Jun 12, 2022Liberation From Our Modern PurgatoryFrom Material Civilization to Sacred Knowledge I. Material Civilization What is a chief mark, a distinguishing characteristic of our time, of the particularly anomalous epoch in which we live? The perennialist Rene Guenon argues that it is materialism–indeed, that modern civilization is a material–perhaps, to date, the–material civilization. Rightly, he observes, in his acerbic The Crisis of the…Philosophy12 min readPhilosophy12 min read
Mar 11, 2022Overcoming The Scarcity MindsetOn The Centrality Of Self-knowledge Scarcity Pure and Simple Versus The Scarcity Mindset 1: Scarcity pure and simple is not the same as the scarcity mindset. Someone who really doesn’t have enough food to eat is, as a matter of fact, experiencing scarcity. 2: In contrast with scarcity pure and simple, the scarcity mindset sets up a conundrum: one really does have enough…Philosophy4 min readPhilosophy4 min read
Dec 14, 2021Member-onlyA Sense Of The CosmosReflections on Happiness and Cosmology — I. In Search of the Cosmos: A Plea for Astrology and Alchemy You might find it an odd, not to say also an especially infelicitous, way to begin these reflections on the nature of happiness by offering up a special plea for astrology and alchemy. But hear me out. I know precious little about either but enough about both to be able…Philosophy12 min readPhilosophy12 min read
Jan 4, 2021Escape Total Work! A 4-Week Course Starting In FebruaryUpdate (January 6) This write-up was originally posted on January 4th. I won’t be taking more applications after the end of January 11th. The Character Of Our Time It has gone largely unnoticed that our time is defined by Total Work, the long historical process through which human beings have been slowly transformed into Workers as nearly every…Work18 min readWork18 min read
Oct 26, 2020Member-onlyClearing And WisingPreamble The question I ask in this long form essay is: “Why are people not kinder to one another and to all sentient beings? Why, indeed, is not kindness the default mode?” And the answer I come to is this one: we are not clear and we are not wise. I’d…Modernity21 min readModernity21 min read
Published inCurious·Oct 12, 2020Member-onlyThe Liberal Arts during the Meta-CrisisOn groundlessness and existential homelessness I. A Dream In a dream, you see that you’re somewhere you’ve never been before, the landscape you survey appearing unrecognizable to you. Only in the next breath, it strikes you as if, no, this landscape is all too familiar. …Philosophy21 min readPhilosophy21 min read
Oct 6, 2020Escape Total Work! A 4-Week Course Starting In NovemberTo Those Who Received The February Discount Code The course will be held on each Sunday in February: that is, on February 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th. The start time will be 4 p.m. EST/9 p.m. GMT. The application form, which includes further instructions at the top, can be found here. …Total Work15 min readTotal Work15 min read
Aug 12, 2020Member-onlyStop Confessing Your VulnerabilitiesThe Uninvited Confession, The New Confessional Over the years, and most especially during the coronavirus pandemic, I’ve noticed an unsettling trend: people I barely know or do not know at all will send me letters written in the mode of a confession. Completely out of the blue. The writer will not ask after me or mine…4 min read4 min read
Mar 30, 2020Member-onlyFind Your Sweetness!A critique of Total Work in a time of COVID-19 Find Your Sweetness! Don’t “find your bliss!” if “finding your bliss” continues, mistakenly to be sure, to lead you to hunt for that chimera, Meaningful Work. The good news is that you don’t have to worry about finding meaningful work because meaningful work…Work9 min readWork9 min read
Jan 28, 2020Member-onlyThe Spell of Total Work: A FairytaleStarring the Mischievous Magician, The Clever Ones, & a Band of Merry Pranksters — Casting A Spell Once upon a time, there lived a mischievous magician in a realm just above that of upright, ambulatory, hairless creatures who’d taken to calling themselves homo sapiens.Work7 min readWork7 min read
