners believe gua sha releases unhealthy elements from injured areas and stimulates blood flow and healing. Gua sha is sometimes referred to as spooning or coining by English speakers.

Call Beth now to experience these incredibly releasing techniques. 207-653-9792

Check out my newEmpowermentMeditations CD

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Beth Koehler, CPC | Personal Empowerment Life Coach ...

Author, Psychotherapist, Workshop Leader, Pianist

The message that runs through all of Charlottes books and workshops is that of empowermentto find your authentic voice, trust your internal wisdom, open yourself to new learning and understand yourself and others within a cultural context. Her 16-step Empowerment Model introduced in Many Roads, One Journey: Moving Beyond the Twelve Steps, offers a holistic, wellness approach for overcoming addiction, trauma and depression. It has been adopted throughout the Unites States and Canada.

Charlotte engages people in her books and workshops by intertwining psychology, feminism, sociology, Buddhism, Quaker teachings and other spiritual traditions. She is able to make complex ideas clear and easy to grasp. She presents material in a warm, compassionate, often humorous manner, involving the participants and making the materials at once personally accessible and applicable to everyday situations. Her books have been translated into 24 languages and have approximately 800,000 copies in print.

I wear the hat of psychotherapist, author, and teacher, but at my core, I am a peace and social justice activist. I believe the starting place for healing the planet is in our hearts and in the ways we practice respect, empathy, and understanding in all human relationships, including our relationship to ourselves. Ultimately our personal growth and empowerment are expressed through helping restore justice, peace and balance on the planet and coming to the deep awareness that we are one earth, one people.

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Charlotte Kasl

Get Off The Scale!

You are beautiful. Your beauty, just like your capacity for life, happiness, and success, is immeasurable. Day after day, countless people across the globe get on a scale in search of validation of beauty and social acceptance.

Get off the scale! I have yet to see a scale that can tell you how enchanting your eyes are. I have yet to see a scale that can show you how wonderful your hair looks when the sun shines its glorious rays on it. I have yet to see a scale that can thank you for your compassion, sense of humor, and contagious smile. Get off the scale because I have yet to see one that can admire you for your perseverance when challenged in life.

Its true, the scale can only give you a numerical reflection of your relationship with gravity. Thats it. It cannot measure beauty, talent, purpose, life force, possibility, strength, or love. Dont give the scale more power than it has earned. Take note of the number, then get off the scale and live your life. You are beautiful! Steve Maraboli, Life, the Truth, and Being Free

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Quotes About Self Empowerment (245 quotes) - Goodreads

MINNEAPOLIS Davis Powell works at Pomps Tire Service outside the Twin Cities, where he inspects and repairs tires. Overall, its a good job with good benefits, said Powell, 33, a two-year employee.

Powell has gone from being a penniless inmate in a Minnesota state prison four years ago to a $14-an-hour employee, plus benefits and ample overtime, a shared apartment, a car and a future.

Powell also represents an untapped national workforce of millions of formerly incarcerated people.

My crime came out of pride and low self-esteem, said Powell, who was released months early in 2013 for good behavior following a robbery conviction. Im not going back to prison.

Powell, while on probation, went through personal-empowerment and job-skills training provided by Twin Cities Rise, the 25-year-old nonprofit that helps unemployed and underemployed folks boost their technical and personal skills and advance in careers through jobs that range from office work to mechanics and bus drivers. While enrolled at Rise, Powell also worked a temp job that required a three-bus commute.

Empowerment training, which Rise teaches to business managers as well as former inmates, involves humility, decisionmaking, communication skills and owning your choices.

Empowerment motivated me, Powell said. Ive gained the skills. To listen and express myself professionally. I took the classes. I went from a low credit score to high credit (score). Despite my background, I felt I deserved a second chance. And I know if I do well, maybe other people and employers will see that. And it will help open the door for others.

One of my goals is to take a vacation. And I want to own a home one day.

Formerly incarcerated people, disproportionately lower-income people of color, have been a tough group to employ, even in a worker-hungry, low-unemployment rate economy. However, theres evidence that employers and society are starting to reconsider.

A groundbreaking report this summer by the American Civil Liberties Union and its Trone Private Sector and Education Advisory Council, provides a road map. Called Back to Business: How Hiring Formerly Incarcerated Jobseekers Benefits Your Company, the report has been embraced by the disparate likes of criminal justice reformers, including Google, Total Wine, the Ford Foundation, Open Society Foundation, Koch Industries, Walmart and others.

We have hired individuals with criminal records as employees for decades by getting to know them as candidates first and looking into their background only after they have received a conditional offer, Mark Holden, general counsel of Koch Industries, said in a prepared statement. These employees have been humble and diligent contributors, and we encourage other employers to think about hiring differently.

Seventy million Americans one in three adults have a criminal conviction, according to the report authors.

The ACLU report offers practical advice for employers looking to tap into this often overlooked talent pool, providing case studies, compliance recommendations and hiring advice.

The report stresses the importance of not simply creating entry-level positions, but also career pathways that start with prison education and training that continues along the employment ladder.

Large and small businesses alike can reap dividends by providing second-chance opportunities to returning citizens, said Janice Davis, vice president and general counsel of eWaste Tech Systems. Our experience has shown returning citizens to be as reliable, if not more reliable, than citizens without any criminal history.

CEO Tom Streitz and Jeff Williams, director of the Empowerment Institute at Twin Cities Rise, said the retention rate for their graduates who were formerly incarcerated is higher than average.

We have 80 percent retention for one year and 70 percent for two years, Streitz said. Thats double the national average of retention on a (entry-level) job. We not only provide a great employee, but one who will stick.

However, Williams said barriers persist, including concern that hiring former inmates will drive up insurance rates.

Its a myth that anyone who has committed a crime is a bad person who cannot change, he said.

CEO Thomas Adams of Better Futures Minnesota runs a social enterprise that has trained and employed 150 former incarcerates over the last three years. Better Futures generated $5 million in revenue from deconstructing houses, recycling and selling 70 tons of building materials that once were landfilled. Yet, the organization has yet to see a significant uptick in the pace of hiring since Minnesota law was changed to no longer require job applicants to check a box if they are a former prison inmate.

Adams said 70 percent of his trainees were in prison because of drug dependency or sales.

Sixty percent of the men we serve in Hennepin County without intervention go back to prison within six months, Adams said, referring to the Twin Cities-area county.

Better Futures employs a two-year model involving training, support and employment, including housing, personal health and mentor coaching.

When they leave us, in as little as eight months, they have a work history and certifications in forklift operation, construction safety, janitorial-custodial, hazardous-material removal, other certifications, he said.

Those jobs pay $16 to $18 an hour, but criminal convictions mean they usually have to start out in food service or light manufacturing, where pay is more like $10.50 an hour.

We try to keep them motivated that the change they recognize in themselves (will eventually be recognized and rewarded by employers). For us, success is even the guy who gets a full-time job making $11 or $12 an hour and who can pay the rent on time.

We want to help them not be dependent on somebody else or the correction system, but to be self-sufficient.

The fork ratings are based primarily on food quality and preparation, with service and atmosphere factored into the final decision. Reviews are based on one unsolicited, unannounced visit to the restaurant.

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A job after prison: Advocates make the case for an under-used workforce - WatertownDailyTimes.com

Run The Jewels. Phillipe Callant for NPR hide caption

Run The Jewels.

The story-in-progress of Run The Jewels is one of triumph. El-P and Killer Mike met in 2011, and after a fruitful collaboration joined forces officially in 2013, forming Run The Jewels. Four years and three critically acclaimed albums later, they have become one of the most unlikely success stories of 21st century hip-hop.

Both rappers have had long, bumpy journeys in different scenes: El-P (born Jaime Meline) was an original member of New York City's Company Flow and co-founded a record label, Definitive Jux. Killer Mike (aka Michael Render) is Atlanta born-and-bred he made his debut with a feature on OutKast's Stankonia and, between numerous solo albums, has collaborated with Big Boi, T.I. and the Dungeon Family collective.

Before they met, both rappers were at crossroads in their respective careers, struggling with a lack of recognition and grappling with loss both personal and financial. The emergence of Run The Jewels is, therefore, not just a meteoric rise, but a remarkable career renaissance for these two hip-hop veterans.

On this episode of What's Good with Stretch & Bobbito, El-P and Killer Mike talk about how they turned "run the jewels," originally slang for a robbery, into an empowering slogan, homophobia in hip-hop, emphasizing shared humanity and freedom over political differences and more.

El-P on the origin of the name "Run The Jewels"

Run The Jewels, me and Mike, and our connection and everything, came out of a period of time where I had personally lost everything. Everything I had been working on, including any personal money that I had, you know, the record label I had been working on for 10 years and all, and friends that had passed away a lot of stuff kind of fell out from underneath my feet, completely. And I had a period of time where I was, a couple years where I had been humbled by the world. I'd been humbled by the universe. But I remember, when I started making music and started to feel good again, and I remember I was listening to "Cheesy Rat Blues" off of the Mama Said Knock You Out album [by LL Cool J]. And it's a story about him losing everything, about him being a rap star and losing everything, and the friends that he thought that he had going away, and him getting desperate. And it just connected with me at that time, I'll be honest. And at the end of the song he went, "Throw your hands in the air, wave 'em like you just don't care, keep 'em there run the jewels." All of a sudden it meant something to me, bigger than that. All of a sudden it felt powerful. All of a sudden it felt like, "You know what? I don't have anything, but get ready. I'm gonna take it. I'm gonna take something."

Killer Mike on seeing past political differences toward shared humanity

What I care about is that people know we're free. The older I get, the more of an anarchist I become. And I don't mean in the punk rock type of way where I just seek to destroy things. I mean, I believe truly we're not going to progress as a species until we feel responsible to educate and to bring every heart, or every person who belongs to this species, up to a point where we don't have a need for culture, religion, or nations to define us. I'm not saying you can't do your culture, religion or your nation, but that can't be the only thing that defines you as a human being, you know? I have to see your humanity before I see you as a Spanish man. I have to see your humanity before I see a white man. Doesn't mean I don't see a Spanish man. Doesn't mean I don't see a white man. It means that I don't let those things interfere with me respecting and loving you as a human being. That is sacred to me.

Killer Mike on people of all races participating in hip-hop

Let's give black people and black music some credit: they are a very inclusive bunch. You know, black people don't really keep people out of their thing. If you say to a black woman on the train, "I've always wanted to go to a black church," she's gonna invite you to her church. If you look at rock 'n' roll, they never tried to keep white artists out. ... Black people are a good people! In terms of culturally sharing with people. So as long as you have love and respect, and prove authentic, there has always been a way for people that have been let in the door that did right by it. Because you grew it. We need allies. That is my pet word. Like, none of us progress without allies. None of us progress. I am happy [about] the amalgamation of people that has taken and pushed this art form forward.

NPR Music news assistant Karen Gwee contributed to this story.

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Run The Jewels On Empowerment And Shared Humanity - NPR - NPR

Open Road Films

Hallie Meyers-Shyers Home Again is a fascinating banality, the movie equivalent of a staring at a bucolic motel painting until you start to see skeletons in the haystacks. Its a rom-com about an adrift 40-year-old named Alice (Reese Witherspoon) who introduces herself by introducing her dad, a fictitious 70s auteur who made films you dont have to see to have seen: personal sagas about heartbreak and death starring ingenues in bikinis, most of whom he shagged. Alices mom Lillian (a breezy Candice Bergen) was less than half his age when they got married, and not much older when they divorced atypical only in that she got a ring and baby out of the deal.

Pops was away shooting in Mykonos when Alice was born, and hes long-dead before Home Again begins. But his ghost hides in the shadows of Alices sun-dappled life. Hes there in the selfish record executive (Michael Sheen) she married and had two daughters with, one of whom (Lola Flanery) is begging to go on anti-depressants. His statuettes and scripts clutter the Brentwood mansion she flees to when she and her husband, Austen, separate. And most of all, hes there in the way Alice acts like her own back-up singer, halfheartedly trying on vanity careers like a clothing designer and a photographer while waiting for another loud man to seize her mic. So while it might seem off-kilter when she takes home 27-year-old Harry (Pico Alexander), a cocky director who just moved to LA after his short won SXSW, her therapist, if she had one, would say her terrible mate selection is perfectly in-key. (And her best friend, played by Dolly Wells, cant resist noting that all their male friends are also dating millennials.)

Harry is a tall, handsome nothing, a strutting mannequin whose defining quality is skin as smooth and dense as butterscotch candy. He talks in a tranquilizing Hey Girl coo. Before taking Alice to bed, he purrs, Got anything from IKEA I can assemble? But hes no fantasy man; Meyers-Shyer smartly makes him too selfish for that. Instead, she emphasizes his immaturity: the face that looks airbrushed, the ego thats never taken a hit, the heart thats never dealt with any relationship more complicated than a college fling. Occasionally, he gives a grand speech about his passion for film, which to the movies credit, no one takes seriously. Hes also gloweringly jealous of Austen a beat that the movie considers both foolish and endearing, like a kid sulking over a participation trophy while demanding total devotion from his creative partners, aspiring screenwriter George (SNL escapee Jon Rudnitsky) and his own actor-brother Teddy (Nat Wolff.) To anyone whos survived dating 27-year-old, just-moved-to-town, wannabe directors, Harrys more strung up with red flags than Chinese New Years. During the scene where he talks over his own black-and-white film while showing it to Alice in bed, the theater seats in LA will shudder like a 5.6 earthquake.

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'Home Again' Finds Reese Witherspoon Trying To Resuscitate The Rom-Com - UPROXX

By Monovithya Kem and Samathida Kem By Monovithya Kem and Samathida Kem September 7 at 12:58 PM

The Cambodian government has jailed opposition leader Kem Sokha for alleged treason. Here, his daughter Monovithya Kem of the Cambodia National Rescue Party warns that Prime Minister Hun Sen is testing just how authoritarian he can be ahead of elections. (Gillian Brockell,Kate Woodsome/The Washington Post)

Monovithya Kem is the deputy director-general of public affairs at the Cambodia National Rescue Party. Samathida Kem is an international economics consultant.

It was 30 minutes past midnight Sept. 2, 2017, when they came for our father, Cambodian opposition leader Kem Sokha. Dozens of heavily armed policemen converged on his house in Phnom Penh in the darkness. They had no warrant, but they told his guards that they would be destroyed if they didnt open the door. Then the police charged in. They pushed two female housekeepers to the floor, putting guns to their heads and robbing them of their phones and money. Our fathers last words to us over the phone were, Theyre handcuffing me. Then they dragged him away as our mother cried for help.

Everyone in Cambodia has heard stories like this from the 1970s. Our own grandfather was taken from his home by the Khmer Rouge in 1975 and never returned. But this is September 2017.

Our fathers dream of democracy was born from the sleepless nights of the Khmer Rouge regime, when a small circle of well-armed men in black robes sold their year zero dogma of destruction to Cambodias youths. The Khmer Rouge nearly succeeded in their mission to erase our history and culture by denying the differences that animate our individual humanity.

Yet despite all the horrors we experienced in the 20th century genocide, war, foreign occupation ordinary Cambodians have clung to the dream of a society in which they can choose their leader and shape their own fates. Tonight, our father dreams that dream from behind bars, accused by Prime Minister Hun Sen of treason for preaching grass-roots democracy. And outside those prison bars a terrified citizenry looks to the outside world to save it once again.

Our father first became involved in politics in the early 1990s, when he was elected as a member of parliament. In the course of his work he came to believe that Cambodians needed to learn more about democracy if they were to participate in it effectively, so he resigned to found the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR), a U.S.-funded nonprofit, in 2002.

CCHR was different from other human rights organizations in Cambodia in the sense that not only that it defended human rights and promoted democracy but also effectively encouraged people to defend and demand their own rights within democratic principles. It gave people a platform to voice their opinions through public forums that were broadcast on local radio.

When the first public forum took place the first of its kind since the genocide it was attended by roughly a dozen people. Supporters of the ruling party ridiculed the event, but they underestimated the change that was about to happen. Through years of our fathers tireless traveling to every village in the country, the CCHR forums became popular among rural villagers. Hundreds, sometimes thousands, of them showed up at each forum, eager to take hold of the microphone and tell the world what they had kept secret for decades. It was through the CCHR forums that many traumatized Cambodian people first felt the sense of personal pride, empowerment and dignity that comes from having their voices heard, their grievances aired and their views respected.

As soon as the government realized that this was happening, our father became a target. In late 2005, the authorities accused him of defamation for displaying banners with handwritten criticisms of the government by ordinary citizens. He was arrested at his office on New Years Eve. He was released 17 days later.

This time the charge is far more serious. The brutality of his arrest is revealing: His work has become a threat to the ruling party. The government is accusing him of treason based on a video publicly broadcast with his knowledge in 2013. In the video, he explains his willingness to learn from experts from around the world, his effort to effect nonviolent change from the grass roots, and his return to politics to make that happen. The government has produced and distributed a selectively edited version of the video to buttress its claims. Yet what it calls treason is nothing more than an expression of support for grass-roots empowerment and effective opposition in democracy.

Whether they like it or not, Cambodians attitudes towards freedom and democracy have already changed. And the change is here to last. As our father has said, they may detain our bodies, but they may not detain our conscience. Yes, his arrest frightens us. But we will never again be the passive victims the world once saw during the Khmer Rouge regime. The governments crackdowns on the opposition, the media and civil society will not bring the silence it hopes for. Its repression is only contributing to political instability, and that is not in anyones interest.

A politically unstable Cambodia is not good for the world. Those foreign governments who seek favor with the current leadership for political or economic reasons are misguided. It is never a wise policy to ally oneself with a government that is an enemy of the people.

Today we once again call for the international community to take action to reverse the deteriorating political situation in our country. It is too late to save our grandfather and the millions of Cambodians who were murdered and oppressed by the Khmer Rouge. It is not yet too late to help the millions who are craving change now, including my father. But time is running out.

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Why the Cambodian government arrested our father in the middle of the night - Washington Post

With even Vladimir Putin now warning of global catastrophe from the recent tensions in Korea, we are in arguably the worst period of nuclear brinkmanship since the end of the Cold War. It is partly thanks to a strand of thinking among the American right that a nuclear attack on Pyongyang would succeed where decades of diplomacy has failed.

Welcome to the cult of the technological fix. It is the conviction that social and political problems can be side-stepped by clever engineering. The same logic finds its way into many recent initiatives. It helps explain why Donald Trump continues to pursue a 1,000 mile wall with Mexico as the answer to Americas problem with illegal immigrants, for example.

Technological fixes are nothing new, of course. Controlling the flow of populations with physical obstructions lay behind the medieval Great Wall of China and Hadrians Wall in England in the second century. The layout of 19th century Paris was transformed with broad avenues to prevent mobs from barricading the streets. In the 1880s, streetcar manufacturers experimented with automatic doors to make joyriding impossible.

In the 20th century, technological fixes were packaged and given the name by one tireless promoter, Alvin M Weinberg. Weinberg was a reactor designer during the wartime Manhattan Project, the Allies bid to be first to create an atomic bomb. He went on to become director of a national laboratory exploring applications of nuclear energy.

Imagining a world transformed by nuclear power, Weinberg became convinced that technological innovation was the best way of dealing with any social issue. Well placed to gain the ear of engineering peers and American policymakers, he invented a durable term for this confident new environment: Big Science.

For Weinberg, conventional problem solving through education, law enforcement and moral guidance was slow and ineffective. Convert such issues into technological problems to be solved by engineers, he argued. The Hiroshima bomb had dodged the need for political negotiation, he claimed, stabilising international relations in the process.

In the wall-building stakes, Weinberg was Trumps fellow traveller. He petitioned the Johnson administration to build a wall between North and South Vietnam, though privately admitted shortly after that his scheme was very amateurish. He also promoted the idea of funding air conditioners in slum districts, arguing they would literally cool down tensions during the hot summer months to avoid urban riots.

This too was left on the drawing board, but other less provocative ideas gained traction. He shared road safety campaigner Ralph Naders observation that car seatbelts were more effective than traffic laws or driver education for reducing fatalities. He claimed that intra-uterine contraceptive devices like the coil meant birth control was no longer a desperately complicated social problem. He pushed cigarette filters as an easier way to reduce the harms of smoking than persuading users to quit.

Weinbergs faith in engineers is even more widespread today. His championing of the likes of cigarette filters anticipated the way we value technological fixes for improving individuals particularly their health and well-being.

To address our cultural preoccupation with weight control, for example, why have diet plans or exercise regimes when there are low-calorie sugar substitutes, over-the-counter appetite suppressants, gastric bands and liposuction? And if you eat healthily and exercise anyway, dont worry: there are wearable technologies to monitor, cajole and regiment us further.

When Apple came up with theres an app for that to promote software-based tech fixes, it epitomised Silicon Valleys reinvention of Weinberg dogma as solutionism. Where Weinberg promoted societal benefits, now it had become about personal empowerment for the me generation.

The message is that if youre deficient in willpower, attention and consistency, its okay a consumer engineering fix is only a few clicks away. And the future promises to be still brighter. Say hello to genetic engineering, nootropics and implantable microchips.

Weinbergs agenda also endures at the policy level. To address terrorism, we have locks on cockpit doors, metal detectors, surveillance monitoring, bomb-sniffing devices and body scanners at airports. We seem to prefer such responses to anything so socio-political as negotiation or education.

Environmental concerns are another favourite. Electric motors promise more cars on the road with less air pollution. Oil-digesting microbes promise to clean up oil spills. Plastic packaging that degrades in sunlight could make litter disappear without clean-up campaigns.

Geo-engineering could even deal with climate change overall limiting temperature rise, carbon dioxide levels or both. Life can continue as usual, we are told again and again.

For all this confidence and hubris, we need to pay more heed to the drawbacks. Critics have long argued that technological fixes overlook deeper problems. Weinberg himself conceded they can look like band-aids, but believed they were still worthwhile while a better solution was being sought.

Yet this risks settling for the band-aid. We might become so pleased with electric cars that we stop worrying about the continued proliferation of roads, sedentary lifestyles and social segregation. If Trumps wall reduces illegal immigration, progressive Americans might lose interest in helping Mexico to become prosperous.

An even deeper concern is with placing problem solving in the hands of narrowly trained technical experts. Take the coil, for example: unlike condoms or the pill, where users make a daily choice, intra-uterine devices are a one-off insertion under a doctors authority. The flip-side of relying on engineering cures may be a passive and powerless public.

Weinberg never used the term technocracy, yet he did acknowledge that some technological solutions were incompatible with liberal democracy. Ironically, of course, it is exactly such frustrations that helped usher the current American president into office.

None of this is to say technological fixes are always wrong; more that they can be overly seductive. We need to recognise when they seem too good to be true, and consider them cautiously. That way we can steal back some of that democratic thunder before its too late starting, one would hope, by avoiding nuclear war in Korea.

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Beware the cult of 'tech fixing' it's why America is eyeing the ... - The Conversation UK