“The insurrection was foolish indeed to place its hopes in the old myths of the Republic.” Now the Trumpenreich is kaput; the Bidennium has begun; and the Resistance has taken its final butterfly form—the regime which was always its destiny—the System. Now the Trumpenreich is kaput; the Bidennium has begun; and the Resistance has taken its final butterfly form—the regime which was always its destiny—the System. Read More
New York is going through a troubled coronavirus: socializing itself a major target for left-authoritarian politicians (arguably with good reason). But without the melting pot of best-in-America social life, New York becomes little more than a less aesthetically shocking analogue for a vast human-battery pod hive. Is Brooklyn a viable escape? Is anywhere?Read More
Trump rallies will start with Biden’s inauguration. He will foment his base to keep their anger on the boil, playing a risky game. Typical Trump. Perhaps he’ll schedule rallies to begin the very day of the inauguration – for maximum media and maximum momentum. His vanity will want to bestRead More
Planet Earth House “Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains.” – Jean-Jacques Rousseau I committed a crime. I was born on Earth. But this planet doesn’t belong to me. Sometimes I think I deserve some of the Earth to myself. How dare I? It belongsRead More
The ideological separation of capitalism (free and empowered individual citizen) and socialism (collective support safeguarding all citizens) is the most divisive misconception of the modern world. Small wonder it’s been conditioned so deeply into the minds of the population as a way to polarize people into irreconcilable teams. Apologists forRead More
We argue about rights and wrongs or problems and their solutions in terms of ideology and ideal, often to hide from the challenge of turning real imperfect answers into next-step decisions. But arguing in abstraction is a popular filibustering propaganda: sounds strident, does nothing. If you want to shift the needle, the practical pro-active answers are the only solutions that count.Read More
FASCISM OR FREEDOM? When most people think of an authoritarian state, it brings to mind scenes like the ecstatic battalions of Sturmabteilung and Schultzstaffel in the swastika-bedecked Luitpoldarena of the Nuremberg rallies (consider the Fuhrer’s exhortations of Nazi folk nationalism) or the pale Russian crowds lining the streets of MoscowRead More
a general theory of collaboration In 2020, everyone is either a collaborator or a dissident. Everything is about power. Everything has to have a side. Everyone knows what side they should pick. Pick it—and you’re a collaborator. Reject it—a dissident. Nor are these labels chosen to mean that dissidents areRead More
the action imperative Political detachment might seem sociopathic. It isn’t. Almost 250 years ago in a city that has vanished, the philosopher Immanuel Kant—a single shelf of whose work, to paraphrase Macaulay, is worth more than all of 21st-century literature—proposed an ethical standard for collective action. The Kantian categorical imperative—anRead More
Meditation and mindful practices – Vipassana, Jungian ‘ego death’, Buddhism nondualism, transcending the Maya, Mahayana Buddhism advaya, Dzogchen samadhi – wonderful aspirations, complex practices, a handbook for reaching ego-death liberation from the emotional animal idiot within. OR ARE THEY?Read More
Joe Rogan Experience, the world’s biggest and most influential podcast, migrated to Spotify on Sept 1st 2020. Dozens of the show’s key episodes have been purged from the migration; and there’s a sly opacity about the apparent censorship – a familiar authoritarian strategy. The media bogeymen and policed language episodes excluded follow a clear theme. Is it Spotify abusing corporate privilege, preying on Rogan’s contract loopholes, or is Joe bending the knee and sacrificing his reputation for the big money payoff?Read More
Extract from the novella BLOWING BUBBLES EVERYWHERE Part of a chapter set in Kreuzberg, Berlin with a flashback to Gare du Nord in Paris, flipped third person for shits and giggles.Read More
As the plutocracy’s assault on the nation’s social safety net intensifies, recent data shows that billionaires and corporations are refusing to pay hundreds of billions of dollars in owed taxes every single year. Criminal evasion on such a scale should put all the hand-wringing about recent George Floyd “looting” into perspective.Read More