2022-07-11 00:57
“As the stag pants after the waterbrooks, So pants my mind after you, O gods! My mind thirsts for gods! for living gods! When shall I come face to face with gods?” ~ Psalm 42 Fro… Read More
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2022-07-01 11:37
The reactionary mind, to a large degree, is simply another way of speaking of conservatism; at least in Anglo-American society. That is separate from speaking of this being a reactionary age… Read More
2022-06-30 15:39
It’s funny that one of the oldest living generations is called the Silents (1928-1945). That is such an amazing misnomer when one looks at the individuals who have defined that generat… Read More
2022-06-20 17:13
“The foot feels the foot when the foot feels the ground.” That quote by Ernest Wood is often misattributed to the Buddha. And it does express a Buddhist-like thought. Take the no… Read More
2022-06-12 23:12
Here is what one can learn about relating well by spending a lot of time around non-human animals, in particular. But all of it also involves and is applicable to human animals as well. This… Read More
2022-05-09 13:04
What is the quality of Iowa’s drinking water? An individual might suspect that it’s quite low. It’s a farm state with one of the least regulated and most big ag friendly ec… Read More
2022-05-06 19:03
If there actually was a military-intelligence-industrial-media complex and if it had a massive black budget funded by profits from front companies and criminal enterprises and/or dark money… Read More
2022-02-06 01:06
Nearly every scientific field of study is facing a replication crisis and, although known about for decades now, it still has not been resolved. Most researchers are so limited in their know… Read More
2022-01-07 21:17
Let us throw out a simple observation with limited detail and analysis. This is a phenomenon that seems to define the reactionary mind. And so it is more often found on the American right-wi… Read More
2022-01-05 23:30
“I’m supposed to act like they aren’t here. Assuming there’s a ‘they’ at all. It may just be my imagination. Whatever it is that’s watching, it&rsqu&hell…Read More
2021-10-19 22:47
As many have written about, there was a unique, profound, and dramatic transformation that happened across many civilizations, maybe initiated by the Bronze Age collapse (c. 1200 BCE) but no… Read More
2021-09-20 14:24
What does ‘left-wing’ ideology refer to? What was the original and basic meaning? The main element and motivating force of leftism has been to perceive the world, society, and pe… Read More
2021-09-12 19:18
There is a comedy sketch, This is Your Brain After Thirty, from the group It’s a Southern Thing. It is a parody of a pharmaceutical commercial. And the target audience is Millennials w… Read More
2021-08-30 23:21
It’s fascinating how the more reactionary conservatives can occasionally be quite honest, if in a backwards kind of way. There is always an attempt to obscure, even as damning truths a… Read More
2021-08-03 15:22
Shared responsibility, collective action, and intergenerational justice are core Biblical value. Certainly, moral concern for the least among us is as Christian as it gets. It’s strang… Read More
2021-07-23 23:00
Consumption of Unprocessed Red Meat Is Not a Risk to Health from World Farmers’ Organisation (WFO) Scientific Council A synopsis of five significant, recent and broad-scale scient… Read More
2021-06-17 23:18
The answer, according to a hunter-gatherer: “Meat.” “Honey.” “Corn porridge.” That is the order he gave them in. He paused between stating each.&nbs&hell…Read More
2021-06-06 23:44
When our uncle died recently, we cleaned out his house and it was quite the job. He had been a bachelor his entire life and had lived alone in that large house since the 1970s. He left behin… Read More
2021-06-01 19:26
This is part of an interview by Russel Brand. The man speaking is Dr. Gabor Maté, a Jew and an infant survivor of the Holocaust. Many in his family died in Nazi death camps. Besides s… Read More
2021-05-25 17:53
By the early 1900s, the modern diet had long been a growing concern, as it already was a topic of public debate going back a century, such as obesity and conditions like ‘nerves’… Read More
2021-05-16 03:59
Related to the high-fat vs low-fat debate, there is an interesting article to shake up our thinking: Study of Alaska Natives confirms salmon-rich diet prevents diabetes, heart disease… Read More
2021-05-08 01:14
In reference to the below COVID-19 graph of loss of life and jobs (per capita), someone wrote to us that the, “Lower left would appear better [i.e., more people alive and working. BDS]… Read More
2021-04-11 00:32
[T]he chief matter . . . being now not the fruits of the earth, and the beasts that subsist on it, but the earth itself; as that which takes in, and carries with it all the rest. John Locke… Read More
2021-04-09 00:21
It’s been previously argued, if somewhat jokingly, that we are all white liberals now. There are various methods for denigrating liberalism. A typical tactic is to throw in some other… Read More
2021-04-07 16:16
“Remember all those supermajority poll results? Think where the polls on all these things would be if the press did its job, instead of aligning with the corporations and the pol… Read More
2021-04-05 01:15
”One can behold in capitalism a religion, that is to say, capitalism essentially serves to satisfy the same worries, anguish, and disquiet formerly answered by so-called religion.&rdqu&hell…Read More
2021-04-04 04:45
We’ve come to a new point in life, maybe approaching something vaguely resembling maturity if not yet wisdom. A change in attitude was recently expressed in changes made to this blog&r&hell…Read More
2021-03-19 13:22
Accusing your enemy of doing what you’re doing—in this case, right-wing organizations canceling left-wing academics, and then claiming liberals are perpetrating cancel culture&md&hell…Read More
2021-03-13 17:55
After the past year of Black Lives Matters (BLM) protests, one of the early cases of police brutality finally makes its way into trial. Check out this article about the jury selection in the… Read More
2021-02-22 01:57
I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the… great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Councilor or the Klu Klux Klanner, but t… Read More
2021-02-21 01:12
Man is not man as yet,Nor shall I deem his object served, his endAttained, his genuine strength put fairly forth,While only here and there a star dispelsThe darkness. Here and there a toweri… Read More
2021-02-20 00:35
I previously criticized Zach Goldberg’s article on white liberals. He wanted to make them out to seem like not only extremist ideologues but also psychologically abnormal. At times, it… Read More
2021-02-18 21:11
The following is more thoughts on the contrast between Germanic ‘freedom’ and Latin ‘liberty’ (see previous post: Libertarian Authoritarianism). The one is a non-lega… Read More
2021-02-18 00:33
From Tablet Magazine, Zach Goldberg writes about white liberals, what he calls America’s White Saviors. This is an example of how corporate media slants their reporting on public opini… Read More
2021-02-17 22:19
The reactionary mind is obsessed with reified abstractions translated into symbolic visions and causes. This is seen with Edmund Burke’s moral imagining of the overthrow of the French… Read More
2021-02-13 21:18
This is what organized religion means for most people. This is what would happen if God actually answered people’s prayers. The response would be even worse if Jesus came back in the f… Read More
2021-02-13 03:18
Libertarianism is a strange creature. It originated as part of the European workers movement, alongside Marxism, communism, and anarchism. But in the US, this history has been forgotten and… Read More
2021-02-06 23:33
There has been much debate about the causes of autism, from genetics to diet. Many have suspected a link to heavy metals. According to a 2017 NIH study, strong evidence of this link has been… Read More
2021-02-06 19:59
Here are some of thoughts on the present state and future potential of the Republican Party. Besides those like Cindy McCain and Mitt Romney, there have been waves of moderates, conservative… Read More
2021-02-04 18:33
Of all forms of pessimism, the metaphysical form was, for a historian, the least enticing. Of all studies, the one he would rather have avoided was that of his own mind. He knew no tragedy s… Read More
2021-01-26 23:51
Bhutan sounds like a lovely place to live. It exemplifies civic virtue and culture of trust. And it’s probably the most powerful example of social democracy in the world, despite limit… Read More
2021-01-23 22:25
What is the deep state within, behind, or above the United States government? Let’s look at some real world examples of brief moments when we the public get to glimpse the dark underbe… Read More
2021-01-13 12:45
The isolated self is not real, but the fearful mind makes it feel real. We always exist in interrelationship with others, with the world, and with a shared sense of our humanity. This greate… Read More
2021-01-06 20:13
There was a group of people huddled in a dungeon, prisoners for reasons long forgotten. They were chained together, unable to move about. It was the only life they knew and there was a comfo… Read More
2021-01-03 20:00
My grandfather, Clayton John Steele (1914-1993), was a minister. He was raised as an only child by a doting mother, Matilda Viola Steele (1881-1954), and an emotionally distant father, Charl… Read More
2020-12-31 21:06
Where is the world heading and upon what might it all be revolving? One would be unwise to speculate too much or offer strong predictions, but it must be noted that there has been a general… Read More
2020-12-31 18:27
Apartheid in South Africa was a violently oppressive system, one among many in history. And whenever there is oppression, there are always those who resist and fight against it. A once less… Read More
2020-12-28 04:02
For you are all children of God in the Spirit.There is no Jew or Greek;There is no slave or free;There is no male and female.For you are all one in the Spirit. Based on Galations 3:28, Steph… Read More
2020-12-27 14:36
The foundng debate of Federalists and Anti-Federalists is always of interest. In perusng the writings, particularly the letters, of Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and Tho… Read More
2020-12-23 22:54
Patriotism has been lower in recent decades and it continues a steady decline in the United States. It’s even lower in some other Western countries, such as Britain and Germany. And of… Read More
2020-12-13 02:49
Below is a passage from a book I got for my birthday. I was skimming through this tome and came across a note from one of the later chapters. It discusses a theory about how new substances… Read More
2020-12-12 22:55
Here is a quickie. Jordan Peterson likes to oversimplify things with easy answers, as that is what his audience wants. He mixes genuine information with misinformaton and misinterpretaton. T… Read More
2020-12-10 20:12
All the time, people say what they don’t mean. Or else it’s not clear what they mean, the actual significance behind their words, what is most fundamentally motivating them. This… Read More
2020-12-10 00:31
There is heated debate about bone broth ‘scum’, the bits and foam that float to the top in simmering. What is this disgusting stuff? And if consumed, how quickly will it kill you… Read More
2020-12-07 12:50
As one sees on occasion in the news, there was a local story of a child with a disease that was being treated. The purpose is to elicit sympathy and/or inspiration. The reporting is often ab… Read More
2020-12-06 16:04
How do media bubbles work? We often think of this phenomenon in simplistc ways. A media bubble is perceived as a person hearing certain sources of info while not hearing others. It’s a… Read More
2020-11-29 22:37
Where is the demos in democracy? What do Americans think as a people and a public? That is the eternal question in a country that was made famous by being founded as the first modern democra… Read More
2020-11-29 01:08
I wouldn’t necessarily argue about Joe Biden’s campaign promises or anyone else’s campaign promises, not even those of Donald Trump. But what does concern me is the actual… Read More
2020-11-27 01:06
This is a post I didn’t desire to write but felt compelled to do so. It’s the same topic of another recent post, Trump Family And Elite Corruption. When I shared that other one w… Read More
2020-11-26 18:20
We modern people are used to hearing voices in our heads. This is taken as normal. The inner self that speaks inwardly arises in the individual hearing that self speak. Speaking is hearing… Read More
2020-11-16 00:19
“Whether the response is lashing out, turning inward, tuning out, or giving up, Americans are becoming increasingly paralyzed by disagreement, disillusionment, and despair. Indeed, man… Read More
2020-11-14 20:27
Here we are, nearing the end of Donald Trump’s administration. He may have only been a one-term president, but he has left quite a wake in his passing through the halls of power (not u… Read More
2020-11-08 23:14
According to a Fox News poll, the majority of Americans have become radicalized extremists, Marxist commies, and fellow travelers! They might also be postmodern moral relativists or even eco… Read More
2020-11-02 00:47
Liberalism, by historical definition, has meant generosity — not only generosity of money and charity, of public welfare and the public good but more importantly the generosity of spir… Read More
2020-10-28 02:19
The warmongering big biz establishment media is what the right-wing ruling elites repeatedly call left-wing, in their accusation of a supposedly ‘liberal’ bias. It’s simila… Read More
2020-10-24 01:40
The political right talks of constitutional originalism, often in claiming the United States is a republic, not a democracy. It’s obvious bullshit, of course. No one who knows history… Read More
2020-10-14 20:47
“Unless we put medical freedom into the Constitution, the time will come when medicine will organize into an undercover dictatorship…To restrict the art of healing to one class… Read More
2020-09-01 15:00
Originally posted on O Society: When a group of schoolboys were marooned on an island in 1965, it turned out very differently from William Golding’s bestseller. by Rutger Bregman … Read More
2020-08-16 16:59
Here was my morning exercise routine today, typical of what I do on the weekend during the warmer time of the year. After a good night sleep, I naturally woke up without any alarm. I felt re… Read More
2020-08-10 02:14
Let us consider once again the sad state of affairs we find ourselves in, not only politically but culturally. What does this say about our society, both nationally and locally? We’ll… Read More
2020-08-03 22:43
“The revolutionary generation’s problem was not in its conception of universal rights, as expressed in the declaration, but rather its inability to honor them. “British wri… Read More
2020-08-02 18:33
There has been much discussion about wearing face masks. The basic purpose is to prevent the spread of viruses, specifically the novel coronavirus, although many masks will also protect agai… Read More
2020-07-30 17:16
Originally posted on lullaby pit: Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? – Matthew 7:16 Let’s say I don’t know you persona… Read More
2020-07-26 01:42
The movie ‘Harriet’ came out this year, amidst pandemic and protest. The portrayal of Harriet Tubman’s life and her strange abilities reminds one of Julian Jaynes’ th… Read More
2020-07-12 23:45
Whiteness is an odd thing. It is one of those social constructs that falls apart under any significant degree of scrutiny. Yet few of us pale-skinned descendants of Europeans know how to not… Read More
2020-06-28 23:44
The US has been reacting to this public health crisis of COVID-19. But one can’t remain in emergency mode permanently. So, we’ve suddenly switched to the opposite reaction of reo… Read More
2020-06-24 21:35
We are defined by our opposition, in many ways. And a society is determined by the frame of opposition, the boundaries of allowable thought — such as right and left (or equivalent fram… Read More
2020-06-23 13:12
Our society has become dominated by new kinds of media. One one level, we have a return to the image, in replacing or subverting or altering the written word, by way of cable tv, 24/7 news… Read More
2020-06-17 01:09
In the ongoing protest movement against racist police brutality, there have been white right-wing individuals and groups showing up with guns, often military-style guns that are designed to… Read More
2020-06-07 16:41
“It’s hard to fight an enemy who has outposts in your head.” ~Sally Kempton, from Ben Price’s None Dare Call It Propaganda “Power is the ability to rule the ima… Read More
2020-06-02 15:13
Donald Trump, in declaring anti-fascists are his enemy, is helping to remind and clarify to Americans what is fascism, who are the fascists, the great enemy an earlier generation of American… Read More
2020-05-30 23:44
What does it mean to be a ‘conservative’ in a country like the United States? What does it mean to conserve? What is it we might conserve? America was founded on protest, on riot… Read More
2020-05-29 01:25
In a review of Buddy Levy’s book Conquistador, Chuck Pezeshki uses it as an opportunity to discuss the sociopolitical implications of psychopathic power, cruel sacrifice, and the loss… Read More
2020-05-28 20:02
Monotheism as we know it arose out of the wreckage of the Bronze Age collapse, out of the shattered bicameral mind. It first took form in the following Axial Age, but came to fruition in the… Read More
2020-05-28 19:44
There is a strong connection between Islamic doctrine and, as Julian Jaynes wrote about, the post-bicameral experience of the lost divine, of God/gods gone silent. As a much later religious… Read More
2020-05-26 00:41
If you’re familiar with low-carb debate, you’d know one of the big names is Ivor Cummins, AKA the Fat Emperor. He isn’t a health professional but a chemical engineer by tra… Read More
2020-05-19 17:43
Sean Last has an essay, Jewish Influence on American Politics, that is quite lengthy and heavy on the data. I say that with admiration, as I love it when someone goes to such immense effort… Read More
2020-05-18 17:57
Why do some people from South Africa sound almost Scottish? Not quite but almost. My parents attend a Presbyterian church in the United States and the minister is from South Africa. His last… Read More
2020-05-17 23:22
Along with moral panics in American culture since the colonial era, there has been the ever recurring existential crisis about our collective identity. This has often taken the form of the p… Read More
2020-05-16 21:21
“In our society, there seems to be a general rule that, the more obviously one’s work benefits other people, the less one is likely to be paid for it” ~David Graeber, Bulls… Read More
2020-05-16 19:48
Why is the ideal of liberty so strongly associated with economics? And why is it used to rationalize oppressive systems of hierarchy? What does it mean to use the language of liberty to favo… Read More
2020-05-14 20:55
The 1918 Flu did not begin as an obvious pandemic and public health catastrophe. When the first wave hit, experts and officials realized it was worse than the common flu, but it still seemed… Read More
2020-05-14 02:07
Existential Comics: Fact: if you went back in time and killed Bill Gates to prevent Microsoft from ever existing; personal computers, software, the internet, and technology in general would… Read More
2020-05-12 11:45
David Graeber, an anthropologist, and David Wengrow, an archaeologist, have a theory about hunter-gatherer societies having cycled between egalitarianism and hierarchy. That is to say hierar… Read More
2020-05-12 00:53
The main failure in this COVID-19 pandemic has been about knowledge. The United States government was unprepared for dealing with a pandemic, specifically in being unprepared for quickly gat… Read More
2020-05-09 13:32
There is the view that consciousness* is a superficial overlay, that the animistic-bicameral mind is our fundamental nature and continues to operate within consciousness. In not recognizing… Read More
2020-05-07 20:14
What is the public? It relates to the idea of the People as démos and the body politic. The basic notion is that shared experience and identity is in some sense real, that we aren&rsq&hell…Read More
2020-05-02 12:11
AT&T, after the 2018 WarnerMedia acquisition, will now be rolling out yet another HBO service called HBO Max. It will be unveiled on May 27, 2020. What is different about it? Basically… Read More
2020-04-28 18:19
Dystopian and utopian stories come and go in popularity. But this present moment is dominated by the dystopian variety, for understandable reasons. As GenXers, we grew up on post-apocalyptic… Read More
2020-04-28 01:29
Many have wondered why some places have been hit hard by the pandemic (Spain, Italy, New York, etc) whereas others still are barely affected. Some likely factors are public transportation, p… Read More
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