On stupidity and the excesses of wokeness
One of the first laws of human existence, or at least of existence in class societies (determined by anti-human institutions that mold...
Wright's Writing
Search
- Sep 8, 2020
- 22 min
From Steve Fraser's "The Age of Acquiescence"
I just finished reading Steve Fraser's masterful The Age of Acquiescence (2014), which compares the popular responses to America's two...
- Aug 21, 2020
- 9 min
I wish stupidity were less common
This is going to be a whiny, self-pitying post. Just to warn you. The question is sometimes asked, "Why are stupid people frequently so...
- Jun 13, 2020
- 6 min
Gender norms in a Chilean copper mine
[This was supposed to be a short outline for a student presentation I had to give. So excuse the roughness. Here are more book reviews.]...
- Jul 24, 2019
- 19 min
A little misanthropy can be a healthy thing
This is from a letter Sigmund Freud wrote to his pastor friend Oskar Pfister: I do not break my head very much about good and evil, but I...
- Jul 19, 2019
- 7 min
A plea for honesty in discussions of sex and gender
A recent article of mine, called "Political Correctness Is Getting Out of Hand," elicited some angry emails. Not from people who...
- Jul 13, 2018
- 4 min
Critical thoughts on "The Alchemist"
[Notes from 2006.] Reading The Alchemist, the novel that has sold tens of millions of copies. “To realize one’s destiny is a person’s...
- May 28, 2018
- 6 min
Against idealism
[The following thoughts are from this book.] It’s funny that people often deprecate Marxian materialism as an explanation of society and...
- Nov 10, 2016
- 2 min
On "success"
[From this book.] The more one experiences the world, the more one understands how difficult it is to be “successful” and have integrity...
- Jul 29, 2016
- 4 min
Contemporary philosophy vs. sanity
[The following is a vignette I wrote years ago when studying for my Master's in philosophy. I was taking a class in contemporary...
- Jun 22, 2016
- 6 min
An underwhelming encounter with Christians
A misadventure. [Written in 2006.]— At lunch in the campus center I saw a flyer advertising an event tonight having something to do with...
- May 23, 2016
- 3 min
Far-left, i.e., rational and open-minded
[Old notes from my journal.] A lot of mainstream people would criticize me for immersing myself in leftist scholarship and journalism,...
- Aug 19, 2015
- 2 min
"False consciousness"
Leftists are sometimes criticized for being condescending toward the masses, for arguing that they are prone to displaying "false...
- Aug 14, 2015
- 3 min
On late-19th-century decadence and its aftermath
What is the significance of the fact that in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries certain (semi-fascist) sections of the...
- Aug 10, 2015
- 4 min
The making of the working class
I'm finally reading [in 2011] E. P. Thompson’s classic The Making of the English Working Class (1963). Query: why was England so...
- Apr 23, 2015
- 3 min
Subversive common sense
[This is another book-excerpt, a negatively charged one this time.] Nietzsche’s self-appointed task of “revaluating values” isn’t...
- Apr 15, 2015
- 2 min
Götzendämmerung
Albert Camus: “We [moderns] read more than we meditate. We have no philosophies but merely commentaries. This is what Étienne Gilson...
- Apr 11, 2015
- 5 min
The fraudulence of status
[The following is an excerpt from this book.] In order to determine someone’s intellectual or artistic integrity and acuity, a simple...
- Feb 3, 2015
- 2 min
Anti-intellectual intellectuals
If intellectual curiosity means the desire to learn new things, encounter new ideas, explore and explain the world, then “intellectuals”...
- Sep 27, 2014
- 3 min
Radical human nature
The power of indoctrination is shown by the fact that most people don’t consider themselves radical leftists, socialists, or anarchists....