A Letter on Skepticism and Ethics

To continue our conversation from the other day I take it that you subscribe to a form of deontology, or, at the very least, accept the merits of such a perspective within ethics. The way you presented the argument in the specific instance of capital punishment by the state, drew from, and seemed to rest … Read more

The Imperative to Love Death and Hate Eternity

Humanism apparently died somewhere round the mid-nineteen sixties. Now the human is to be resurrected by technocrats and technologists—so-called “transhumanists.” This time not as flesh, as the Christian resurrected body, but through a machine that brooks no mortal coil. This machine will be the flesh of the digital believer. Through technological wizardry the “soft machine” … Read more

The Essay in the Age of Information

The humble essay, a form of writing allergic to the division of labor and specialization, is the voice of reason. It has come into its own as the preeminent vehicle for thinking clearly in an age of media saturation. No better platform exists for reflection in the “age of information.” The writer readily finds this … Read more

Bureaucratic Socialism, or, Žižek and the Illusion of a Future

Slavoj Žižek has finally revealed his cards. Up to this point Žižek has given out various hints in talks and essays—which float in the digital ether like mushroom spore—that what must be theorized is not the exalted moment of revolt but what is to happen the day after. He has expressed this sentiment over the … Read more