The psychoanalytic theorist, Jacques Lacan, has some surprising conceptual tools up his sleeve, some of which can bring some clarity in the oft-confusing world in which we live at present. His theoretical and philosophical oeuvre comprises a wide spectrum, most …
Banishing Ghosts after the Pandemic
My wonderful wife handles all of the Halloween planning for our family. She arranges the costumes, the candy, puts up the decorations, and manages the inevitable costume parties.
This year my wife chose a Ghostbusters theme. In our front yard, …
The Politics of Disdain
I am pleased to publish here a brief excerpt from an article originally published in City Journal with my colleague Emily Burns, a research analyst, writer, and member of our censorship working group at Brownstone Institute.
Several commentators have claimed …
Chronicles of an Unvaccinated Leftist
Being a person with a left-leaning ideology, the subject of prejudice has always intrigued me. Understanding society, how people think, and how people react to social changes and progress is challenging. With that in mind, out of nowhere, without being …
Did Liberalism Fail?
If we are going to survive we need a coherent political philosophy. I’m not convinced that we have one right now. In the movement for medical freedom we’ve gotten really good at describing the current crisis and critiquing the other …
The True Test of One’s Commitment to Free Speech
One’s commitment to the foundational, noble ideals of Western, liberal society is most revealingly tested in times of emergency and mortal danger. Core principles such as individualism, bodily autonomy, tolerance, pluralism, and informed consent are easy to support in abstract …
The Depopulation Bomb: A Halloween Sci-Fi Tale
The following fictional story may or may not bear resemblance to events in real life.
Imagine, if you will, that you are a first-generation high tech gazillionaire. In fact, at one time you were said to be the richest man …
Brownstone Institute at Year Three
Brownstone Institute’s third annual conference and gala is upon us. It’s a good time to reflect on where we’ve been and where we are going.
Before we begin, this much is obvious: lots of very powerful people want this institution …
Where is the Left today?
There is something presumptuous lurking in the very phrase, “the Left”. Under a show of cosmopolitan inclusion, the term hides a reality of unconscious parochialism. The parochialism is both geographical and historical in nature.
First there is the implicit geographical …
Covid Amnesty: Is Mercy the Answer?
Mercy is a missing ingredient of our modern society.
As we fire 280-character social missiles, learn the necessary aim and outrage for maximum effect, update, and reload to fire again into the volley, I worry we might be forgetting about …
Thomas Hobbes’s Philosophy Made Real
How many people have noticed that, today – since at least the beginning of the so-called ‘pandemic,’ but probably earlier – governments, or constitutionally speaking, those who occupy the position of the ‘state,’ have acted as if citizens have no …
On Broken Friendships
One warm, early-1980s weekday afternoon, I was walking east on Delancey Street in New York City’s Lower East Side. At that time, as were many areas of the city, Delancey was kind of rundown. I don’t remember what brought me …
Is Serfdom Humanity’s Default?
In the mid-20th century, the economist Friedrich von Hayek warned that the rise of centrally-planned economies—whether in the form of socialism/communism or fascism, which he argued have common roots—was leading us all (back) down “the road to serfdom.”
The term …
The Left Needs to Find Itself
It is tiring to be accused of being ‘far-right’ by people doing the bidding of the corporations and investors who recently made a killing on Covid. It is particularly irritating that such people, whilst deriding low-income workers and the ‘uneducated,’ …
The Drumbeat of Trauma-Inducing Events in Our Lives
Born down in a dead man’s town
The first kick I took was when I hit the ground
End up like a dog that’s been beat too much
‘Til you spend half your life just to cover it up, now…