Social Criticism - S.J. Kerrigan

I sat down recently to do an interview with Jasun Horsley of the Liminalist Podcast. We talk about my new book, Bureaucratic Insanity for a short bit. Then we get into discussions about meaning, the banality of office life, the death of autonomy, the worship of symbols, and too many other eclectic topics to lists. Click here to […]

I’ve always defined god as that which motivates a person the most. Whatever makes you get up in the morning or whatever makes you go to work for 40 hours or more a week, that is your god. For a lot of people, God is money. Money does after all affect almost every interaction we have on a […]

The Washington Post just reported that a friend of OJ Simpson believes he may be willing to confess to the 1994 murders after he is released from prison for unrelated crimes (possibly as early as 2017). Everyone who is old enough to remember 1994 has a story about OJ Simpson. Maybe they saw the infamous […]

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 […]

When a young person looks to an adult in a position of authority, they think, “They’re adults. So they must know something about their job.” Many young people think they know everything, but they still buy into the idea that adults have a system, that there’s a plan to the seeming absurdity of life. Now stop […]

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, […]

Tag Archives: Social Criticism