Macrodoses #5: The Election

This is more than just my verdict on an election season that was served up in carefully scripted images, videos, and soundbites. The larger truth is that we are living in a time when all disputes and engagements take on this fabricated quality.

Instead of doing something tangible or constructive or even persuasive, instigators work to create a meme—... See more

A short thought - the need for intoxicating visions of a flourishing world

Judging by the result of the US elections earlier this month, the world may need a reminder of the following thought by Simone Weil: “Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring. Imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, ma... See more

It would sure make things easy if this election were a simple contest of good versus evil. But this is the way of thinking that is tearing the world apart. Those who think that way always consider themselves to be members of Team Good, of course. If your opponent is evil incarnate, then any means to stop him are justified.

Four-and-a-half years ago, as the COVID epidemic hit its first, horrible spike, Jamais Cascio , a professional futurist, wrote a prescient and helpful post titled, “Facing the Age of Chaos.” He began with this simple insight: “This current moment of political mayhem, climate disasters, and global pandemic — and so much more — vividly demonstrates t... See more

What’s striking … is the apparent shift from a politics of reason to a politics of experience… In the eyes of many, personal experience has become the new way of being at home in the world. It’s like the bubble that holds the foam at a distance. Experience nowadays trumps reason… We’re led to believe that sensibility, emotions, affect, sentiments a... See more