Essays
"Really" is a harmful weasel word, used to intimidate you into not questioning implausible metaphysical claims. Here's how to counter them.
October 16th, 2010
Ultimate is a word that can be legitimately used in discussions of meaning. Often, though, it is advertising hype, or a weasel-word.
November 5th, 2010
Pop spirituality: monism goes mainstream
As pop spirituality, monism is approaching pandemic prevalence. It is time for a global vaccination campaign.
November 5th, 2010
Current pop spirituality is based on German Romantic Idealism from two centuries ago. I outline the key ideas these movements share.
November 7th, 2010
Rotten ideas from the past -- the corpse of German Romantic Idealism -- have risen from the dead. We face the task of laying them to rest again.
November 7th, 2010
Acknowledging Romantic Idealism
Andrew Cohen, perhaps a major contributor to contemporary pop spirituality, now positions himself in the lineage of German Romantic Idealism more than Hinduism.
November 8th, 2010
The New Age: appeal and limits
The New Age, a collection of systems of monist eternalism, is appealing as an alternative to dualism, but limited by silly specifics.
November 12th, 2010
Spiritual but not religious (SBNR) often seems to mean system-free monism: All Is One, but for no specific reason.
December 25th, 2010
A New Earth, by Eckhart Tolle, encapsulates the new, system-free monist spirituality. Brilliant but disastrously flawed.
December 25th, 2010
Dr. Bronner used soap to evangelize for monism, probably inspired by the New Thought movement.
January 19th, 2011
Nihilism starts with the intelligent recognition that we have been conned by eternalism—ideologies of ultimate meaning.
January 23rd, 2011
Devotees of current spirituality (SBNR) are irritatingly smug. Why do they think they are so superior?
February 12th, 2011
January 25th, 2012
Illuminatus!, Voegelin, and the politics of SBNR monism
Spiritual But Not Religious monism could lead to political totalitarianism.
March 9th, 2013
At the Mountains of Meaningness
Mountains are major sources of meaning, inspiration, and insight, due to vastness, nebulosity, specificity, and illegibility.
March 26th, 2015
The toxic power dynamics of Oneness
The Guru Papers brilliantly illuminates fallacies of contemporary spirituality, and also the toxic power dynamics of authoritarian control.
April 9th, 2015
Politics in 2016 is reshaping as communal vs. systematic values, sidelining the old left vs. right opposition.
June 26th, 2016
The hippie family who invented contemporary conservatism
The Schaeffer family, hippie gurus, created the American Religious Right. Too late, they realized they had created a monster: a tragedy in the ancient style.
July 10th, 2016
Tribal, systematic, and fluid political understanding
How to move beyond tribal and ideological politics, while avoiding meta-political nihilism, to develop a fluid, meta-systematic social view.
November 1st, 2016
The Court of Values and the Bureau of Boringness
Save democracy! Give voters what they want: exciting, colorful tribal-political conflicts, PLUS competent, boring government they don't have to think about.
November 4th, 2016
Natural misunderstandings of adult stage theory
Clarifying common misinterpretations of adult developmental theory
May 11th, 2023
Seriously bright indoor lights for seasonal affective disorder, or just the winter blahs
November 20th, 2023
Seriously bright light vs. winter blahs
Most SAD light therapy lamps are not bright enough. How to get brighter light than any you can buy!
November 20th, 2023