Classical music vs. mediocrity
On one side is the mediocrity of all functionaries. All bureaucrats. There’s no point in my writing about bureaucrats in the ordinary...
Wright's Writing
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- Jul 10, 2021
- 15 min
Against liberal "pluralism"
In the time of Trumpism, Michael Paul Rogin’s great book The Intellectuals and McCarthy: The Radical Specter (1967) shouldn’t be as...
- Aug 30, 2020
- 37 min
Critical remarks on academia and philosophy
I was recently skimming old notes of mine and came across the following thoughts from a two-volume book on "humanism" I wanted to write...
- Aug 27, 2020
- 21 min
The remarkable perversity of idealism
Many years ago, when I was a simple boy who thought he ought to know a lot about Hegel, I took masses of notes on his philosophy. Below...
- Aug 25, 2020
- 9 min
Thou shalt not worship intellectuals
When I read old books or articles that are totally forgotten despite being brilliant, it saddens me. Siblings of Donald Trump publish...
- Aug 23, 2020
- 45 min
The radical dimensions of mass consciousness, part 1
I'm kind of a "vulgar Marxist." In this respect, I suppose I'm a lot like people in the American ruling class, except that their values...
- 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 6, 2020
- 16 min
Rambling reflections on Camille Paglia
I've been reading Camille Paglia's collection of essays Sex, Art, and American Culture (1992). I disagree with a lot of Paglia's...
- 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 11, 2019
- 10 min
What will "the revolution" look like?
Here's a blog post for you masochists who are interested in the debates that go on among Marxist intellectuals over questions around...
- Mar 23, 2018
- 1 min
The Destruction of Reason
Just a quick note: I recently posted a long summary of and commentary on Georg Lukacs' masterpiece The Destruction of Reason, which has...
- Mar 11, 2018
- 9 min
Collectivism
[Excerpts from this book.] Collectivism comes in both noble and evil forms. In the former, the principle of the individual is paramount;...
- 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...
- Jul 20, 2016
- 3 min
Richard Lewontin, Chomsky, and common sense
Richard Lewontin’s article “The Evolution of Cognition: Questions We Will Never Answer” is excellent. It counsels skepticism about...
- Jul 9, 2016
- 5 min
Elite pretentiousness
The following is the beginning of an essay I wanted to write years ago on the concept of pretentiousness, a phenomenon the ubiquity of...
- May 21, 2016
- 1 min
Historians and existentialism
In a sense, writing history is an intrinsically moral activity—although different kinds of history embody different degrees of morality....
- Sep 26, 2015
- 7 min
Economics as class war
Reading the Chomsky-recommended Political Economy and Laissez-Faire: Economics and Ideology in the Ricardian Era (1986), by Rajani Kanth....
- Sep 25, 2015
- 4 min
On "The Reactionary Mind"
Reading The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin (2011), by Corey Robin. An elegant and erudite elaboration of...
- 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...