The fight for faith between radical factions
Religion and leftism have long been pitted against each other. This long-held historical truth, however, now seems to have been a mistake.
It’s an association that began, as many things in leftism did, with Karl Marx. The man himself, of course, was strictly atheistic. Despite being a devotee of Hegel, a Christian theologian, Marx possessed a distinctly scientific worldview, even going so far as to famously declare religion to be “the opiate of the masses”. This atheism was echoed in just about every major later leftist thinker; in Proudhon, Stirner, Bakunin, Kropotkin, Goldman, Lenin, Mao, and an endless many more…
Deciphering the hidden history of a mythic archetype
The history of religion is beginning to seem to be a history of the stars.
For the last few decades now, but especially after the ascent of the Internet, a plethora of theories have popped up on the origin and evolution of religion. It’s an expansive and important topic, obviously, with innumerable secrets awaiting our uncovering. Most of these newfound theories don’t aim to seriously explain anything, though. Instead, they try to twist the ancient Mesopotamian Anunnaki gods into ancient aliens and the Egyptian Great Sphinx into a 10,000-year-old impossibility of a statue. In light of all this, then, let…
Gen Z’s cataclysmic golden years
An Underlying Crisis
COVID and its associated fallout may have irreparably broken an entire generation of Americans.
No, this won’t be the first article out there with the conclusion that “COVID bad”. Nor will it be the first to expose the psychological tolls that the pandemic has had on our populace, or even on the young in particular. But the extent to which this pandemic has utterly nuked Gen Z’s future still goes mostly unnoticed. The immediate material consequences of the crisis are clear. Grades have plummeted. Crucial tests for college entry have been fumbled or dismissed. K-12 schools have suffered massive faculty…
Now, oh now, I needs must part
Said the king to all who’d hear
Not an end, indeed, a start
Hardly felt a drop of fear
When, oh when, the Father knocked
Warmly grin he’d greet him with
Though so grandiose times it’d cost
Worth the risk was world of myth
Bit by bit, o’erworldly lift
Tugged his elder pains away
Tired mind, it tried to drift
Went not yet, he’d much to say
Now, oh now, I needs must part
Struggling king labored to say
‘Fore no more does beat this heart
Words I hold for those who’ll stay
…
A bliss without sin, a life without end
A smile so kind, none riled her mind
To suitors’ chagrin, her love was for him
But he let go, within was his foe
She fled to her kin, frolicked in the wind
And all the while, enthralled with her smile
The world stood and stared at red ruby hair
Since he let go, within was his foe
No man could withstand her grandiose gorgeousness
Still, they’d not scram for her hand in their boorishness
They wished to gaze, he wished he could get away
Once he’d let go, within was his…
Introduction-
Prehistoric man is an enigma to his modern progeny. We tend to think of life in the distant past as an unenviable thing; brutal, gloomy, and short. And, if we think of quality of life as simply the sum of material pleasures, then the hunter-gatherers undoubtedly had it rough. From the perspective of these prehistoric hunter-gatherers, however, material abundance meant nothing. Meaning was not derived from what things one owned, but what relationships one had and what contributions one could make. They needed not a thing in the world besides cohesion and community. …
Doesn’t ordinary life just sound so much better on paper?
Spend your first years in a brilliantly bright new life. Leap into the realm of education for as long as it takes to receive all the knowledge of the world you want. Do whatever one of thousands of jobs you most want to do. Explore all the most mesmerizing places and have all the most enthralling experiences when work doesn’t beckon. Find friends, find love, and through them, find meaning. Retire when you’ve grown old, and live out your days in peace.
But that’s just a fantasy; now, especially, but…
The Magdalenian Mystery
We in today’s techy age tend to forget just how similar our ancestors were to modern men. It’s understandable, of course; the world we live in today is mind-bogglingly different than the world of just a century ago. To contemplate the world before the birth of civilization is beyond just about all of us. And still, so it seems, we can connect the same dots and think up of the same stories our hunter-gatherer ancestors. Seven sisters standing together for eternity. A crown in the north. A cross in the south. …
Introduction
Man is a religious animal. Although possible proto-religious behaviors have been observed in other species, like elephants burying their dead and chimpanzees engaging in bizarre social rituals, nothing compares to the intense and intricate religions fashioned by the hands of man. For countless thousands of years, the search for spirituality has been a driving force in our species’ development. Only recently did said search abruptly end. Perhaps it was inevitable, then, for it to crop up again in the historical blink of an eye. Western secularism has led to a widespread crisis of identity. Of course it has. All of…
Chapter I
The little lodge was a quiet place. William sat idly on his phone. It wasn’t like there was much of anything else to do. Perhaps he could read a book. He did, of course, bring several along, although he’d never been able to fully fool himself into thinking he’d get through more than one or two. It didn’t take long after he picked one out, however, that a buzzing phone brought him right back to the blinding screen. A text.
“whats the move for the weekend”
“I’m up north,” William replied, “hunting with dad. Or, at the moment, waiting around…
J. W. Barlament
Writer of the most eclectic mix of material this side of the Mississippi. Author, 2016–2019. Blogger, 2017–2021. Columbia University, 2020–2024.
