Category

culture

The Talented, The Well-Born, The Well-Educated Do Not Deserve Special Privileges: Pelagianism’s Influence on American Political Philosophy

“Perhaps the most eloquent contemporary statement of Pelagian freedom appears in an opinion from the United States Supreme Court, in a passage written by former Justice Anthony Kennedy. In 1992, in a case called Casey v. Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania, he wrote this: “At the heart of liberty is the right to define one’s…

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Every Unfertilized Egg In The Body Of A Nun: Sanctity of Life, Abortion, Personhood, Murder, Blessings & Curses

“What is the moral question regarding abortion? Some people say that the fetus is alive and that, therefore, killing it is wrong. Since mosquitoes, bacteria, apes and whales are also alive, the argument is less than clear. Even plants are alive. I am not impressed by the rebuttal, “But plants, mosquitoes, bacteria and whales are…

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The Dialectical Interaction of an Ensemble of Social and Natural Processes

“The ideology of modern capitalism is an expression of the deficient mental structure’s repression of the time element, of creative becoming. Instead of recognizing the importance of the dialectic of history and the ongoing and entangled processes of natural and social transformation, capitalist economic theory insists that the present arrangement represents the “end of history”…

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Esotericism: The Province of Highly Educated, Affluent and Powerful Intellectuals?

“Despite the proliferation of interest in the subjects of secrecy and esotericism throughout popular culture, media and entertainment, these phenomena have only recently begun to be treated seriously by historians of religions. In this essay, I suggest a new way of looking at esotericism by engaging in a comparative, cross-cultural analysis, and by looking in…

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Humans Don’t Have a Special Status in The Living World: Ethical Vegetarianism/Veganism, Human Exceptionalism & Radical Politics

“Cruelty plays a fundamental role in the vegetarian’s argument inasmuch as the principal reason the vegetarian does not want to eat meat is that she does not want to kill animals or cause them to suffer. The vegetarian sees cruelty in purely negative terms; she believes that its complete eradication is a realistic goal that…

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Perhaps nothing sums up the irrationality of capitalism more than this…

“In discussions about plastic use it is common to blame mass consumerism and a throwaway culture for the environmental problem of plastic. However, rather than being demand led, the throwaway culture was created and driven by the corporations who profit from it. The amazing materials created from the waste products of the oil and gas…

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Maniacs Around Every Corner: Sad, Angry & Brief Reflections on Armed Guards, Tragedy & Gun Control

“If there was an armed guard inside the temple, they would have been able to stop him” – Donald Trump The above statement was one of the first gut responses from Donald Trump when he was asked about the horrific, terroristic hate crime that occurred Saturday, October 27th, which resulted in the death of eleven…

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Thick Skin Is For Unequals: PC Culture, Insults & Taking Offense

“Bourgeois men succeeded in challenging aristocrats only when they had already received some formal recognition of status, either via legal equality or admission to some institution (eg, officer corps, universities) on an equal footing with aristocrats. Official recognition of equality is what enabled them to defend their equal status, by duel, in the broader social…

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And Distribution Was Made Unto Everyone According to Their Need

““Rich countries aren’t developing poor countries; poor countries are effectively developing rich countries — and they have been since the late 15th century,” argues Hickel…In the book it is laid bare for all to see that underdevelopment in the Global South is not a natural condition, but a consequence of the way Western powers have…

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