This is a re-post from years ago. I still feel the same.
I see you standing here, asking for help, about once a week. You are always polite, and I respect that. I’d like to do something for you… something that would matter long-term. Giving you a few notes or coins now and then may be fine, but I’d really like to improve your situation more permanently.
In other words, I’d like to give you a job. Continue reading “A Frank Letter to the Homeless Man Under the Bridge”
Yes, I know that it seems the Internet has swallowed the world, but that isn’t quite true. What actually happened was the opposite: The world captured the Internet.
If that still sounds backwards to you, please stay with me. I’ll begin making sense of it by explaining how this post came together: Continue reading “Moving Back To The Internet”
(Originally published in October of 2022, and tragically still necessary.)
This is not something I ever wanted to write or even imagined writing. And yet, here we are. I’ve been receiving a stream of reports from wildly divergent sources, all saying the same things.
The fact is that child abuse is being perpetrated on a civilizational scale… massively financed on a civilizational level. This needs to be addressed. Continue reading “Child Abuse On A Civilizational Scale”
The dominating systems of our world require us to feel weak, afraid, and insufficient. They couldn’t continue if most of us didn’t feel that way. And so the friends and operators of these systems must suppress the opposite thought: that we are not inadequate.
I’ve watched popular culture for a lot of years, and I can tell you that since the 1970s, one concept, above all, has been forbidden in intellectual circles: Man as a glorious creature. Continue reading “The Forbidden Thought”
(Originally published October 12, 2022.)
I prefer to focus on building the good rather than identifying the bad. But there is also a place for understanding what is happening in the world. (“Wise as serpents, innocent as doves.”) This piece, written by one of my friends, is serious, far-reaching analysis. It is especially important as we pivot into a different world than we’ve known. Retain whatever quibbles you like, but read this and understand it. Continue reading “The Inflection Point of Putin’s “Evil Empire” Speech”
We’ve all heard the slogan, “United we stand, divided we fall” hundreds of times. It is portrayed as wisdom, but in fact it’s generally false. If you require a mass of bodies to charge another mass of bodies on a battlefield, unity matters. But when you want honesty, intelligence, compassion, innovation and evolution, unity is your enemy.
Unity works for body-power, but it works against all the higher and better aspects of our nature. That’s why the sacrifice collectors preach unity: they want obedient bodies, not self-determinant minds. Continue reading “United We Fall”
Western civilization – the most effective major civilization in human history – has lost its mechanisms of transmission. And that’s a big problem. Civilizations are simply collections of humans who share certain ideas, and if those ideas are no longer passed down, the civilization breaks, degrades and vanishes.
Western civilization had specific and important virtues, like cooperation, initiative, creativity, curiosity, co-dominance, open inquiry and justice. If we lose them we stand in jeopardy, and our grandchildren stand in grave jeopardy. Continue reading “Transmitting Civilization Is Now Up To Us”
The statement I’ll be making today is simple… very simple. Nonetheless, I think it’s of tremendous importance. It’s the type of thing that, if kept sufficiently in mind, can revise your mental universe.
It’s the type of thing that makes me want to write, “Meditate on this at least once per day for several years.” This concept can not only revamp you, but could revamp humanity.
So, here are those three words: Continue reading “Just Three Words”
Last week we examined the “social contract” in some depth, to see if it passes as a legal concept. This week we’ll examine two follow-up issues: one that I didn’t mention and one that I mentioned, but didn’t delve into.
And for those who missed last week’s post, we started by noting that the social contract is the concept that describes the origin of society and the legitimacy of the authority of the state over the individual. It asserts that all of us have consented to surrender some of our rights to a ruling group, in exchange for the protection of our remaining rights. Continue reading “Follow-Up On The Social Contract”
The social contract is a description of “the origin of society and the legitimacy of the authority of the state over the individual.” The social contract asserts that all of us have consented to surrender some of our rights to a ruling group, in exchange for the protection of our remaining rights.
The question I’ll address today is whether this is a legitimate contract. Continue reading “Is The Social Contract Legit?”
