AnarchoCynicism

My personal brand of philosophy.

  • Apostle & Epistle

    The term apostle derives from L.L. apostolus, from Gk. apostolos “person sent forth,” from apostellein “to send away, to send forth,” from apo– “from” + stellein “to send.” One sent-forth is a messenger. To have a message is to be an apostle. Who sends forth the… Continue reading

  • Hidden Desire: Nietzsche, Gay Philosopher

    Most folks I know who focus on Nietzsche are very heteronormative. Yet Nietzsche as gay man has always made so much sense to me. Why do folks NOT read Nietzsche as a man who loved men, a man even more… Continue reading

    Hidden Desire: Nietzsche, Gay Philosopher
  • The #perfect is the enemy of the #good

    Sitting around with the first occupiers of Zuccotti Park on the first anniversary of Occupy, I listened to one lovely young man talking about the rage that his peers, particularly his gender, often have. But, he added, fury is not… Continue reading

  • Heterotopia of Facebook

    Michel Foucault first introduced the notion of heterotopia in the preface of his 1966 book Les Mots et les Choses (translated in 1970 as The Order of Things), and further developed the concept in his famous lecture ‘Of Other Spaces’… Continue reading

    Heterotopia of Facebook
  • Ethics and The Unblocked Life

    Ethics: Acting in a situation with appropriate energy. Doing without overstepping what is necessary for life. (Where “life” is to be held as distinct from mere existence or survival.) And maybe that opens up the next query: What is life?… Continue reading

    Ethics and The Unblocked Life
  • Expulsion of the White Working Class

    This exemplifies how the superstructure dominates every aspect of our lives. The neoliberal policies of the two plutocratic parties, Democrat and Republican, keep folks separated along racial lines so that the bottom 50% of citizens will not communicate with each other.… Continue reading

    Expulsion of the White Working Class
  • Bringing out the dead

    Being in academia, asked to do what academics do to show they are really academics, makes me feel dead inside. The world doesn’t need more proliferating monographs and essays. It needs thinkers who will spend time with young people one… Continue reading

    Bringing out the dead
  • maintaining submission

    Writing poetry rather than writing an exam. Continue reading

    maintaining submission
  • General Kafka

    “The right understanding of any matter and a misunderstanding of the same matter do not wholly exclude each other.” ― Franz Kafka, The Trial something happened we cannot know details rest assured… it happened not a good thing a hushed thing sitting… Continue reading

    General Kafka
  • self conspiracy

    “i” as useful designation like a storm front like a bright day changing temperaments one and then another always another forecaste now is here and then is there here is now and there is then no-thing stable enough to be… Continue reading

    self conspiracy
  • Zen Anarchy

    And nothing is fixed! The famous master Hyakujo wanted to find an abbot for a monastery. He put a pitcher on the floor and asked what it was, adding, “Don’t say it’s a pitcher.” Some of the smarter monks came… Continue reading

    Zen Anarchy
  • A little bit on Crossan’s historical Jesus

    Central to [John] Crossan’s methodology is the dating of texts. This is laid out more or less fully in The Historical Jesus in one of the appendices. He dates part of the Coptic Gospel of Thomas to the 50s CE,… Continue reading

  • A dancing star in a constellation of lies

    Am I decent man? Perhaps. I would use this opportunity to speak about myself with some pleasure (Dostoevsky 7). But I am not sure it is such a pleasure. Does decency really only allow me to speak about myself? Certainly,… Continue reading

    A dancing star in a constellation of lies
  • Sun – Line – Cave, Part 1

    A dear colleague has invited me to discuss a few of the metaphors at the heart of Plato’s Republic. So I’ll be live streaming from his class Friday, 26 Feb 2016 @ 1pm… if you are not busy at work… Continue reading

    Sun – Line – Cave, Part 1
  • Man Bites Dogma – A RAW Conversation

    He’s been called a cult figure to various lunatic fringe groups, Tom Robbins calls him “a dazzling barker hawking tickets to the most thrilling tilt-a-whirls and daring loop-o-planes on the midway of higher consciousness,” he calls himself an iconoclastic comedian,… Continue reading

  • Nootropics or Smart Drugs

    Important caveat for those thinking smart drugs can make a person more intelligent: Like any performance enhancer, there has to be a core level of intelligence or athleticism to be augmented. Welcome to the world of nootropics, or smart drugs.… Continue reading

  • Cagey Anarchism

    More than two decades after Cage’s death, a small press called Siglio has published a definitive edition of his major long text. Starting in 1965, Cage developed a poetic form he titled a Diary and accurately described as “a mosaic… Continue reading

    Cagey Anarchism
  • Academia as mechanical productivity

    like the Whatever Etc page if you use Facebook. It is amazing how the machinery of academia has been turned on by someone and just left running… Like a Charlie… Posted by Whatever Etc. on Friday, January 22, 2016 Continue reading

    Academia as mechanical productivity