Reaping the Whirlwind: The Conservative Dilemma

For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. Hosea 8:7 With the 2024 election looming like an autumn iceberg in the mist, many people, liberals and conservatives, are wondering: “How did we get here?” How is it that, with the world collapsing around us on multiple fronts, we’re again stuck with two doddering octogenarians, who no one really wanted, vying for … Continue reading Reaping the Whirlwind: The Conservative Dilemma

The Problem with Bill Maher: Identity Politics as Low-Hanging Fruit

The Democrats should move on from identity politics. It’s not working. They are hemorrhaging the very voters they think they’re pandering to. Bill Maher It is somewhat customary now for liberals to criticize other liberals for being overly infatuated with identity politics. Bill Maher is typical of this sort of lecturing, recently opining, “the more you obsess over identity, the more you ignore the bread … Continue reading The Problem with Bill Maher: Identity Politics as Low-Hanging Fruit

How Should Biden Win?

No plea to return to ‘normality’ or the ‘everyday’ is now worthwhile. Only the extraordinary can save us. Gregory Claeys The real question is: How much truth can I stand? Nietzsche The 2024 presidential race is an unusual animal, in that there are really no On-the-Fence voters this time around. A recent Quinnipiac poll had Undecideds at 1%, the same number that refused to answer, … Continue reading How Should Biden Win?

We Are Each Other’s Future

We must learn to live together as brothers, or perish together as fools Martin Luther King, Jr. Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect Chief Seattle Community is the only heaven we can reasonably look forward to, the only … Continue reading We Are Each Other’s Future

Transcending Trumpism: Breaking the Death Grip of Dualism

Abide not with dualism, Carefully avoid pursuing it; As soon as you have right and wrong, Confusion ensues, and Mind is lost. Edward Conze The only illusion is division. Wald Wasserman As 2023 winds down, the specter of a Trump-centric 2024 looms large. Despite the general suckiness of this past year, I haven’t met too many people eager to turn the calendar page, because they … Continue reading Transcending Trumpism: Breaking the Death Grip of Dualism

Our Next Way of Life: A Thought Experiment

People never leave a sinking ship until they until they see the lights of another ship approaching. Buckminster Fuller You have to see it to be it. Billie Jean King Before getting into the meat of this new post, let’s just do a quick recap lap, to level-set our starting assumptions. Evidence is mounting that we’re in the midst of a massive, not-so-slow-motion system collapse, … Continue reading Our Next Way of Life: A Thought Experiment

The Cheat Code for Preventing and/or Surviving the coming Collapse (Part 1)

Utopias are often just premature truths. Alphonse de Lamartine The Bad News I haven’t looked into any concrete stats on this, but my sense is that there is growing popular suspicion that something very big is coming to an end. We might not know what that ‘something’ is, exactly (Civilization? Industrialism? Capitalism?), but with every passing season, the lurking shadow of collapse is taking shape … Continue reading The Cheat Code for Preventing and/or Surviving the coming Collapse (Part 1)

Our Civilization’s Crisis of Place

I want to leave my country without leaving my home. Kirkpatrick Sale We’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden. Joni Mitchell A couple months ago, my wife and I finally got down to Costa Rica on vacation, for 10 glorious days. We have been trying to get there for a while now, but you know… pandemic and post-pandemic and all that. As we … Continue reading Our Civilization’s Crisis of Place

Three C-Words We Need to Embrace: Contraction, Community & Cleanup

Like all creatures, humans have made their way in the world so far by trial and error; unlike other creatures, we have a presence so colossal that error is a luxury we can no longer afford. The world has grown too small to forgive us any big mistakes. Ronald Wright Because the future has no image, the utopian imagination must reclaim, must resurrect, past ruins … Continue reading Three C-Words We Need to Embrace: Contraction, Community & Cleanup

Recapitulation: How to Save the World

The order which has been taken for granted suddenly appears queer and contingent. There is an appearance of the contingency of order. This is the main value of utopias. At a time when everything is blocked by systems which have failed but which cannot be beaten…utopia is our resource. The utopia seems to say something plausible, but it also says something that is crazy. By … Continue reading Recapitulation: How to Save the World