In the United States, we grow extremism by telling our children myths about bearded white deities (a Western tradition that predates Jesus) and quasi-omniscient demigod Founding Fathers. These children grow up to age eighteen, and then they are entrusted to make crucial civic decisions about: good and bad, right and wrong, moral consciousness impacting the […]
The first version of the pledge of allegiance was written by Captain George Thatcher Balch, a Union Army Officer during the Civil War. One can imagine the impact of the words, “one nation” at the time. But the fact remains that a pledge is part of the totalitarian practice of putting interests of the state […]
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America… The flag is a symbol that represents the embodiment of a country. Our spangled banner is a symbol of democracy, freedom, and constitutional equal rights. We pledge our allegiance to the flag, we sing to it, we raise it in glory, and […]
War is a central part of what the United States has become. Multiple forms of media are distorting our view of combat and consequently the legitimacy of war in our minds. War is death and destruction—the darkest expression of humanity. The Army, Marines, National Guard etc. bombard television viewers with commercials hoping to indoctrinate young […]
Joseph Campbell said that we can understand the priorities of a society by looking at its grandest structures. Churches were once the palatial temples of society, housing the faiths of the world. Now the sleek glass skyscrapers of financial institutions tower above churches as a constant reminder that the values of modern Western culture have […]
Mankind has socially evolved because progressive-minded people like Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi have led movements for ideals that they believed in—deeply rooted in basic truths and inalienable rights of humanity. By laying out the constructs of peace and equality in a way that large portions of the population could rally around them, these […]
Dorian Gray is the handsome young protagonist in Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. Dorian is given eternal youth by placing his suffering and stress into a portrait and magically sparing himself the toll of his indulgences. Without experiencing the due rigor for his gluttony, Dorian embarks on a crazy course of consumption, which […]
