Made a new acquaintance this week, some young person new to the cafe. Joined in our conversation at our table. Telling us about their hobbies and stuff they’re into. Great. Another friend joined us after a few minutes, and in the spirit of good will, I sought to catch her up on our new friend. …
Category Archives: Philosophy
Supermax Profit
Imagine a land where the capitalist ideal is stretched so far, prisoners sue for and win the right to choose which for-profit private prison they will go to. Where penitentiary placement representatives do outreach marketing to convicted individuals while they wait between conviction and sentencing, courting them with pamphlets and promises, going into broad generalities …
Dark Spots
A few weeks ago, a previously unknown-to-me solar observatory in Sunspot, AZ was shut down and evacuated by FBI action. Rumors circulated. Turns out their reason was that an Internet crime had happened at a related IP address. Something about child porn. Troublesome to hear, but whatever. That’s just an appendix. The backstory behind the …
Filtered and Amplified
Fiction is life with the menial and the mundane stripped out. The dull gray is removed. The acts of existing in the world are nullified. All that’s left is a curated narrative to expand and fill that space. Fiction is life, but filtered and amplified. And that’s why we’re so drawn to it.
Check
Most of you don’t know this, but I grew up in a seriously disadvantaged situation. From my 7th grade onward, my family lived in a housing project. Yes, we lived in “the projects”. For most of that time, we were the only white family in the entire neighborhood, and we had to endure our own …