I have completed the preface of a book, AGNOTOLOGY [The Making & Unmaking of Ignorance], edited by Robert N. Proctor and Londa Schiebinger. The subject is “ignorance,” the history and the function of ignorance. I was intrigued to select this book because there is current an outbreak of studied, deliberate ignorance, ignorance which is…
There is a lot more offered on the internet than one can consume, even when one attempts to be judicious. Recently I’ve listened to a podcast by Scott Galloway, a marketing professor at NYU. I like his direct, no-nonsense manner of speaking. If you’d like to sample the podcast, The Professor G Show, CLICK…
54One should not let oneself be misled:great intellects are skeptics…..The vigor of mind,its freedom through strengthand superior strength, is proved by skepticism.Men of conviction simply do not come into considerationwhere the fundamentals of value and dis-valueare concerned. Convictions are prisons.They do not see far enough,they do not see things beneath them:but to be permitted…
48The old God, all ‘spirit’,…all perfection,promenades in his garden:but he is bored.Against boredom the gods themselvesfight in vain.What is he to do?He invents man – man is entertaining…..But behold, man too is bored.God’s sympathy with the only kind of distressfound in paradise knows no bounds:He forthwith creates other animals.God’s first blunder:man did not find…
43 If one shifts the center of gravity of life out of life into the ‘Beyond’ – into nothingness one has deprived life as such of its center of gravity. The great lie of personal immortality destroys all rationality, all naturalness of instinct, all that is salutary, all that is life-furthering, all that holds…
39 The word ‘Christianity’ is already a misunderstanding – In reality there has been only one Christian, and he died on a Cross. The ‘Evangel’ died on the Cross. What was called ‘Evangel’ from this moment onwards was already the opposite of what he had lived: the ‘bad tidings’ a dysangel. It is false…
Several posts ago I invited comment from readers who viewed the Netflix film, The 13th. The film title is a reference to the 13th amendment to the constitution that freed the slaves during the Civil War. The point of the film is the loophole, an exception to universal freedom which we hear indefatigably advertised…
Many things on my mind this morning. We viewed the film Harriet last night. It is the story of Harriet Tubman, escaped slave from a Maryland slaveholder, becoming a female “Moses” returning to the area of her former captivity to lead family members and others to freedom. As a former Southerner I was rocked…
I finished reading America, by Jean Baudrillard published in 1986. It is Baudrillard’s reflection upon his stay in this country, a rough parallel to the commentary by Alexis de Tocqueville in 1835. A recurring theme for Baudrillard is a comparison between the desert and the cities, especially Los Angeles. The concluding chapter is entitled…
Sinclair Broadcast Group recently published an online interview with a conspiracy theorist who claimed that Dr. Anthony Fauci created the coronavirus using monkey cells. Sinclair — which operates almost 200 television stations — has also run segments downplaying the severity of the virus. Fox News has repeatedly run segments promoting ideas that scientists consider…
