kulturCritic
[C3] Critical Cultural Commentary
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Tinkerers on the Scaffolding: (Or the Recovery of Ecstasy)
The tame and domesticated contours of civilized life have eclipsed our sense of the feral in everyday experience – that irrepressible anchor of human embodiment, our elemental interlacing with
nature, “that subtle knot which makes us man.” Neglecting this wild core, we’ve abandoned our original gift of freedom, the inherent power of just being-there, outside the chains of time and the
terror of history. Forsaking this primal autonomy, the groundwork was laid for our own entrapment, the beginning of our enslavement. But we might again reawaken that sense of primitive sovereignty,
and experience the untamed, ecstatic undercurrent ...
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Full Metal Jacket
Most of us feel that “terrorism” has put some serious constraints upon our freedom here in the “homeland.” But what it may have done is inadvertently expose the pretense of freedom under which we
have been laboring for these many years, perhaps centuries. Perhaps it has succeeded in “outing” the underlying motive beneath our politics, its maneuverings and behind-the-scenes deal making,
whether with big business, lobbyists or private contractors. Maybe it has betrayed the prime motivation beneath all political systems – power, its control, and aggrandizement. ...
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Like the Seduction of Religion: Confessions of a Would-Be Anarchist
Have you ever been lulled into compliance by the Siren’s sweet voice like Ulysses was, or seduced by the charms of a ravishing temptress? Perhaps you have felt the rapture of transcendence brought on by endlessly listening to 14th century Gregorian chants.
Well, just like the ritual seductiveness of religion and the regimented requirement of work, online social networking lulls us into a placid acceptance of the necessity of civilization and its artifices – those carefully constructed distractions that keep us harmlessly in line like domesticated cattle, so that we accept the outcomes of its political machinations as necessary ...<< MORE >>
Well, just like the ritual seductiveness of religion and the regimented requirement of work, online social networking lulls us into a placid acceptance of the necessity of civilization and its artifices – those carefully constructed distractions that keep us harmlessly in line like domesticated cattle, so that we accept the outcomes of its political machinations as necessary ...<< MORE >>
A Zero Sum Game: the Hegemon Speaks
We Americans are slowly, but unmistakably, coming to the unsettling realization that our hegemony keeps seeking its own expansion and empowerment, whether it is run by one party or the other. In the end it is all a matter of power, its accumulation and consolidation. And no matter what Obama said in Moscow earlier this summer about the acquisition of power no longer being a zero sum game, he was just smirking at Putin and us through his pretty teeth.<< MORE >>
A Stricken Empire: The Shadow of Our Hegemony
The shadow of our hegemony, having been cast over the earth for the past two centuries, is growing thin and its pulse, weakening. With its days seemingly numbered, the American empire – this great experiment in freedom and prosperity – is apparently approaching its end. Early indications of this momentous event were foreshadowed in the hard fall of its financial markets and the idling of its economic engines. The road to infinite progress and universal prosperity seems to be nearing a dead end. ...<< MORE >>
Field of Dreams
Not too long ago we Americans became quite certain that our lifestyle represented the pinnacle of civilized progress and the best in scientific and technological advancement. What we as a nation had achieved, so we thought, was a dream come true. And it is this ‘American Dream’ that we have held out to (or perhaps thrust upon) the rest of the world as the genuine meaning of the ‘good life’ and the proper goal or end of human existence.
After all, it was our economics, our politics, our science and technology that conceived of and articulated this ‘dream world’ to ...<< MORE >>
After all, it was our economics, our politics, our science and technology that conceived of and articulated this ‘dream world’ to ...<< MORE >>
The Fertile Crescent and the Dialectics of Freedom
Well, there you have it! Once again we find ourselves back at the origins, where modern politics and religion got their start, back to the birthplace of Western civilization – home to ancient Mesopotamia, Babylonia, Assyria and Persia… or modern day Iran. ...From the bosom of these ancient empires emerged an overpowering combination of ruling elites, theocratic and political, who laid the disparate foundations for civilized authority ever since. << MORE >>
Mythmaking In America: The Public-Option
It is no surprise how the usual suspects keep regurgitating the same old myths about implementing a public option for the healthcare coverage in America.
The first myth is, of course, that the public option will end up rationing and limiting our access to healthcare services. What are these mythmakers (business and politically conservative elements) kidding us about; our access to healthcare services under the current insurance and other managed-care options is already restricted. Unless you have the ‘Cadillac’ of insurance programs, and pay the substantial premiums that go along with it, your access to healthcare is already rationed, and closely managed. << MORE >>
Twits in the Persian Gulf: The Real War Begins
Yes my friends! It is true! The American-engineered, virtual, digitally globalizing hegemony just keeps moving forward, unabated. We want to make sure that, while most Iraqis still have no reliable phone service, electricity, sanitation or clean water, like it or not we will take them out of the “Saddam dark ages” and bring them into the bright light of a new American future to “help them be more themselves.”
What kind of deranged thinking is this? Well who else would have thought to send such a stellar delegation to Iraq for “home improvement” discussions than a 27-year-old ‘wunderkind’ from ...<< MORE >>
Pirates and Pigs: The Nightmare
Who would have ‘thunk’ before he took office, that at the top of Obama’s to do list would be fighting pirates and pigs. Well that is the case. Not one hundred days into his fairytale presidency, Barack Obama is dealing with two issues that were not even on the radar screen last fall. But why are pirates and pigs so important, and how did the issues they present, holding sailors and the world’s populations hostage, come to occupy center stage in our efficiently run, and digitally globalized economy? The answers may be simpler and more frightening then we first suspect. ...<< MORE >>
