I spent the final days of 2023 desperately scrambling to complete two episodes for the two podcasts that represent the clashing sides of my brain.
I was possessed by a superstitious idea that I needed to launch both episodes before 2024 began – a superstition I probably manufactured as a … Read the rest
Paris and Beirut were brutally attacked by ISIL terrorists on Friday, and people are talking about how France and the world should respond. French President Francois Hollande has declared that “this is an act of war”, which is a disturbing echo to anybody who remembers how eagerly US President George … Read the rest
Since we’re getting serious about pacifism, we should also get serious about the words we use to talk about it.
Language has been nearly fatal to pacifism: the word itself is often considered foul and offensive. This is because many people mistakenly believe pacifism to be an extreme and … Read the rest
How can pacifists possibly defeat ISIL, the cruel Islamic State government that has taken violence to a horrifying new level in Iraq and Syria? This is the question we’ve been asked most urgently since we launched the fundraising drive for Pacifism21 three weeks ago.
We’re glad people are asking this … Read the rest
If you’ve heard any recent news coverage about the peace agreement between Iran, USA, UK, France, Germany, Russia and China that will hopefully move forward this week, there’s a good chance this is because the opposition in USA has been so noisy. We’ve seen big headlines about Republican hawks inviting … Read the rest
I observed a strange reaction among my friends — especially my fellow liberals — when a new insurgent group calling itself “The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria” began capturing towns and small cities in war-torn Iraq.
There’s really nothing new about this insurgent group, which represents the same Sunni … Read the rest
It’s time to start putting some puzzle pieces together.
Five weekends ago I began a project by suggesting that we try to analyze some tough ethical/historical problems with the methodology of a puzzle-solver, by which I meant that we would determine a few principles or “tools” and then apply … Read the rest
Amiri Baraka, a seminal Beat poet, angry playwright, revolutionary activist and scrappy indie publisher from Newark, New Jersey has died. The Allen Ginsberg Project blog has the scoop. Here’s a Litkicks article about Amiri Baraka by Jamelah Earle from 2003.
Please feel free to share your memories or personal encounters … Read the rest
In his essay The Doors of Perception, Aldous Huxley describes his experiences after taking a dose of mescaline. At the end of the book, he makes this observation:
… Read the restThat humanity at large will ever be able to dispense with Artificial Paradises seems very unlikely. Most men and women lead
