Postman talked about the speed of “the news cycle” as “broken time and broken attention.” The mass shooting perpetrated by 18-year-old… — Postman talked about the speed of “the news cycle” as “broken time and broken attention.” The mass shooting perpetrated by 18-year-old Payton S. Gendron two days ago at the Tops Supermarket in Buffalo, NY, will get co-billing with escalation rhetoric about Ukraine for a week or so, until its milked…

I can find in my own memory of acquaintances fifty people who, if confronted with this diagram, would tell you what’s wrong with it. Among… — I can find in my own memory of acquaintances fifty people who, if confronted with this diagram, would tell you what’s wrong with it. Among those fifty, I’d expect to find at least a dozen different and thoroughly incommensurate interpretations of why the diagram is wrong. In each of those…

Before I wade into this stream of consciousness with all its crocodiles, I’ll just summarize my own thoughts on “the abortion issue.” — Before I wade into this stream of consciousness with all its crocodiles, I’ll just summarize my own thoughts on “the abortion issue.” First of all, I think calling it an “issue” and dividing up the teams as “pro-choice” and “pro-life” is, and always has been, a case of dueling propagandas…

History progresses at the speed of its weapons systems. — History progresses at the speed of its weapons systems. -Paul Virilio In Mammon’s Ecology, I wrote about general-purpose money as a accelerant. Nothing deep here — money accelerates the rates of exchange. I need a cow, you need a carpet, she needs a three-wheeled bike with a basket. If we…

This blog (or whatever you call it) is not intended as a loaf to consume, but as grains of yeast you can put into the flour of your own… — This blog (or whatever you call it) is not intended as a loaf to consume, but as grains of yeast you can put into the flour of your own thinking. In that spirit, then, I’d like to encourage readers who aren’t familiar with Jacques Ellul to check him out, and…

A response to Bias Magazine’s recent articles on postliberalism — A response to Bias Magazine’s recent articles on postliberalism I was for a very brief period asked to contribute to Bias Magazine when its parent committee, the Institute for Christian Socialism, was first forming. In a short time, I quietly ended my flirtation for a number of reasons that will…

With age most of the geewhiz experiences of life on earth are like listening to the same song a hundred times in a row. It might have been… — With age most of the geewhiz experiences of life on earth are like listening to the same song a hundred times in a row. It might have been a good track, but now it’s like a deer fly circling your head and making you slap yourself. Worse still are bad…

Of course, it was a facelessbook post. — Of course, it was a facelessbook post. What’s astonishing to me is the admixture of the language of pop-science with the language of the sacred. It shouldn’t astonish me as a boomer, I suppose, because we started this crap, or at least it was applied in earnest on us during…

Damn, I was gonna avoid this altogether, because celebrity culture annoys the hell out of me. I dreaded the inevitable proliferation of… — Damn, I was gonna avoid this altogether, because celebrity culture annoys the hell out of me. I dreaded the inevitable proliferation of commentary about this incident, for the same reason I avoid talking about Donald Trump — I don’t want to give narcissists or celebrity culture any oxygen. But I…