Before we get too deep into 2025, I’d like to take a moment to remember a dear friend of this blog, Michael Murray, the publisher of the literature and art website Galaxy Brain. Michael passed away in 2024, which shocked me — I had no idea he was ill. I only knew him through Twitter,…
Tag: people
LINKS: Safeguarding Oblivion; the Permission Structure Machine; Communion on the Moon
On the Grid — How Surveillance Became a Love Language: “…true privacy requires safeguarding oblivion, not secrets.” Rapid Onset Political Enlightenment: “The wizards of the permission structure machine had become captives of the machinery that they built. Bullying large numbers of people into faddish hyperconformity by controlling the machinery of social approval may require both…
TUESDAY LINKS: Horticulture of the Heavens; the Wallpaper in Your Mind; the Consequences of Desire
Apologetics for Philosophy: “…getting in touch with this archive of greatness will put you in touch with practices and insights that in turn put you back in touch with reality, with being, in new, old, and timeless ways. And they do so in a way that lets us glean what reality is in a deeper sense.”…
Monday Links: Time; Night; Oz
Alt Economy of Inner Night: “Dream can be understood as the microleakage of the subconscious blackbox through which an insurrectionary consciousness may infiltrate. It is here, wading through a thick confused mess of oneself that the dreamer takes on the role of a lonesome trader who might find automated kiosks in the simulated likeness of…
▇ █ WEEKEND LINKS █ ▇: Imitative Passion; Debasement; Mob Rule; Wolves
12 Things I Learned from Rene Girard: “By desiring the same thing as our neighbor, we are drawn into inevitable conflict. Mimetic desire turns into mimetic rivalry—in everything from love to war. That’s the reason for the injunction against ‘coveting your neighbor’s wife.’ Girard claims this is emblematic of how mimetic impulses destroy a community….
w꙲꙲e꙲꙲e꙲꙲k꙲꙲e꙲꙲n꙲꙲d꙲꙲ ꙲꙲l꙲꙲i꙲꙲n꙲꙲k꙲꙲s꙲꙲: the Portents of Spring; King Rex; Ritualistic Death
Comes Thermidor: “America is headed for its own Thermidorian Reaction. It’ll end up being called something else, of course, because it is a different time, place, and set of circumstances. But it feels close, doesn’t it? Everybody I know or correspond with mentions this feeling that something is going to blow in our country, and…
ẅ̴͍é̷̞̲͐e̵̺̊͜ķ̷̥́̃e̸͎̣̼͂n̴̬̄d̸̡̈́ ̴̯̲̠̈́̾ĺ̸̯͎̯̈́i̷̻̼̚n̸̰̲̽̈̍k̴̖͆̊s̴̤̓̄: Psychopathology; Mirror Worlds; Criminality
Against Inevitability, Toward “Psychological Decentralization”: “‘The Psychopathology of Time and Life’ is a remarkable essay falling at the point where Marshall McLuhan is turning from a career in teaching poetry and literature to a career in studying media and becoming a kind of ‘anti-environmental activist’ in terms of the invisible shaping environment which is what…
ẅ̴͍é̷̞̲͐e̵̺̊͜ķ̷̥́̃e̸͎̣̼͂n̴̬̄d̸̡̈́ ̴̯̲̠̈́̾ĺ̸̯͎̯̈́i̷̻̼̚n̸̰̲̽̈̍k̴̖͆̊s̴̤̓̄: How to Stop Worrying; Rebellions Against God; Machines to Replace God
Atheists in Space: “[Oswald] Spengler believed that even as the 20th century began, all of the theoretical edifices constructed by the West to replace its old sacred order — which mainly manifested as political ideologies — had failed. Beginning in the 21st century, he predicted, the grandchildren of the revolutionaries and the rationalists, adrift in…
ẅ̴͍é̷̞̲͐e̵̺̊͜ķ̷̥́̃e̸͎̣̼͂n̴̬̄d̸̡̈́ ̴̯̲̠̈́̾ĺ̸̯͎̯̈́i̷̻̼̚n̸̰̲̽̈̍k̴̖͆̊s̴̤̓̄: feral rampage, joyous apocalypticism, Texas
Are People Really Fleeing Texas? “…this story needs spicing up. I’d suggest working in some details about millions of feral hogs on the rampage out west, while hunters strafe them with machine guns from their private helicopters flying overhead. ” Avant Garde at the End of the American Empire: “Miami is itself a kind of symbol…
WEEKEND LINKS: Whispered Intuition…Deep, Dark Psychodrama
Science as Enchantment: “…the new enchantment had its advantages, but it also has had tremendous costs, and the bills are still coming due.” The Crisis of 2025: “… it’s factually indisputable that Americans are a demoralized populace. You can see it in polls and the way people talk about their own country.” The Meta-Crises and…
weekend links: the bone orchard, war as divination, punishing wickedness
Don’t Waste a Good Crisis: “If you want to know what might come next, read the memoir of ‘White’ Russian general Pyotr Wrangel, Always with Honor, about the Russian Civil War. I’m not joking.” Godzilla: “A highlight of Heisei period Godzilla movies is Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah. It’s mostly a highlight for being completely bonkers Japanese nationalism. The…
W҈҉҈҉e҈҉҈҉e҈҉҈҉k҈҉҈҉e҈҉҈҉n҈҉҈҉d҈҉҈҉ ҈҉҈҉L҈҉҈҉i҈҉҈҉n҈҉҈҉k҈҉҈҉s҈҉҈҉: Storming the Heavens, Unfreedom, Alienation
A New Cosmist Moment: “Paradigm breakthroughs always begin with calls to great, even fantastical endeavors—to ‘storm the heavens,’ as Fyodorov once implored his followers to do. Even if Cosmism’s attempts at articulating a human project were kooky in certain respects, a great deal of tangible scientific progress emerged from its admirers. New, totalizing theories of…