The ESP and HH projects stand at nearly 100,000 words. This is my effort to condense and combine the projects into 2,000 words — Synopsis: Modernity is the left hemisphere gone wild. Gnosticism, with its dualistic approach and emphasis on knowledge that gives salvation and control, is a left-hemispheric political religion that thrived during the twentieth century and has today settled in as the dominant cultural disposition that drives public debate. Today’s powerful elites…

My daughter runs. She runs in the morning, she runs at night. Runs, runs, runs. People around town see her and go, “Look at that girl! She’s a runner.” But I know she’s more than that. My daughter breathes. She breathes in the morning, she breathes at night. Breathes, breathes…

A friend sua sponte taped a few songs from this album for me when it came out in 1990. I knew nothing about the group but loved the songs. I largely forgot about the group until a few days ago. A song by the Traveling Wilburys song played and my…

Superstition is left hemispheric — If you hear a person refer to religion as “superstition,” you can safely assume he’s a dolt. Religion and superstition are as similar as the marital bed is similar to the whorehouse. Religion is reverential and humble: it’s an acknowledgment that we are a microscopic slice of an immeasurable whole…

Henry Fowler (1858–1933) wrote A Dictionary of Modern English Usage after a career of pretty much nothing. He worked hard; he was honest and honorable, but he had never amounted to much: teacher, journalist, soldier (lying about his 57 years so he could fight), and editor. But then, in 1925…

I strongly lean libertarian, which means I strongly lean towards being a dick, since I’m stunned at how many libertarians are obnoxious (with notable exceptions, like Tom Woods and Lew Rockwell). I believe it’s because libertarian thinking is marked by unshakeable certitude and logical conclusions, which are the provincees of…

“This is Stupid” is the left hemisphere’s way of discarding anything that doesn’t align with its way of attending to the world — I think we’ve all seen movies with guards who psychologically torment the prisoners by giving them pointless tasks. Guard: “Dig a five-foot hole over there!” The prisoner spends an hour digging the hole. Guard: “Now fill it back in.” We need to do that with our left hemispheres.

It’s hard to admit this, but here goes: Back in my twenties, I decided I wanted to be a mystic. Such a thing is absurd: The goal is foiled by the goal. You might as well decide you want to be a poor man with money (one of Pablo Picasso’s…

Superstition is left hemispheric — If you hear a person refer to religion as “superstition,” you can safely assume he’s a dolt. Religion and superstition are as similar as the marital bed is to the whorehouse. Religion is reverential and humble: it’s an acknowledgment that we are a microscopic slice of an immeasurable whole. It’s…