Groucho Marx famously said that he refused to join any club that would have him as a member, which is altogether funny, telling, and true. How many of us feel this way about a great many things? Desiring only the things we can’t have, and entirely uninterested in the things within our grasp. If we can achieve it, how good could it really be? If we were accepted, how low must the threshold have been?
The Power Of One
Maybe more impactful than the faceless throng in the streets chanting pre-packaged slogans is the solitary protestor, earnest, vulnerable, and alone.
Defiantly Daft, Duplicitously Dangerous
No one ever accused John Wayne of being an intellectual. From Daniel Boone and Wyatt Earp to Huey Long and George Wallace, there has always been a strong populist strain woven throughout our national mythology. Forget for a moment that any list of great Americans, from Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Jr to Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Frederick Douglass, contained a multitude of brilliant intellectuals.
The Risk Of Inflation In The Age Of Plutocracy
Inflation is a bitch. I think it might have been Adams who said that, or maybe it was Madison. I get them confused. One of the ones worried about giving too much power to the little people. It’s a crisis foretold from the very beginning, unfolding in real time before our very eyes. One day you’re a well-respected oligarch, with so many judges and politicians in your pocket that your friends call you Corleone, and the next, you’re being outbid by oil-rich foreign governments, multinational organized crime syndicates, and adolescent tech bros. What’s a humble plutocrat to do?
Everybody Loves A Good Bank Robbery
I’m a big believer that most ideas, even the good ones, don’t have a lot of value if you’re not willing to work on them. A lot of people think a good idea has some inherent value, some worth as a concept itself, but it does not. You cannot sell someone an idea for a movie without having to first write or make the actual movie. It’s always about the execution, never the inspiration. Ideas are a dime a dozen.
Embrace Your Baldness And Be Free
How to go bald gracefully without the fear and anxiety of losing your hair When I was in the fifth grade, one of my best friends was this kid who wore two hearing aids. His name was Stephen Lesko. Why I remember that little piece of trivia is beyond me.…
Crossing The Rubicon
In which I attempt to chart a strategy for making the most of things as the ship sinks into the icy waters and the band plays on Originally published March 2023 In 49 B.C., Julius Caesar led his army to the banks of a small river that marked the boundary…
A Great Social Rewilding Is Coming
As the enshittification of the internet hits its apex and begins to collapse under the weight of a tsunami of AI slop, humanity may very well find itself back where it started, rediscovering the genuine world of books, art, music, travel, entertainment, food, and nature. Authentic experiences that have the…
Teaching Kids To Fish
Teaching children is not about memorization; it’s teaching them to be curious about the world Originally published in July 2021 You’ve seen the memes on social media, extolling the virtues of teaching life skills to kids in public schools. Stuff like how to balance a checkbook, file your taxes, or…
The Return Of The Local Newspaper
The path to reclaiming power over information and securing democracy When I was a kid, there were these extraordinary chronicles of daily life called newspapers, sold on nearly every street corner, delivered to homes and businesses, read on trains, and shared among strangers in coffee shops. They were magical to…