Remember Archie Bunker from the 1971 TV show All in the Family? In it’s stride, it was a number one show and drew viewers from over 21 million households. By the Hollywood standards of then and today, Bunker was a authoritarian, racist, sexist, anti-semite, homophobic “Nazi.” He used nearly every religious and ethnic slur you […]
By now, most people reading this will have heard of the Alt-right. Are they really just racist trolls, or are they the right wing version of Occupy Wall Street: young, technologically savvy, and a bit counterculture? Perhaps they are both or neither depending on who you ask, but the Alt-right is defined less by their beliefs […]
John C. Lilly is one of my favorite “alternative” scientists. His popularity has waned significantly since his death in 2001, even as his contemporaries like Timothy Leary and Terence McKenna have continued to have strong followings. Still, Lilly’s admittedly outrageous ideas and prophecies are worth remembering, not because they are necessarily true, but because, like all mythologies, they give us […]
Here is part 2 of my interview with Jasun Horsley of the Liminalist Podcast. Listen to part 1 here.
Thanks to my editor and publisher, you can now view two blog length excerpts from my new book, Bureaucratic Insanity: The American Bureaucrat’s Descent into Madness. The first excerpt discusses the “master/slave” relationship that has become widespread in American schools and workplaces. I also talk about what that kind of pressure means for our psychological health. The second discusses comedian George […]
In America today, a child can be charged with battery for throwing a piece of candy at a friend or threatened with expulsion for making a “gun” gesture with their index finger. They can also be imprisoned for cutting class and placed in solitary confinement or made to share a cell with hardened adult criminals. In […]
I carefully step in to the tank, one foot after the other, into the super thick and unusually slippery water. Once the lid is closed, I’m immersed in complete darkness. As I lay back, my body is forced upward, floating on the surface of the water. I’ve done this a few times now and my […]
Race and sexual identity now make up a good portion of all media distractions. According to political activists, “symbols of oppression” now include Halloween costumes, the Confederate flag, and the color of Starbucks coffee cups. So shallow is our collective identity, that this now defines our most passionate debate. While the global economy deteriorates and our government pursues endless conflict […]
“One of the few good things about modern times,” Kurt Vonnegut observed, “If you die horribly on television, you will not have died in vain. You will have entertained us.” Rarely a day goes by without another act of senseless violence occurring in the US. The motives seem to vary wildly: religious fanaticism, white supremacists trying […]
Two weeks after the event, we have all but forgotten about the murder of a news reporter and her cameraman during an interview on live television. The apparent shooter, Vester Flanagan, was a former coworker who had previously been fired from the station. ABC News said it was faxed a 23-page manifesto from someone claiming to be the shooter, […]
