The violations that plague us don’t come out of thin air one day. It is the result of the culmination of traumas inflicted onto us from day one (and actually before, while we are still in the womb) of entering into a world that profits and runs off of others people’s trauma. We literally live and operate in a place that is rooted in trauma and carries out traumatizing rituals on its most vulnerable people. So long as we passively accept these cultural narratives and practices, we cannot and should not expect better from our society.
Tag: history
The Iran Nuclear Deal Isn’t Just a Good Idea — It’s the Law
On May 8, President Donald Trump announced US withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, colloquially known as “the Iran nuclear deal.” While that decision has come under criticism for being both a really bad idea and a severe betrayal of trust, both of which are true, it’s worth noting that the US withdrawal is also a breach of treaty obligations, and that such obligations are, per the US Constitution and co-equal with it, “the Supreme Law of the Land.”
Gina Haspel: Torturers Should be Punished, not Promoted
Gina Haspel doesn’t belong at the head of the CIA. She doesn’t belong in the CIA at all. Nor does she belong in any other position of government authority. Gina Haspel belongs in prison.
“Avengers: Infinity War” Is A Cosmic Battle of Individualism vs. Collectivism
Thanos’ collectivism expresses itself in a backwards view of the world which many viewers may not immediately catch on to. Despite the film’s scenes on the devastated and once-populated Titan (which attempt to make Thanos’ mission seem sympathetic and reasonable) there are literally zero cases where eliminating half of a population by genocide improves productivity and wellbeing for the other half.
CFPB Makes War on the Poor in the Name of “Protecting” Them
Daniel Press of the Competitive Enterprise Institute calls the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s name “the ultimate misnomer.” He’s right. The “Protection” part only makes sense in the manner of mob racket slang: “Nice loan operation you got there. Be a shame if anything happened to it.”
Trump: For Whom the Nobel Tolls?
The Nobel Peace Prize is, so far as I can tell, an annual tribute to political hypocrites who make war while talking peace. South Korea’s president is quoted by his office as saying “It’s really President Trump who should receive [the prize]; we can just take peace.” If the peace comes about, any credit accruing to Trump should buy him something more worthwhile than such a bloodstained trophy.
This Job Is Going To Be Legendary: How Archetypes Keep Showing Up In Work
I think it’s helpful to look at how the “new” jobs of today reflect the same archetypal social roles played out in the legends we love. Humans and human institutions may change in form, but they do not change at heart.
On Coming to Grips with the Nature of the State
That so many intellectuals talk about the state as if it were a sort of garden-party amusement, rather than the cold, merciless killing and plundering machine that it really is, now puzzles me. I don’t think the disconnect between the ivory-tower conceptions and the reality of the state springs so much from the philosophers and political scientists having prostituted themselves to the state as it springs from these thinkers’ not getting out more—or, barring actual first-hand involvement in the relevant realms, from their failure to learn more realistic history.
Social Security is the Titanic; 2022 is the Iceberg; Anybody See a Lifeboat?
Everything eventually comes to an end, and Social Security won’t be the single historical exception to that cold hard fact of reality. The big question is whether it winds down in the least damaging way or catastrophically implodes (cue images of the elderly living on cat food and so forth).
How I’m Detoxing from Darkness
I’ve been dwelling a lot on the darkness in the world lately. If you study history, study people, and study yourself, it’s hard to go very long at all without realizing the extent of human violence, lust, greed, laziness, and destructiveness.