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Walk by Faith as a Form of Manifestation
It’s believed that, for thousands of years, certain members of human clans would wield some kind of magic stick. For example, here’s one — carved to look like a viper — that was found in Finland. They claim it’s over 4,000 years old: In some cultures, if the shaman or medicine man pointed such a […]
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Jerry Springer: Ringmaster of Civilization’s End
It involved bringing out the irregular or peculiar from society’s peripheries – at least as popularly perceived at the time. Granted a national, broadcasting stage, various persons of despair would perform, if only for a spectacular, brief moment. Cue the chants of a studio audience and the threat of physical confrontation. And the late Jerry […]
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The Tampax King and His Vessel
In December 1936, love won out for the British king Edward VIII, and he gave up the throne to marry Wallis Simpson, an American socialite. What is socialite? According to Google Dictionary: “a person who is well known in fashionable society and is fond of social activities and entertainment.” Typically, this term is applied to […]
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Do “Activists” Actually Want to Win?
I’ve written plenty about the lessons I learned during my time as a high-profile “activist.” The “left” I knew back then was not yet the cesspool of hypocrites it is now but… the signs were already there. As I look around now at new “activists” I’ve met — from ALL points on the ideological/political spectrum […]
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Why Isn’t the Democratic World a World?
Alain Badiou is undoubtedly among the greatest of living philosophers; one that may fairly be credited with rescuing philosophy from academic irrelevance, and the twin enemies of scientism and historicism. For Badiou, philosophy does not merely interpret the world (as Marx famously asserted in his “Theses on Feuerbach”). For an interpretation of the world, we […]
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Politicians and the Anzac Tradition
While the mass slaughtering of, and slaughter by, soldiers, is always a touchy subject of commemoration, a tension has existed between those who did the fighting, and those who ordered it. Comfortably secure in furnished rooms and battle props, planners would, as they still do, draw up the blueprints, concoct the strategy, and give the […]
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The Magickal Enchantment of Materialism
“Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people…” “Criticism has plucked the imaginary flowers on the chain not in order that man shall continue to bear that chain without fantasy or consolation, but so that he shall throw […]
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The Death of over a Thousand Garment Workers in Bangladesh
The mother of an 18-year-old missing worker, Rina, waits for her lost daughter in front of a barricade in Savar, Dhaka, Bangladesh, 24 July 2013. Credit: Taslima Akhter In memory of Dr Zafrullah Chowdhury (1941–2023) On Wednesday 24 April 2013, 3,000 workers entered Rana Plaza, an eight-story building in the Dhaka suburb of Savar in […]
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Why Marxists Need Darwin
Orientation Most people who call themselves Marxists will tip their hat to Darwin and then move on. They laude his theory of natural selection for why species go extinct. They will support his gradualist theory that change is slow in the biological world. Of course, they will celebrate how humans evolved from the ape line […]
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The Four Types of Play of Roger Caillois
Orientation What is play? What are its types and its psychological impacts? In what way is play different from other human activities? In what ways is play different across the life cycle, from childhood to adolescence to adulthood? Do people ever stop playing? How many kinds of play are there? What is the difference in […]
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