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Zionism and the Black Church

Discovering that there were African-Americans in the 1970s who were also offended at the outrageous notion that ‘Zionism is Racism’, and voiced their loud and eloquent opposition, I was comforted. I took great pride in knowing that Black leaders in the U.S. not only condemned that ‘Zionism is Racism’ lie, but stood boldly with their…

The Excitements

If you appreciate Northern Soul and/or any of the Daptone acts, you will surely enjoy these guys. Hailing from Barcelona, they will I think, be right at home on Frenchman Street in New Orleans — and I have no doubt that will happen before long. In the meantime check them out here. daptone recordsmusicnorthern soulThe…

The long and the short of it

We are indebted to Sam Harris for bringing us Eric Weinstein in Sam’s latest podcast Faith in Reason: A Conversation. What a luxury it is to have about 2.5 hours of real intellectual engagement (i.e. not resorting to cheap rug-pulling strategies) and not be subject to the faux Facecrack type knee-jerk regurgitated indignation (or pat ideological virtue-signaling) that is now…

Walker Percy Wednesday 95

Why did good married couples look so glum? Old couples, young couples, thirty-five-year-old Atlanta couples in condos, sixty-five-year-old Ohio couples in villas, each as glum as if one had got stuck with the other at a cocktail party for two hours. Two hours? Ten years! Thirty years! ***** In his strange new mood he made…

Complexity and Stupidity

Catching up on Sam Harris’ podcasts — this one is of particular interest. Sam’s guest, David Krakauer, I recall from taking the debut Santa Fe Institute freebie course a few years back run by the excellent Melanie Mitchell. Do check out the SFI’s free programmes, notably SFI’s Complexity Explorer: it beats many a fee-paying university course. In any event, if you…

The most influential chat show you’ve never heard of

We live in a time when being dumb is reward and being smart is counter-culture. If one makes a claim for harbouring a disinterested approach to truth, then one needs to explore ideas beyond one’s ideological reservation, most of which have long since become barren and infertile through infelicitous activity. It used to be that being liberal was punkishly…

Ip Chun

Born on this day and still going. I had the privilege of chi sao‘ing with sigung (master’s master) some 15 years ago in London and afterwards bumming a smoke from him outside. It’s also been three years since the loss of one of my sifus. bruce leeEmbodied cognitionG.K. Khoeip chunmartial artsWing Chunyip man

Problems at the Intersection of Aesthetics and Ethics

The very excellent Seth Vannatta in Response: The Digital Journal of Popular Culture Scholarship. I’d suggest that readers also think about Wittgenstein’s idea in the Tractatus that ethics and aesthetics are one — on which much has been written. I’d also refer readers to the collection of essays entitled Aesthetics and Ethics: Essays at the Intersection.   aestheticsAlfred North WhiteheadethicsFurtwänglerHans-Georg GadamerImmanuel KantJohn DeweyLudwig…