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Karl Marx wrote how the bourgoisie feishized commodities—but what if he was blind to his own deeper fetish? In this episode, I argue that Marx only went halfway: he scorned capitalist markets while remaining utterly entranced by the altar of production itself. His enchantment was of the archaic or violent-sacred kind, and so it lead to archaic mobilization, persecution, and aesthetics.

Part 2 of a 5-part series.

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Communism was an archaic way of dealing with and worshipping materialism, a chief ideology of 19th century and modern times. In this episode, I look at the text of The Communist Manifesto, the famous originary pamphlet of communist revolutions, and explain why it contains the elements of a hypnotic spell. If communism is an archaic religion, texts like the Communist Manifesto are its ritual incantations. All rituals end in a sacrificial act. In this case, it's the immolation of the "bourgeoisie" and victory of the "proleteriat."

This is Part 1 of a 5-part series.

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Continuing on the previous episode with the review of Stephen C. Meyer's book Return of God Hypothesis. This one goes over the impossible odds of assembling proteins or DNA to either begin or evolve life. Then, it goes over the digital or symbolic nature of information that encodes life and explains why natural laws in their ontological essence cannot produce such information. We distinguish orderliness of the type produced by natural laws with that produced by functional design seen in written language, computer code, or DNA code. We explain why the inference of intelligent design is the obvious conclusion arising from strictest standards of logic. This inference was the norm for the great founders of modern science, so why is it no longer the norm with us?

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A reading of my essay with the same title that reviews Stephen C Meyer's book Return of God Hypothesis. I go over the arguments of the book that debunk the materialist narrative around the Big Bang, or the beginning of the universe: 1) what's called the Fine Tuning Problem, with the the mathematical and physical impossibilities it exposes, and 2) the metaphysical absurdities that arise from the inability of science to establish the "ground of being." 3) I touch on the counterargument known as the Anthropic Principle. The next episode will cover the materialist failure to account for the origin and diversity of life.

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Modernity with its humanism and secularism rose out of Christian culture but seems to be at odds with it. I explain this paradox in accordance with René Girard's anthropology: how the recession of the violent sacred wrought by Christianity over the centuries created the cultural space that distances itself from all sacred and thus becomes transferrable to the whole world, producing modernity and globalisation. 

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"You cannot be a human without a transcendental vision. The here and now is not enough; there must be something wholly above it, not just something higher and better, but something absolute and eternal. This something is transcendence. It anchors human life in meaning and purpose."

René Girard showed how Western literature over the centuries traces a descent of transcendence from heavenly and distant visions down closer to earth, where our idols become other people and we become miserable. No one can escape having a transcendental they worship, they can only choose to deny it. 

In this episode I trace this historical arch of the descent of idols, and how discuss how modern culture's earthly idols lead to misery and destruction.

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How and why I got into researching Amazonian spirituality. Modern interest in shamanism and the reality of shamanism among Amazonian tribes. Sorcery and witchcraft and recorded cases of scapegoating among the Amazonians. The imperative of conviviality and consequences of breaking it. Inner peace and its flip side: outer violence. 

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Here finally is a true and powerful traditionalist response to both feminist accusations and the cheap bragging of low-IQ wife-beaters. Why and how are men "born to rule"? The answer is clear once we recover the once-obvious link between authority, violence, and sacrifice. The gory origins of authority in blood sacrifice, archaic, ancient, and modern. The biological expandability of male versus female bodies. Male competition and female competition (if such a thing even exists), and how it plays out in modern business environment. Patriarchy as a balancing and restraining force. The liberal blindness to the dark side of desire and competition, and what it means for our spiritual and civilisational future.

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Parks Gore and I discuss Terence McKenna's Stoned Ape Theory. McKenna argued that human evolution was driven by hominid consumption of psychedelic mushrooms. We explain his theory and argue against it in light of René Girard's work. Girard believed that in-group violence was the unprecedented problem whose solution through violent sacrificial ritual and religion provided the leap from animal to human. We then talk about psychedelics and spirituality, both in ancient or indigenous culture and in the New Age / psychonaut one, and how it clashes against Christianity. We touch on the great problem of human origin.

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Autism is a rare but real disorder, but the recent rise in claims of being "on the spectrum" is a massive fad, a mimetic contagion. The spectrum is glamourised by popular entertainment and embraced by celebrities. With reference to René Girard's work, I analyse why people might want to signal autism (rather than "mask" it). It has to do with many notions that hit a raw nerve in our culture: narcissism, victimhood, innocence, ambition, mediocrity, genius. I also address the gender aspect of the autism fad. 

Find out why claims of autism are a sad cheat code for the liberal culture.