Tag Archives: Tolstoy

The Religious Crisis at the Heart of the Occupy Movement

Notice the religious dimension that was present in 1960s protests, but absent in the Occupy movement. Martin Luther King had Jesus to appeal to, a readily recognizable symbol in our culture of two key things: the receiving of suffering; and … Continue reading

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Burger King in Russia, Circa 2011

Thought experiment. Imagine resurrecting the following figures from the Russian and Soviet past: Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Czar Nicholas, and Lenin. Show them the ad below. Tell them this is what is being promoted to Russian youth as desirable in the year … Continue reading

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What Is The Universe? And What Should We Be Doing In It?

My guess is that the universe may be the mind of God calculating—then presenting the sums, before the witness of consciousness, in four dimensions (height, width, depth, and time). The universe, as it were, is the ones and zeroes made flesh; God’s search … Continue reading

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I think that Henry David Thoreau would have liked Dr. Michael de Ridder

In Spiegel this weekend, Dr. Michael de Ridder advocates a return to simplicity in human death: no frantic rushing about, no elaborate rescue measures: Dying a simple death is no longer an option in our society, even in places where one might … Continue reading

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“Appearances”: A Poem by Santi Tafarella

  The worst thing to tell your ex-lover is “I’m happy.”   And so he never told her that he was happy, but gave her   every appearance   that he was unhappy. Indeed, you could see her   light up … Continue reading

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