Jun 15Member-onlyHow Do You Write About Happiness?Misery is the river of the world. How do you write about happiness? You don’t. Nobody wants to hear about it. The history of literature is the history of misery. Down and out. Misfortune. Failed love. Spiritual collapse. Financial ruin. A life of debt, ennui, broken hearts, doom. Suicide. Hart…Happiness1 min read
May 30Member-onlyThe Second Amendment as Argument“Strong minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, weak minds discuss people.” —Socrates This article is neither pro- nor anti-gun. It is neither pro- nor anti-Second Amendment. It does not attempt to solve the gun issue in the US. What it does do is reframe the way we should look…Guns3 min read
Feb 17Member-onlyToxic Individuality“Sameness chokes oneness.” -ee cummings For most of history, nothing was more terrifying to humans than being alone. Cast out from the tribe, exiled, excommunicated, to be condemned to individuality, alone against the world was terrifying and undesirable. “For the individual to establish his own ideal, Nietzsche writes in The…Politics3 min read
Dec 13, 2021Member-onlyWhy I Don’t Write Every DayOr every week. Or every month. I’ve written thousands of pages in my writing life. Four novels. A memoir. A book of short stories. 15 screenplays. Some poems. Some translations. Some academic articles (academic writing isn’t really writing. It’s paperwork for CV inflation). Writing writing writing. There’s a lot of…Writing3 min read
Oct 4, 2021Member-onlyThe Aca-demise of DemocracyThe academisation of society is destroying democracy “It follows from the laws of hierarchy that scholars, in so far as they belong to the intellectual middle class, cannot catch sight of the truly great problems and question marks.” Nietzsche, The Joyous Science In Gulliver’s Travels, Jonathan Swift’s 18th century satire…Politics4 min read
Aug 10, 2021Member-onlyLong Distance RunaroundWhy oh why do we keep going back? I moved to Rome in August 2004. I had been offered a two-year teaching position in the MBA program at the University of Strasbourg in France, after spending three years in Germany. I hadn’t had a full-time job in five years and…Mwc Reentry12 min read
Aug 1, 2021Member-onlyI Will Never Get Used To Falling BeamsOn random accidents and death In The Maltese Falcon, Sam Spade tells a story about a man named Stan Flitcraft, who “owned a house in a Tacoma suburb, a new Packard, and the rest of the appurtenances of successful American living.” One day, he left his real estate office for…Mwc Death4 min read
May 13, 2021Member-onlyConviction-based Science Will Destroy Us AllA science based on convictions is not science. Science based on opinions or ideology is not science. Consider Trofim Lysenko, Soviet scientist, whose anti-Mendelian genetics were the basis of an agricultural policy that resulted in millions dying of famine. Lysenko believed in the idea of Lamarckian inheritance, which proved deadly…Science3 min read
Apr 22, 2021Member-onlyJames Madison on Majority Rule, Factionalism, and the Common GoodThe greater the obstacles, the more freedom from oppression We act as if Twitter has created a shit-show of opinions, that there was once some golden age of unity and mutual respect in argument before social media became the popular go-to place for moronic opinions and mob idiocy. Of course…Politics5 min read
Apr 16, 2021Member-onlyCensorship and Political DelusionThe mysterious willingness of the technologically educated masses to fall for despotism. We have achieved the administered state. This is not a good thing. This is the reason Woke has been embraced by corporations, governments, media outlets, and educational institutions. Their only interest is controlling and expanding the reach of…Culture3 min read
