You are what you eat. —Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin The ritual of eating meals is the heart and soul of civilization. It forms boundaries between tribes and borders between nations. It helps us survive and tells us who we are. In every religion, there is, in one form or another, a ritual involving a meal. The […]
What does it mean to believe God created man in His image? In Philip K. Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? the bounty hunter Rick Deckard successfully “retires” (destroys) six rogue lifelike androids. But one slips past him—a female version called Rachael Rosen. What causes her (or it) to escape has more to […]
Many argue that human history is cyclical. The saying, “those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it,” assumes that history is cyclical by default; this is true despite the postmodern ethos of amoral progression. Even those who are renowned for dismissing “slippery slope” arguments have a conditioned fear of somehow finding […]
Why should the unworthy be considered by the Creator to be worthy recipients of the greatest role model in the history of creation? In our time, it is generally acceptable by all to say that the masculine is an embodiment of a somewhat tame caveman. Men are largely considered to be impulsive, irrelevant, sex-hungry, expendable, […]
There’s something to be said about the lack of pop culture icons in our time. If anything at all, it is indicative of the lack of charisma amongst those who are appointed as role models in culture. It’s as if we’re all attempting to live out our bland public school textbooks; the element of unpredictability […]
Baseball is said to be America’s favorite pastime, but it can be argued that professional wrestling comes very close to dominating the upper tiers of Americana. Take for instance, countries like India and Saudi Arabia that generally do not care for Baseball or Football, but they are crazy about American professional wrestling. Why is this the case? […]
The preview issue of Ms. magazine, founded by Gloria Steinem and published in 1972, had a curious image on its cover: a picture of the goddess Kali, and instead of a myriad of weapons in her many hands, which is the traditional Hindu depiction, she brandished items such as a typewriter and clothes iron—items usually associated […]
“The medical establishment has become a major threat to health. The disabling impact of professional control over medicine has reached the proportions of an epidemic,” philosopher Ivan Illich writes in the opening passage of his book Medical Nemesis. These words ring true, especially given how much our current world crisis has to do with public […]
Now that Henry Cavill’s Superman is set to be permanently retired from the DCEU, reportedly in favor of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ black Superman project, yet another iteration of the diversity casting debate has sprung up among critics and moviegoers. Many comic book loyalists, disappointed and frustrated by the constant tinkering of studios with their beloved franchises, have […]
I am convinced that we have entered an era when anthropology will become a more relevant tool than political science. We will have to radically change our interpretation of events, stop thinking as products of the Enlightenment, and finally envisage the radical nature of violence; this will produce a quite different kind of rationality as […]