• As This Openness

    The great Czechoslovakian philosopher Jan Patočka writes in his First Essay of the Heretical Essays in the Philosophy of History, “Humans in their inmost being are nothing other than this ‘openness’ [to what there is (to which belongs being)]” (5). Almost… more ›

  • Gaza

    No, we do not have to accept the status quo. We do not have to accept the fact that our nation unqualifiedly supports Israel. We can hold our representatives accountable. We can insist that those who represent us actually represent… more ›

  • Taxonomies

    What we call things, and how we classify those things, is necessarily an abstraction. We take what we perceive to be individual items and group them together according to some imposed or perceived structure, a commonality among them. Or we… more ›

  • Corpulent Force

    I’ve been to Prague several times before, both as a tourist and as a student. When I was here in the summer of 2001, I studied political and economic theory at Charles University through a program at Georgetown. It was… more ›

  • The Crimean Tense: When Past Is Present

    Referencing the past is a weak form of analysis and one that offers little insight to the current situation in Ukraine. The Russian occupation of Crimea is distinctly not like the Soviet invasion of Hungary or Czechoslovakia. In the current… more ›

  • The Adjunct: Confessions and Manifesto of a Benefits-Deprived Professor

    First, we need to create honest and accurate language. Adjunct designates an inessential supplement, yet adjunct professors are just as permanent a fixture at colleges and universities trying to save a buck—that is, all colleges and universities—as “temporary buildings” are at… more ›

  • On the Prosthetic

    After spending a few hours this past week trying on new frames and ordering new lenses for distance vision, now seems like a suitable time to think and write about prosthesis, that is, to think through writing as prosthetic, perhaps… more ›

  • Books Read in 2013

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  • The Shit We Live In

    I often complain that the society I live in is shit. Most people here appear beholden to the inherent nihilism of American mediocrity, including the systems of power and bureaucracy. Case in point: fingerprints. After several years of avoiding the… more ›

  • Capitalism

    Shopkeeper brandishes gun to prevent “looters”–otherwise known as desperate and traumatized survivors–from foraging for food and supplies. The only justice would be this fascist pig dying of starvation because he no longer has customers. Death to all tyrants. Eat the… more ›