I If God Is Dead, Social Media Is Permitted
At the mercy of whatever obscure algorithmic forces now dictate our lives, many of us recently watched new Netflix film, The Social Dilemma. Enraptured by our irascible gods — postmodern deities whose digital powers make a mockery of self-determination, autonomy, free will, the Enlightenment project at large, etc. — we…
Originally written for RealTimeCEO
The Australian government’s lockdowns and COVID-Zero policies have saved many lives, yet they cost our economy tens of millions of dollars a day. With all the uncertainties surrounding the pandemic’s future, can our current approach continue? This article looks at the health and economic implications of Australia’s policies.
I The Cost of COVID-Zero
On Kanye’s political evolution
The following is the second of a two-part essay on Kanye West’s music and politics. The first part is about the politics underlying his 2020 presidential platform; this part is about his evolution from a cultural star of neoliberal America to an advocate for right-wing politics.
For most of his…
On the Joe Rogan Experience #1554
The following is the first of a two-part essay on Kanye West’s music and politics. This part is about the politics underlying his 2020 presidential platform; the next is about his evolution from a cultural star of neoliberal America to an advocate for right-wing politics.
‘…we are sick. We are…
A Review (That Sort of Became an Essay on Why You Should Respect This Man)
I Political Symphonies
As Vintage’s resident ‘erratic Marxist’, Yanis Varoufakis recently had the opportunity to pen an introduction to their new reprint of the Communist Manifesto. There, he expounds on the nature of great manifestos. To succeed, a manifesto ‘must speak to our hearts like a poem while infecting the mind with images…
Darian Leader on Freud’s theory of depression.
In recent years, it has been widely reported that the illness known as ‘depression’ has reached epidemic proportions in the United States. A 2020 report by the National Center for Health Statistics tells us that in 2018, an ‘estimated 7.2% of American adults had a major depressive episode in the…
Written for RealTimeCEO
Today, finance and economics have nothing to do with one another.
I deliberately open with this ridiculous statement, because financial markets in the last 12 months have behaved in ridiculous ways. In 2020, the real economy in the USA shrank significantly; yet, financial markets boomed. Some commentators…
The Politics of Technological Change, Pt. I
‘Technological inevitability is the mantra on which we are trained, but it is an existential narcotic prescribe to induce resignation: a snuff dream of the spirit.’
- The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, p. 516.
Of the many threads that comprise Shoshana Zuboff’s excellent book, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, we…
Originally published 2019 in Meniscus Literary Journal
To the kid,
Who saw halogen floors
With no generational flaws,
& the chemical lights
At delirious heights,
& the patented airspace
Felt olfactory engage,
& was a smear of light
Slicked on marmoreal smooth,
Cracked, diffused,
Refracted, minuscule,
Flattened, 2D, under the rape of spectacle,
Solely receptacle but thrilled to be there.
The intention was: bedazzled kid.
Feel the air-conditioning under your…
Written for RealTimeCEO
As our leaders look to repair our economies after the COVID-19 crash, a wild new way of economic thinking has surged to prominence: modern monetary theory, or MMT for short. MMT’s supposedly radical ideas for money creation and government spending have caused fear and confusion. ‘It’s dangerous,’ we hear. ‘We’ll…
