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Excerpt from The Patterning Instinct: Can We Transform Our Society for a Flourishing Future?
Excerpt from The Patterning Instinct: Can We Transform Our Society for a Flourishing Future? Ed. note: Excerpted from the final two chapters of Jeremy Lent’s award-winning book, The Patterning Instinct: A Cultural History of Humanity’s Search for Meaning, (Prometheus, 2017) which explores the different ways cultures have patterned meaning into the cosmos, and reveals how various […]
Ideology as Addiction
Ideology as Addiction Solutions abound, but they aren’t one size fits all ideologies. It isn’t just coincidental that ideology shares so many dynamics with addiction. Though ideology is a faith-belief dynamic rather than a chemical process, both require constant reinforcement/renewal and both demand a painful withdrawal procedure of those who decide to free themselves of the […]
Peak Oil & System Justification: “Threatening” Status Quo
Peak Oil & System Justification: “Threatening” Status Quo It’s a lot easier to seek confirmation than information. So not only does the online world provide less information, it provides more spin and distortion of that information from an online empire of advocates that enables us as never before to find the voices we agree with, and […]
Peak Oil; Climate Change; & System Justification Pt 8
Peak Oil; Climate Change; & System Justification Pt 8 Of course it’s threatening to think that our lifestyles, systems of governing, and capitalist processes themselves may all face drastic changes in the not-too-distant future because of the facts and reality of Peak Oil and climate change! I’m certainly notthe poster-child for Peak Oil advocacy and lifestyles. I […]
In Praise of the Reprehensible
In Praise of the Reprehensible Last month’s post here on cultural senility and its antidotes discussed the way that modern education erases the past in order to defend today’s ideologies against the lessons of history. While that post focused on the leftward end of the political spectrum—the end that currently dominates what we still jokingly call “higher […]
Benn Steil: Why Is Paul Krugman Still Calling For Fiscal Stimulus?
BENN STEIL: WHY IS PAUL KRUGMAN STILL CALLING FOR FISCAL STIMULUS? Nobel economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman is fond of mocking his critics for being ideologues rather than economists. In contrast, Krugman’s own policy prescriptions, he assures us, are based wholly on soundeconomic science. Case in point is the theory of liquidity traps, which goes back […]
How Propaganda (Actually) Works
How Propaganda (Actually) Works Political Propaganda employs the ideals of liberal democracy to undermine those very ideals, the dangers of which, not even its architects fully understand. In the early years of DeSmog’s research into environmental propaganda, I thought of industry PR campaigns like “junk science,” “clean coal,” and “ethical oil” as misinformation strategies designed to dupe […]
Ecological Panic: The New Rationale For Globalist Cultism
Ecological Panic: The New Rationale For Globalist Cultism Faith in an ideology based on a desire for power over others and the need to feel personally superior without any legitimate accomplishment is perhaps the most dangerous state of being an individual or society can adopt. I would refer to such a mindset as “zealotry,” an […]
So you say you don’t want a revolution?
So you say you don’t want a revolution? Over the past few months we have been forced to bear witness to a humiliating farce unfolding in Europe. Greece, which was first accepted into the European Monetary Union under false pretenses, then saddled with excessive levels of debt, then crippled through the imposition of austerity, finally did something: […]
An Open Letter to Britain’s Leading Violent Extremist: David Cameron
An Open Letter to Britain’s Leading Violent Extremist: David Cameron Dear Prime Minister David Cameron, It is with deep disappointment that I read excerpts of your speech provided by Downing Street to the press, purporting to set out a five-year strategy to tackle fundamentalist terrorism, which — whatever its intentions — is thoroughly misguided, and destined to plunge this […]
American journalism’s ideology: Why the “liberal” media is fundamentalist
American journalism’s ideology: Why the “liberal” media is fundamentalist Note: The memo below is my response to an editor at a U.S. news organization who was soliciting feedback for a review of the organization’s coverage of environmental news. From a conservative point of view, this newsroom is part of the “liberal media.” My goal in […]
