Keith “Maggie” Brown
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The Limits of Jaspersian Patience
Philosophical faith and dialogue might seem hopelessly inadequate. “Playing the long game” can also feel inadequate when people are being threatened, disappeared, or killed. Here I attempt to outline why Jaspers was no fool about this. Continue reading
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Haibun 06Jul25: Reading, Authority, and Reason
When I was young, I thought books were keys to the vault of answers. If I read enough, deeply enough, I’d know what to think. I mistook tradition for commandment. Decades later, I sit among these same volumes—dog-eared, underlined, marked… Continue reading
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Anti-Reason in Our Times: The Renaissance of White Supremacy
Karl Jaspers warns in “Reason and Anti-Reason in Our Time” (1952) of the unphilosophical spirit that favors comforting myths over uncomfortable truths. Contemporary white supremacist movements exemplify this “anti-reason,” exhibiting ideological rigidity and rejecting dialogue. Through the Browning’s work, “The… Continue reading
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Seeing Through the Force
I. Introduction: The Aesthetic Judgment Within* “The soul is not a unity. It is a field of tensions — of seeing, feeling, and wanting. The work of judgment is not to conquer these parts, but to bring them into resonance.”—… Continue reading
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Heresy in the Guise of Tradition: A Queer Prodigal Son Reflects on MAGA Traditionalism
Pope Leo XIV’s election signifies a pivotal moment in the Church, yet reactionary American Catholics criticize him as insufficiently traditional. They embody a heresy that distorts Gospel values, prioritizing power over compassion. This discourse urges a return to true Catholic… Continue reading
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Philosophical Faith in the World: Neither Sinner nor Consumer
Karl Jaspers small text provides us in 2025 with a manual of quiet defiance. For queer and other marginalized thinkers, educators, counselors, and all who remain exposed in the neoliberal storm winds, Jaspers offers us Way to reassert the soft power… Continue reading
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Neoliberalism: The Operating System of the Society of Control
Neoliberalism, emerging as a reaction against Keynesian policies, transforms social life through market logic, individual responsibility, and state facilitation of capital. It prioritizes deregulation, privatization, and austerity, reframing citizens as entrepreneurial actors. In Texas, neoliberal policies since the 1990s have… Continue reading
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The Current Empire
Unlike classical empires, the Current Empire no longer needs grand narratives of conquest. Instead, it extends its reach through bureaucratic normalization, algorithmic feedback loops, religious-nationalist fervor, and the hollowing of democratic discourse. Continue reading
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Christian Nationalism and the Threats of Anti-Reason
READ MY NOTICE TO EXPRESS MYSELF AS A FREE ADULT CITIZEN OF THE STATE OF TEXAS On this ideology Christian Nationalism is a socio-political ideology that seeks to merge a particular interpretation of Christianity with national identity, law, and governance. At… Continue reading
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Reversion, Reconciliation, and Restoration: Toward Tranquility in the Current Empire
Looking Back Almost twenty years ago, I began troubling the word peace. Like many of us, I had long imagined peace as the cessation of violence, the arrival of stillness, the mutual exhale after the fire. But something in the… Continue reading
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From Republic to Serfdom: Misreading Rome in America’s Rural Imagination
Introduction The recent interview with Ammon Bundy in The Salt Lake Tribune highlights a recurring theme among certain rural conservatives: the belief that the expansion of government welfare signals the decline of a once-great republic. Bundy’s assertion that the U.S.… Continue reading
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Love’s Generative Nothingness: A Philosophical Reflection
Original Spontaneous Insight Love is making something out of nothing. Creatio ex nihilo. Love makes, builds, creates connections where none are and a life together that has not yet been lived. Upon no thing can anyone discover such a possibility.… Continue reading
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Why the Right Is Wrong About Critical Race Theory | Truthout
Great interview with philosopher Tim Gordon. Very much worth a full read; Gordon’s works are also worth your time. That is, IF you really want to understand Critical Race Theory [CRT] and not just take for granted the strawmen arguments… Continue reading
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Interpreting thru Maize meanings written in light
I get to work alongside amazing youth. Here are a couple of YouTubes from two of my siblings who have shared with me their most current projects. I wanted to share it with my friends and colleagues who sometimes stumble… Continue reading
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NO ONE EXPECTS THE SPANISH INQUISITION… WELL, MAYBE SOME OF US DO.
GETTING BACK INTO PUBLIC THINKERING† Since finishing my dissertation, I have not written nearly as much even in my journals as I used to do. I think the break is over now, however. The last few weeks have gotten me… Continue reading
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Beings of Enlightened Belief Are We…
Surely some of us are tired. As I get older, as my spouse gets older, we are often very tired. Very exhausted. It can be overwhelming. But what helps us—how we frankly help each other as friends find freedom—is reminding… Continue reading
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NOTICE OF FREEDOM TO EXPRESS MY VIEWS
As a voting citizen of the State of Texas and the United States of America, I assert my right to freedom of speech, as protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. This personal blog is a space where… Continue reading
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Diana & Julia: A Friendship Through Correspondence
This post celebrates the 101st birthday of Diana Kennedy on March 3rd. In 2019, Special Collections began acquiring materials from British food … Diana & Julia: A Friendship Through Correspondence Continue reading
CALL ME MAGGIE 