Charles D. Hayes

charles-hayes-2015 Charles D. Hayes is a self-taught philosopher and one of America’s strongest advocates for lifelong learning. He spent his youth in Texas and served as a U.S. Marine and as a police officer before embarking on a career in the oil industry. Alaska has been his home for more than forty years.

Promoting the idea that education should be thought of not as something you get but as something you take, Hayes encourages readers to pursue learning throughout their lives, to stay receptive to new ideas, and to consider their legacy to future generations in the actions they take and the wisdom they convey. In 2006, he established September University, a site devoted to ongoing dialogue among September University participants in search of the better argument.

Hayes’ work has been featured in the LA Progressive, USA Today, and the UTNE Reader, on National Public Radio’s Talk of the Nation and on Alaska Public Radio’s Talk of Alaska. His web site, Autodidact provides resources for self-directed learners—from advice about credentials to philosophy about the value that lifelong learning brings to everyday living.

All books and shorter works by Charles D. Hayes are available
here.

Tax Cuts Help the Rich

Charles Hayes: The Donald Trump—GOP tax reform proposal is an overt declaration that only the rich really matter.

The Pious War on Science and Reason

Charles Hayes: People who identify as religious fundamentalists are very often so fully invested in their beliefs that they perceive opposition of any kind as a mortal threat.

The Angst of Aging in the Age of Trump

Perceiving that the current president is so unfit, so ignorant of the demands of his job as president, and so mentally unbalanced, we feel as if we may yet live to see the end of life in America as we have always known it.

GOP May Help Us to Demand Single-Payer Healthcare

Charles D. Hayes: If the GOP were to replace the ACA with something better, that would be great, but we know it’s not going to happen.

Mainstream Media Malpractice

Charles Hayes: The astronomical free coverage given to raging acts of bigotry, racism, ethnocentrism, and nonsensical ranting wasn’t about democracy, it was about increasing commercial revenue.

Pledge of Allegiance or Pledge of Obedience?

Charles Hayes: For fifty years after its debut, the Pledge of Allegiance was accompanied by the “Bellamy Salute” – right hand extended with palm upward. This was later changed to disassociate it with the symbolism of the Third Reich.

Slouching Toward a Political Fukushima

Charles Hayes: The paranoid antigovernment crowd is hyper-alert for evidence that government forces are out to get them, and their pattern-matching gray matter is up to the challenge of perceiving connections where any hint of cause and effect can be imagined.

Sarah Palin vs Donald Trump

Charles Hayes: A look at Donald Trump and Sarah Palin offers a clear demonstration of the double standard and implicit gender bias at work in American politics.

Why ‘Anyone But HER’ Seems So Obvious to So Many

Charles Hayes: The often-heard declaration that anyone would be better as president than Hillary Clinton is so steeped in the ethos of misogyny that to deny this reality is blatantly hypocritical. It’s equivalent to saying anyone would better than a neurosurgeon to operate on your brain.