Individuals in the United States face pressing challenges when it comes to saving for retirement, according to a study by the International Longevity Centre-UK (ILC), supported by Prudential.

The research found that in order to secure a comfortable retirement, Americans now must save between 11% and 18% of their annual income. If individuals today fail to save, they would face a projected intergenerational gap of $10,000 a year or 20% of earnings.

However, the ILC says several changes can be made to reverse this trend. These include increasing private pension coverage and contributions. While the former would rely on a political victory, the latter may depend on how effective those in the retirement services industry are in helping participants manage their finances in order to save more for retirement. Another task would be encouraging participants, especially younger ones, to start saving as soon as possible.

The ILC notes that With increasing emphasis on personal responsibility for retirement planning, people will need to be able to understand the benefits of deferring consumption for a later date, the value of investing in assets other than cash, the importance of asset diversification, and the virtues of buying some form of longevity insurance at the point of retirement.

These efforts can be facilitated through soundfinancial wellness programs. Considering the national student loan debt is at a record high, participants young and old can benefit fromstudent loan repayment assistance. And while products such asannuitiesare gaining considerable notice in the industry, they remain complex contracts for many Americans. Thus, robust and targeted education is also an essential piece to closing the intergenerational savings gap.

These tasks are ever more important as the firm points out that public expenditures on Social Security in the U.S. is relatively low as a proportion to Global Domestic Product (GDP). Moreover, the pension system itself seems to be diminishing in the U.S. The report found that only 28% of those earning at least $75,000 a year are saving in a pension, and that figure drops to 3% when it comes to those making $25,000 a year or less.

Getting people to save more in their pensions can also be assisted by plan design tweaks. Much research in the defined contribution space points to thebenefits of automatic featureslike auto enrollment and auto escalation.

The ILC states Two public policy options look to be particularly successful in this regard, one which compels people to save as per the Singaporean, Hong Kong and French systems and another which nudges people to save as per the UKs auto-enrolment system. Simply hoping that people will save is unlikely to be sufficient. Furthermore, an opt-out option to automatic features can prevent significant backlash from employees not interested in saving. But with that regard, education and financial wellness can come into play in order to spread awareness of the importance of saving, while boosting participation.

The ILC concludes that Raising capability does not just happen overnight. This must be supported by a financial advice market that works for the many and not the few, in conjunction with new advice models that utilize technological advancements such as robo advice to make advice more accessible, understandable and cost effective. Finally, there will always be people who are inert and do nothing in the face of complex decisions. Good product defaults that avoid the worst outcomes will be important in this regard.

"The Global Savings Gap" by ILC- UK can be downloaded atilcuk.org.

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Sound Advice Can Propel Retirement Savings Contributions - Planadviser.com

You can be a master at planning, but then life happens.

This week, I wanted to focus the newsletter on a retirement scare that many people dont anticipate: What if you have to retire sooner than you planned?

Only 54 percent of Boomers have retirement savings, according to a report by the Insured Retirement Institute.

Although thats a scary statistic many people manage figure out how to retire with less than they planned. An email from Cynthia Smith of Lawrence, Kan.,is an example of someone forced into early retirement but made the numbers work.

I am retiring from my career in a legal specialty, but not by choice, Smith wrote. I was laid off in a merger in 2012 when I was already in my 50s. I moved away from my spouse (we are childless) to take the only job offered in almost three years of actively looking, but it was also eliminated after only one year. Even though I have a stellar resume, a great network and was a finalist for many jobs, in my late 50s I couldnt compete with younger, qualified people for jobs in my field.

Smith goes on to write, Besides juggling the finances, I think I have done a pretty good job making the best of unplanned early retirement. I gave myself license to spend some money on travel, golf, volunteering and other retirement activities, even though I thought I would still be working at my age. The retirement calculators show we should not run out of money, even if one of takes Social Security at 62. The thing I miss most in unplanned early retirement is being generous with our money, spending freely on family and friends and charitable causes, which we dont do anymore because my income didnt continue like we had expected.

Douglas Keder of Vancouver, Wash.,also found himself retired sooner than he had planned. He was forced into retirement unexpectedly at age 54.

While on vacation in 2015 I was enjoying one of my favorite hobbies, hiking in the mountains, when I had a very bad heart attack, Keder wrote. After some testing it was determined that the lack of oxygen caused damage and I would never work again. I was put on disability. Im just fortunate that I had over 36 years of railroad service, therefore my disability pays almost as much as retirement. We have downsized and are able to get by. It has been a wild and uncontrollable journey, but I am loving life. We do a little traveling. And I now have more time for my hobbies, mostly hiking and photography.

I believe we can learn from other peoples experiences, so the recommendation to read the following articles comes from Smith and Keders testimonies.

5 Ways to Handle a Forced Early Retirement

What Retirement Will Look Like Without Savings

Be sure as you plan for retirement or continue to assess your needs in retirement that you factor in health care costs. Eighty-two percent of Baby Boomers underestimate the percentage of their income theyll need to pay for health care, according to the report from the Institute.

Medical costs for retirees still rising

Im interested in your experiences or concerns about retirement.

Did you retire early and if so, how did you do it?

Is retirement everything you hoped for?

Are you scared youll run out of money?

Sharing your storymight help others. So send your comments to colorofmoney@washpost.com. Please include your name, city and state. In the subject line put Retirement Rants and Raves.

Retirement bloggersI believe that wealth happens intentionally and that means for me reading as much as I can about all things financial, especially retirement.

In this section of the newsletter, Ill feature postings from various retirement blogs.

In Smiths testimony she mentioned that she used some calculators to determine if she and her husband would run out of money. The report from the Insured Retirement Institute found that only four in 10 Baby Boomers have tried to calculate how much they need to save to retire, and of these, only six in 10 included estimates of health care costs in their calculations.

Squared Away blogger Kim Blanton tested three retirement calculators. Try one or all of them. Cant hurt.

Read: Retirement Calculators: 3 Good Options

Newsletter comments policyPlease note it is my personal policy to identify readers who respond to questions I ask in my newsletters. I find it encourages thoughtful and civil conversation. I want my newsletters to be a safe place to express your opinion. On sensitive matters or upon request, Im happy to include just your first name and/or last initial. But I prefer not to post anonymous comments (I do make exceptions when Im asking questions that might reveal sensitive information or cause conflict.)

Have a question about your finances? Michelle Singletary has a weekly live chat every Thursday at noon where she discusses financial dilemmas with readers. You can also write to Michelle directly by sending an email to michelle.singletary@washpost.com. Personal responses may not be possible, and comments or questions may be used in a future column, with the writers name, unless otherwise requested. To read more Color of Money columns, go here.

If you are reading this newsletter online you can it automatically sent to your inbox. Sign up for Michelle Singletarys free newsletters: Your Retirement on Mondays & Personal Finance on Thursdays http://wapo.st/personalfinance

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How would you handle a forced retirement? - Washington Post

Seniors are working at the highest rates in 55 years, according to a recent U.S. jobs report. Sean Dowling (@seandowlingtv) has more. Buzz60

retirement plan label on document folder(Photo: cacaroot, Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Decades ago, saving for retirement was fairly easy. You set aside 10% of your income in a taxable account. But over the years its become especially complicated given the many ways we can now save for retirement.

In addition to taxable accounts, we now have traditional IRAs, Roth IRAs, traditional 401(k)s, Roth 401(k)s, health savings accounts or HSAs, and all sorts of annuities including, qualifying longevity annuity contracts (QLACs) and deferred income annuities. Plus, retirees can generate income from any number of resources, such as a reverse mortgage or cash value life insurance, when the time comes to fund their living expenses.

To be sure, many experts are focused on helping retirees determine the most tax-efficient way to generate income in retirement from their various accounts, investments, and products, in combination with other sources such as earnings, Social Security, and, for some, a defined benefit plan.

But experts are starting to help pre-retirees learn how to prioritize their savings, learn how to save in the most tax-efficient way possible given all the various accounts, products, strategies and tactics.

And the reason is simple. Some dollars given all the different ways you can save on a pre-tax and after-tax basis, given your marginal tax rate in the year you contribute to your retirement account and your withdrawal year tax rate are worth more than others in retirement.

For instance, you might need to set aside twice as much money in a taxable account as you would in an HSA to generate the same amount of income in retirement. Thats because money goes into a taxable account after taxes and distributions are taxed at the capital gains rate. By contrast, money goes into an HSA pre-tax, grows tax-free, and withdrawals used for qualified medical expenses are tax-free.

Unlike 401(k)s, HSAs are quadruple-tax advantaged, said Keith Whitcomb, director of analytics at Perspective Partners. There are no payroll taxes on employee contributions. The money contributed reduces taxable income. It grows tax-free. And withdrawals are tax-free as long as they're used for qualified health expenses. This means HSAs can have a big impact on long-term retirement savings.

Conventional thinking, however, is that HSAs are for high deductibles and that 401(k)s are for retirement, said Whitcomb. This approach can be costly because paying for retirement medical expenses with 401(k) funds may be more expensive than using HSA funds, he says. For example, to get the same after-tax spendable amount in retirement, for every $1 deferred into an HSA it could take $1.44 deferred into a 401(k).

There are, of course, some rules of thumb to follow when thinking about how best to prioritize your retirement savings. For instance, William Reichenstein, a professor at Baylor University and a principal with Social Security Solutions, says those choosing whether to save first in a Roth 401(k) or traditional 401(k) must compare their marginal tax rates in the contribution year and the withdrawal year.

Same marginal tax rate. If you have the same marginal tax rate in the contribution year and the withdrawal year it doesnt much matter if you save in a Roth or traditional 401(k), according to Reichenstein.

High current marginal, low withdrawal marginal. If, however, youll have a lower marginal tax rate in retirement then in your contribution year, the tax-deferred accounts (a 401(k), traditional IRA, SEP-IRA) is the better savings vehicle, says Reichenstein.

Low current marginal, high withdrawal marginal. If you will have a lower marginal tax rate in contribution year than the withdrawal year then the Roth is the better savings vehicle, says Reichenstein. The investor either pays taxes at this years (contribution years) tax rate or at the withdrawal years tax rate, he says.

So, for instance, a new 2017 grad may be in the 10% tax bracket this year and that represents, he says, a great opportunity to invest in the Roth 401(k) instead of the 401(k) or the Roth IRA instead of the traditional IRA.

The key comparison is the marginal tax rates in the contribution year and withdrawal year, notes Reichenstein. In the work years the contribution year the marginal tax rate will likely be the same as the tax bracket. But the marginal tax rate in the withdrawal year could be 50% or 85% higher than the tax bracket due to taxation of Social Security benefits.

Thus, he notes that a somewhat below-average to somewhat above-average income retiree would likely be in the portion of income where each additional dollar withdrawn from the tax-deferred account, a 401(k) or IRA for instance, causes an extra $0.85 of Social Security benefits to be taxed.

Retirement columnist Robert Powell(Photo: USA TODAY, USA TODAY)

For many taxpayers, they would be in the low end of the 25% tax bracket, says Reichenstein. Thus, withdrawing say an extra $100 from the 401(k) may cause an extra $85 of Social Security benefits to be taxed, so taxable income rises by $185.

Withdrawals from IRAS and 401(k) plans in retirement, which get taxed as ordinary income, could cause a wealthy investor to pay a higher Medicare Part b and D premium two years hence, which is effectively a tax on the wealthy, says Reichenstein.

In short, the withdrawal year marginal tax rate could be higher than the tax bracket, he says. So, someone who expects to be in the same tax bracket in the contribution year and withdrawal year should probably save in the tax-exempt Roth.

Reichenstein also notes that most preretirees have lots more money funds in tax-deferred accounts (TDAs) than in tax-exempt Roths. If tax rates are raised down the road, it will hit the TDA withdrawals, but not the Roth withdrawals, he says. As a type of tax diversification, this suggests investing in the Roth and paying taxes this year to reduce the negative consequences of potential higher tax rates in the future on our large amount of TDA funds. Given the huge deficits, a general tax rate increase is certainly possible even likely.

Of course, if have an HSA as well as a Roth and traditional 401(k), save there first. The HSA offers the best of both account types, says Reichenstein. Contributions to it reduce taxable income like a tax-deferred account and withdrawals from it are tax free if used for qualified medical expenses.

The right strategy. To be fair, the right savings strategy is based on ones personal financial goals, and not just tax rates, as well as which investments and accounts and products you have access to.

For instance, Empower Retirement recently sought to determine which is better: saving money after taxes in a Roth 401(k) or pretax in a traditional 401(k). And what they found is this: Most auto-enrolled participants are defaulted to pretax contributions. However, that may not be the ideal contribution type for many participants. Given the uncertainty of future tax rates, a personalized contribution strategy that considers age, income and earned income tax credit (EITC) is ideal for most participants because it reduces tax risk while improving retirement outcomes in most scenarios.

Get help. To be fair, few have modeled how best to prioritize retirement savings if you have to factor in the vast array of products and accounts that you could use in addition to HSAs, Roths, and traditional 401(k)s.

Given that, experts suggest working with a financial adviser to personalize a plan that works for you. For some, saving in an HSA and Roth and using a reverse mortgage might create the most after-tax income. For others, adding a QLAC to the mix might make sense. But finding the right mix and savings order will require some number crunching. And leaving it to chance or just winging it could leave you short of the necessary funds youll need to fund your desired lifestyle in retirement.

MORE POWELL:

Robert Powell is editor of Retirement Weekly, contributes regularly to USA TODAY, The Wall Street Journal, TheStreet and MarketWatch. Got questions about money? Email Bob at rpowell@allthingsretirement.com.

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Powell: Saving for retirement in the most tax-efficient manner possible - USA TODAY

If you have a little extra cash at the end of each month, it's wise to put it toward long-term financial goals. But how do you know which goals should come first? Is it more worthwhile to put your extra money toward your mortgage or your retirement fund?

The short answer is that they're both good options. About 36% of American households have a mortgage, and of those people, the average household owes about $168,000. And in regards to retirement planning, the median amount working-age American families have saved is just $5,000 -- not even enough to see them through one year in retirement. In other words, a little extra cash would benefit most people in either of these situations.

But if you only have a couple hundred dollars (or less) to spare each month, where will you get the most bang for your buck?

Image source: Getty Images.

Before you start paying off your mortgage or saving for retirement, you should build a solid emergency fund to cover six months' worth of expenses. And if you have a 401(k), it's also a good idea to contribute enough to get your employer's full match, because that is essentially free money, and you'd be foolish to turn it down.

After you have those basics covered, it's time to compare the pros and cons of paying off your mortgage and saving for retirement.

The best time to start aggressively paying off your mortgage is in the first few years, because at this point, most of your payments are going toward interest and not the principle. So by paying as much as you can right away, you can pay less in interest overall. However, because the amount you pay in interest is tax-deductible (assuming you qualify and itemize your deductions),paying interest isn't quite as terrible as it may sound.

At the same time, it's also wise to start investing for retirement as early as possible in order to take full advantage of compound interest. Investments tend to gain value exponentially, so every year you delay saving for retirement will set you back to a disproportionately large degree. Money invested now has much more value than the money you'll invest five or 10 years from now.

This is where interest rates come into play. If you have an unusually high interest rate on your mortgage,then it makes financial sense to pay down that debt first. Because the stock market has historically gained about 7% per year, if your interest rate is higher than that, then you're likely paying your lender more than you could earn by investing the money instead.

Say, for example, you just took out a 30-year mortgage of $150,000 and are trying to decide whether to put your extra money toward the mortgage or your retirement savings.Also assume an interest rate of 4.5% per year on your mortgage, a 25% federal tax rate, and an 8% state tax rate. Finally, let's say that your interest payments are tax-deductible, so your after-tax rate is 3.105%.

Here's what your financial future could look like based on how fast you pay off your mortgage:

If you pay only the minimum mortgage payments over the course of 30 years, you'll end up paying a grand total of $123,609 in interest alone. However, if you bump up your monthly payment by about $200 and pay off your mortgage 10 years early, you'll pay only $77,754. In other words, you could save about $46,000.

Now let's assume that you only make the minimum mortgage payments and instead put that extra $188 per month into your retirement savings, rather than your mortgage payment. Assuming you start with $0 in savings and earn an average of 7% per year on your investments, in 20 years you'd wind up with about $96,000 in your retirement account -- about $45,000 in contributions and $51,000 in earnings. That only puts you slightly ahead of the $46,000 in interest you'd save by paying off your mortgage 10 years early. However, if you continued to invest that $188 per month until the end of your 30-year loan term, your retirement savings would swell to $221,000 -- that's $153,420 in earnings on top of your $67,680 investment. All in all, you'd come out $30,000 ahead by investing your spare cash, rather than using it to pay off your mortgage 10 years early.

To sum it up, you can save more money in the short term by paying down your mortgage faster, but in the long term, you'll likely come out far ahead by saving more for retirement. In any case, you certainly shouldn't completely neglect your retirement savings while you pay off your mortgage. Even if you choose to repay your loan on an accelerated schedule, make sure you save something for retirement while you have time -- and compound interest -- on your side.

Ready to find out which option is right for you based on your unique situation? First, use a compound interest calculator to determine how much your retirement savings can grow over time. Then use a mortgage calculator to see how much you'll be paying in interest over the course of your loan.

After you compare these numbers, you'll have a better idea of how much you can earn on your investments compared to how much you can save in interest payments.

Every situation is different, so there's no one-size-fits-all answer as to whether you should use your extra cash to pay down your mortgage or save for retirement. But by creating a plan and calculating where your money will be best spent, you're setting yourself up for future financial success.

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Should You Pay Down Your Mortgage or Save for Retirement ... - Motley Fool

While most people retire in their 60s or 70s, Britain's Prince Philip performed his last official engagement today at the age of 96.

The Duke of Edinburgh braved pouring rain today at Buckingham Palace to meet with Royal Marines, some of who participated in the Royal Marines Global 1664 Challenge -- 100 challenges completed over the course of 100 days.

Philip attended the Royal Marines' parade at Buckingham Palace to mark the end of the challenge. Queen Elizabeth was at Balmoral and missed the tribute, which included cheers and a rousing hip-hip hooray as Philip left his final engagement.

After today's event, Philip will no longer undertake royal engagements on his own, although he may still choose to attend certain events alongside Queen Elizabeth, 91, from time to time.

In a statement when his retirement was announced in May, Buckingham Palace said Philip "has the full support of the Queen."

Philip joked soon after the announcement was made with a well-wisher at an event who told him, "Im sorry to hear youre standing down."

Philip shot back, Well I cant stand up much longer.

Philip married then-Princess Elizabeth in 1947 and has been fulfilling his royal duties ever since.

He has completed 22,220 solo engagements since 1952 and given 5,496 speeches in his travels to more than 76 countries, according to Buckingham Palace. He has also authored 14 books, served as patron to 785 organizations and made 637 solo overseas visits.

Upon retirement, Philip is expected to spend more time at Windsor Castle.

He still is actively involved in carriage driving and is expected to carry on his association with the more than 750 charitable organizations for which he is royal patron. Queen Elizabeth has given up long-haul travel but still routinely attends more than 400 engagements a year and will continue to carry on her full schedule.

Younger members of the royal family, including Prince William, Prince Harry and Princess Kate, will also be stepping in and accompanying Queen Elizabeth to events that Prince Philip would have attended with her previously.

William, 35, completed his last shift as an air ambulance pilot last week. He and Kate, also 35, will live in London and take on royal duties full-time starting this fall.

The end of William's tenure as an air ambulance pilot coincides with his grandfather's retirement and plans for William's son, Prince George, 4, to attend school in London this fall.

Earlier today, the U.K.'s The Telegraph accidentally published an article announcing Prince Philip's death.

The news outlet published an inaccurate article today on its website that read, "The Duke of Edinburgh, the longest-serving consort to a monarch in British history, has died at the age of XX, Buckingham Palace has announced."

The Telegraph quickly issued an apology and removed the story from its website.

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Prince Philip, 96, attends final official engagement before retirement - ABC News

Eternity after Nietzsche | Peter J. Leithart | First Things

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A decade ago, self-proclaimed born-again pagan and New Yorker-proclaimed Sage of Yale Law Anthony Kronman responded to critics in Comment with this:

In short, Nietzsche's doctrine of the eternal return is an attempt to put time and eternity back together again, after their long Abrahamic separation. This is a promising possibility, more attractive to me than either resignation or revival.

This represents a thin, thoroughly Nietzchean distortion of Christianity. Perhaps the Christianity Nietzsche encountered had connected the separate realms of eternity and time with a Savior and a church, but that's hardly characteristic of the Christian tradition as a whole.It certainly doesn't reflect the biblical Abrahamic faith, which is trust in a promise of land and seed, a promise that Abraham will be, inPaul's phrase, heir of the world. Christianity insists that the eternal kingdom is preciselythisworld transfigured into the kingdom of God (to quote Schmemann, the anti-Nietzschean).

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The Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival ends its 26th season with an energetic revival ofTroilus and Cressida.In itstraditional end-of-summer romp, the festival strives to recreate the spontaneity of Elizabethan theater by staging a play after only four days of rehearsal, scrounging set, props, and costumes from other shows.

Shakespeares play is an unwieldy blend of HomersIliadand ChaucersTroilus and Cressida, a platform for lampooningthe values of love and heroism. Its a flawed work, and directors Patrick Mulcahy and Dennis Razze give the actors lots of freedom in trying to rescue this problem play from its cardboard characters and nihilism.

Especially in the first act, the actors move the show in a cabaret direction. You laugh at the antics of Ajax (Andrew Goebel), a blockheaded man of valor. Pandarus (Carl N. Wallnau) is in the spotlight, comical as the go-between whose very name suggests pimp. Later, Troilus (Brandon J. Pierce) and Cressida (Mairin Lee) are exposed as false lovers, and revered Ulysses (Greg Wood) is reduced to the role of vicious, scheming courtier.

Almost every character is an object of ridicule. Only Hector (Luigi Sottile) invites sympathy, but hes mainly a foil for revealing the treachery of heroicAchilles (Justin Adams). Thersites (Susan Riley Stevens) may be the voice of Shakespeare, a limping slave who keeps popping up to cuss everyone out, like a Greek chorus gone crazy.

In Elizabethan England,Troilus and Cressidamay have been performed only for the Queen, perhaps full of inside jokes only those in the monarchy understood. With the pessimism that followed World War I, there was renewed interest in the play, but it never became mainstream. Its too troubled, with scenes that dont climax, and two story lines that never meld.

At his best, no writer can match Shakespeares marriage of psychological insight and poetry. Over and over, his characters deliver lines at climactic moments that buckle your knees. But there are no such moments here.Troilus and Cressidamay hold up as poetry to read, but as live theater, the orations of its burlesque, one-dimensional characters are unaffecting.

Its interesting to compareTroilus and Cressidawith the work of Friedrich Nietzsche, 300 years later. He, too, liked to examine the soft underbelly of stated beliefs and values. But Nietzsches revaluation ofallvalues includes biting criticism of the kind of cynicism that underlies Shakespeares play, and Nietzsche resonates with the larger goal of overcoming nihilism.

The same instinct motivates this revival. Isnt overcoming nihilism the goal of cabaret? Actors improve the plays climax, rushing on and off stage to create a brilliant, choreographed image that unifies confusion of values with the chaos of war. But, short of rewriting the script, the show cannot escape the burdens this play imposes suffering without meaning, ridicule for the sake of ridicule, and undramatic poetry.

Troilus and Cressida. Through Aug. 6 at the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, Labuda Center, DeSales University, 2755 Station Ave., Center Valley. Tickets: $25-$75. Information:610-282-9455,pashakespeare.org

Published: July 31, 2017 3:01 AM EDT | Updated: July 31, 2017 3:36 PM EDT

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'Troilus and Cressida' at Pa. Shakespeare Festival: Energetic attempt to breathe life into a flawed play - Philly.com

That Guy.

Getty Images for the Critics' Choice Awards

Erlich, the name of the popular character T.J. Miller played on Silicon Valley until last monthwhen he departed the show in a blaze of whatever the opposite of glory isis a variation on ehrlich, the German word for honest that is also used as a stand-alone expressionEhrlich?meaning, Really?

This is, coincidentally, how much of humanity felt when we beheld this astounding profile of Miller by Vultures David Marchese, a profile worth reading in its entirety but whose deadpan brilliance is well-distilled into the following sentence:

The Mucinex seems to have no role other than satisfying the strange terms of his sponsorship deal; the facial mist he uses to punctuate the staggering stream of (possibly Aurelius-inspired) word salad to which he subjects Marchese and the world at large.

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This particular sort of pontificationname-dropping the Stoic philosophers and persuasion theory, issuing proclamations such as In the American Zeitgeist, you have to recognize that there is no Zeitgeist (yes, that is a direct quote)is a phenomenon you dont have to be a Heideggerian to encounter. Indeed, anyone who has been within 10 miles of a graduate school has met That Guy, a dude exactly like T.J. Miller: the first- or second-year Ph.D. student in comp lit or whatever whos just started reading Deleuze and thinks hes blown the universe wide open.

Of course, it doesnt take a Ph.D. to see that T.J. Miller is definitively The Worst and almost certainly full of horsenuggets, but I just happen to have a largely unused doctorate sitting around and can thus explain exactly, and to what extent, his particular brand of horsenuggets resembles the seminar-room stylings of every graduate programs That Guy since time immemorial.

Take, for example, his claim that Nietzschean moral relativism is frustrating, because its so dangerous. The only thing first-year grad students love more than Two-Buck Chuck is being so over Nietzsche whilst having read a negligible amount of him. Assuming that Miller is referring here to select snippets from Genealogy of Morals, I think hes talking about Nietzsches explanation of Judeo-Christian morality as a societal construct that came out of the slave culture of ancient Greece. While the masters had lives full of pleasure, the slaves had to invent a system of morality that honored sacrifice and suffering, whose rewards came in the afterlife instead of this one. This is all very controversial if you are a seminary teacher in 1887, but when I think of the current dangers to the world, Nietzschean perspectivalism probably falls somewhere beneath I think my roommate gave my parents HBO Go password to her shifty boyfriend.

Anyone who has been within 10 miles of a graduate school has met That Guy.

Then theres the part where Miller explains that his words have no teleological destination. Ah, yes. Teleological is pretty much grad students favorite word. It comes from telos, the Greek for end. In my own first year of grad school, I insisted to a guy I was dating that he neednt worry about me pushing for a serious relationship too quickly, because I viewed romance in, I quote, a phenomenological rather than teleological sense, meaning, in the most insufferable way possible, that I was more concerned with what I was experiencing in the moment than what might happen in the future. 1) I ended up marrying that guy. 2)Teleological destination means end-based end, a piece of actual gibberish that means nothing.

Later, when asked why he doesnt quit Hollywood, Miller rolls his eyes and proclaims: Contradiction is something to pursue rather than avoid. I lied: There is one thing That Guys love more than being over Nietzsche, and thats the gleeful embrace of contradictions. Toward the end of Kafkas The Trial, a priest all but rolls his eyes and informs Josef K., Understanding something correctly and misunderstanding the same thing are not mutually exclusive. I spent a good 40 pages of my dissertation yammering about that line, and Im not proud of it. Josef K. dies.

Speaking of bad Kafka parody, Miller probably hits Peak Grad Student when he tells Marchese, If nothing means anything, then anything can mean everything. This is, alas, Nietzsche again, straight out of On Truth and Lying in the Extra-Moral Sense, founding document (more or less) of language skepticism and what some people (me) might identify as the first tremulous step onto the slippery slope of poststructuralism. Language, Nietzsche insists, only works insofar as its users insist on believing it does. I suppose the designation full of shit is, itself, just a moving army of metaphor, a coin whose face has worn off but stays in circulation, but to be sure Id need to consult the dude in my narrative theory seminar whose thing is that he doesnt wear shoes.

It doesnt take a Ph.D. to see that T.J. Miller is definitively The Worst and almost certainly full of horsenuggets.

I realize my particular antipathy toward Millers posturing comes from the discomfiting specularity of self-recognitionor, in human language, because I, too, was once an early-career graduate student and probably this insufferably confident in my own intelligence. Luckily, I grew out of it, as do most other grad studentsbeaten down as we are by the realities of an employment future of $28,000 program-director jobs, not to mention the funny thing that happens where the more you actually learn about something, the less confident you get about how much you know (#Socrates).*

The trouble with T.J. Miller, of course, is that instead of languishing in obscurity in some doctoral program, spending his teeny stipend on flip-flops and Trader Joes frozen quiche, hes a rich-ass Hollywood actor with a massive platform, surrounded by sycophants (and one long-suffering publicist).

Miller will never see his precious unifying epistemology obliterated thanks to the equalizing misery of comprehensive exams. He will never come to the lonely, sobering realization that successfully finishing a dissertation is about 97 percent tolerance for drudgery and only 3 percent successful quotation of Rabelais and correct deployment of facial misting spray. Ehrlich, T.J. Miller is probably stuck this way, a teleological destination of his own making.

*Correction, July 26: This post originally misspelled the name of Socrates.

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T.J. Miller is the worst kind of grad-school bro. - Slate Magazine - Slate Magazine (blog)

Pakistani society lacks philosophical synthesis. Today the nations that we see as global leaders, all of them have a long history of philosophical evolution and background. It was Voltaire and Jean Jacques Rousseau who contributed to the French Enlightenment and were instrumental figures in the French revolution. The works of Voltaire and Rousseau influenced the modern Western educational and political thought to this day. Today France is among the most powerful states on the planet. Bertrand Russell, an English philosopher, opposed the wars, primarily the Second World War (WW2). He highlighted the problems of the world and set the direction for Britains political and social governance. Bertrand Russell in his book Fact and Fiction writes that the world is facing three dangers rapid population growth, the threat of a nuclear war and climate change. It is surprising to see what Bertrand Russell predicted and analysed decades ago is still relevant today. Russell denounced fears based on superstitions and said that overcoming fear is the beginning of wisdom. He was of the view that world can only attain peace if it is led by a single government.

Similarly, John Locke, another great English philosopher and the father of modern democracy, gave the concept of modern government structure based on checks and balances. He was a staunch promoter of political freedom. Today Britain is well known for its democratic values and freedom of speech. Friedrich Nietzsche, a German philosopher and a staunch critic of the Catholic Church, is famous for his remarkable works in the form of Beyond good and evil and Thus spokes Zarathustra. For Nietzsche, good and evil are just words and it has been used by powerful to justify their atrocities against their adversary by terming them as evil. Nietzsche along with Machiavelli is considered as the father of modern Realism, a prominent thought in international relations according to which every nation state tries to maximise her power. Today, realism along with liberalism is the base of the discipline of international relations. Many people do not recommend reading Nietzsche because he went insane and attribute him with the thought of depressive nihilism. But it was the superhuman of Nietzsche which he called Ubermensch that is full of love for life. Simone de Beauvoir, a leading proponent of Feminism, in her book The Second Sex wrote about the oppression faced by women in the society. Furthermore, her works also contributed to the rise of the second wave of feminism in which the women from around the world demanded equal property and voting rights. Though, Simone de Beauvoir never called herself a philosopher, her works are of vital importance in existentialist and feminist philosophy.

Pakistan today is facing the same problems once faced by Western nations. Democracy in Pakistan is facing many dangers and its youth is struggling in understanding the benefits of democracy because political leaders lack philosophical and political thought. The origin of our problem lies in the educational institutes. The curriculum of schools does not allow students to think beyond the artificial barriers made by society resulting in the decline of Philosophical thought. Furthermore, the other major hurdle to rational Philosophy is the believing in superstitions and dogmas. Moreover, violence against women is rampant in our society since decades and many feminists are active in promoting women rights through their respective platforms. But there is difference between feminists and feminist philosophy. It is due to the lack of feminist philosophy that Pakistani women lack clarity of thought. On other hand, it is the lack of realist philosophy that is creating hurdles in pursuing our national interests.

Similarly, just like European Renaissance which takes all its roots and inputs from Muslim demise, the importance of Western philosophy needs to be highlighted as West is home to those enlightenment philosophers who laid the foundation of the modern European political thought and were also responsible for European Renaissance and all reformist and revolutionary movements. Pakistan and specially its young generation badly need a philosophical synthesis for its unity to develop a worldview for its progress and national direction. Philosopher kings and leaders are missing from national discourse and narrative.

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Pakistan needs its Rousseaus and Voltaires - DunyaNews Pakistan (blog)

Few people during their lifetime come anywhere near exhausting the resources within them. There are deep wells of strength that are seldom used. Richard Boyd

I gathered with a group of friends a short time ago and our conversation diverted into the question of What If in our lives. Each of us took a look back at another time and place and thought out loud with the group, What if certain things had gone differently? In my own life, I discussed the choice of going to BYU instead of Columbia University where I had also been recruited to play football. What if I had gone on a foreign LDS mission and learned a foreign language instead of to Washington, D.C.? There are thousands of spur of the moments decisions in life that could have changed the entire direction of everything. What you majored in, jobs you took, the girl you married, places you chose to live, friends you became close to and a thousand other options.

Toward the end of George Bernard Shaws life, a reporter challenged him to play the What If game.

Mr. Shaw, he began. You have been around some of the most famous people in the world. You are on a first-name basis with royalty, world-renowned authors, artists, teachers and dignitaries from every part of this continent. If you had your life to live over and could be anybody youve ever known, the reporter asked, Who would you want to be?

Shaw responded, I would choose to be the man George Bernard Shaw could have been, but never was.

What would have been your answer? Who is it you want to be? What is it you want your life to become? If you had your life to live over, what would be different? Pursuing your potential is not found attempting to be like someone else, or achieving what others have done, but by pursuing the untapped reservoir within you.

Elie Wiesel tells of a rabbi who has said that when we cease to live and go before our creator, the question asked of us will not be why we did not become a messiah, a famous leader, or answer the great mysteries of life. The question will be simply why did you not become you, the fully active, realized person that only you had the potential of becoming.

A rose only becomes beautiful and blesses others when it opens up and blooms. Its greatest tragedy is to stay in a tight closed bud, never fulfilling its potential.

The great storyteller Mark Twain told about a man who died and met Saint Peter at the pearly gates. Realizing Saint Peter was a wise and knowledgeable person, he said, Saint, I have been interested in military history for many years. Tell me, who was the greatest general of all times?

Saint Peter quickly responded, Oh, that is a simple question. Its that man right over there, as he pointed nearby.

The man said, You must be mistaken, Saint Peter. I knew that man on earth and he was just a common laborer.

Thats right, my friend, replied Saint Peter. But he would have been the greatest general of all time if he had been a general.

Beware not to shortchange your potential. All people are created with the equal ability to become unequal. Those who stand out from the crowd have learned that all development is self-development. Growth is an individual project and the crowd will stand back to let a winner shine through.

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Steve Densley: Facing the 'what if' moment in each of our lives - Daily Herald