You were swift with your blade You lacked hesitation Your eyes were like oceans I fell till I drowned - First Time by Edmund Wilson As you may know, dear reader, my views on history and politics as expressed on this blog converge in a strange location or destination: music. And it is music that … Continue reading ‘First Time’ and the albums
Tag: Unity
Pain or suffering: The responsibilities of man
So much is said Of the misgivings frustrations sadness depression rights of man so little of the Responsibilities of Man A Monster for a Man don’t get me wrong after all is said and done none of us control our destiny unfold but watch as fate unloads its cart of horrors phantoms delights delusios dangerous … Continue reading Pain or suffering: The responsibilities of man
The end of time: The Heidegger-Cassirer debate and the passage from trade to war
First published in August 2022. Philosopher Immanuel Kant is often referred to as the god of modern philosophy. A recent work of intellectual history by Professor Michael Rosen, entitled The Shadow of God: Kant, Hegel, and the passage from heaven to history, considers the end of Christendom and the replacement of its accompanying hegemony of … Continue reading The end of time: The Heidegger-Cassirer debate and the passage from trade to war
On the Whole
Republished in June 2022. It is common to see the world as fundamentally divided. We think that we are separate from other people, and that people are separate from the natural world. Some philosophers agree. Nature, as early-modern Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza put it, is divided between the properties of thought and matter. Plato thought … Continue reading On the Whole
Charles III will destroy the monarchy. Make me king instead.
Hear me out. The Crown has descended for centuries down a certain bloodline. But jus sanguinis, as it stands, has little truth and even less validity. We are only who we say we are, and who others think of us. I am King. Augustus, first citizen of the Senate and the People of Rome, who … Continue reading Charles III will destroy the monarchy. Make me king instead.
Tchaikovsky, Drake, and how music dies
One of the most popular moves in popular music is to make everything about love. This is sweet, and there’s nothing wrong with it. But the problem is when music fails to recognise what this move entails: the death of music. Let me explain. Art to an extreme. Music in the modern age begun with … Continue reading Tchaikovsky, Drake, and how music dies
Gender is completely meaningless. That’s why we need it.
A lot of critiques of existing divisions of gender roles take for granted the meaningfulness of the term 'gender'. The critiques merely inflate or deflate the meaning, but take for granted the idea that gender can have any meaning at all. Even 'post-gender' accounts seem to take for granted the substantial character of gender performance. … Continue reading Gender is completely meaningless. That’s why we need it.
Hobbes, the Person of the State, and the Beginnings of Balance
In the beginning, there was a simple thing — be that nothing, something, or everything at once. From this simple, eternal implosion of reality exploded the elaborate fantasy of this divided physical realm. Perhaps even then there were seeds of division immanent to the physicality of this world. Before time and space, however, can we … Continue reading Hobbes, the Person of the State, and the Beginnings of Balance
Conservatism against capitalism: A realistic manifesto
One of the most prominent philosophers in the conservative canon is Edmund Burke, critic of the French revolution and its high-minded ideals. This Burkean critique of revolution is then applied to left reform policies today to justify maintaining a crumbling status quo. But this move is illegitimate, for reasons that lie in Burke’s own Reflections … Continue reading Conservatism against capitalism: A realistic manifesto
The politics of truth: A manifesto
We live in undeniably dark times. News headlines of death and despair abound. In such a climate, politics is hardly seen as our salvation. Indeed, politics is seen by many as the problem. One reason given for the decay of our political institutions is that politicians lie. The phrase ‘fake news’ also abounds news headlines … Continue reading The politics of truth: A manifesto