3,253 words

Who are the greatest underachievers in music history? A few names come to mind. Of course, you have The Sex Pistols, who became a national cultural phenomenon in Britain and then broke up after one album. The Stone Roses are also strong contenders for the cup. Their earth-shattering 1989 debut album regularly shows up on Greatest Albums Ever lists (in 2000, NME placed it #1). When their sophomore effort finally emerged five years later in an entirely changed musical landscape, The Roses had transformed into banal Led Zeppelin clones before imploding with a most undignified whimper. (more…)

Frederic Remington, The Puncher, 1895.

1,172 words

As I understand it, most people would strongly prefer that others approve of them even if it means being untrue to themselves — and that’s something I’ll never understand about most people.

It seems that most people would rather be liked by others than be okay with themselves, and that’s something I strongly dislike about most people and think is not okay at all. (more…)

1,729 words

“But I don’t want to go among mad people,” Alice remarked.

“Oh, you can’t help that,” said the Cat: “we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.”

“How do you know I’m mad?” said Alice.

“You must be,” said the Cat, “or you wouldn’t have come here.” (more…)

1,583 words

A Vice article published on Tuesday has reignited the debate over whether racism (or “pathological bias,” to use the clinical term proposed by psychiatrists) should be considered a mental illness and included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. In turn, I would like to raise the question of whether pathological xenophilia should be considered a mental illness. (more…)

1,547 words

On a recent trip to California, I got to spend some time in Ojai, a small, rustic town, high in the mountains, north of LA. Ojai is known as an enclave of a certain type of California “cool.” Its inhabitants are the kind of people who dislike the stress of LA but don’t want to be too far away from it, (more…)

1,168 words

Rick Wilson, a GOP strategist, has made some clickbait headlines by saying that alt-rightists are “screamers and crazy people who have Hitler iconography in their Twitter timelines” and “childless single men who masturbate to anime.” He followed up this painfully rehearsed line by staring dead into the camera, shaking with anxiety, (more…)

The Uffington White Horse, Oxfordshire

2,486 words

Peter Shaffer’s 1973 play, Equus, is arguably the most pagan work of art created in the 20th century. Ostensibly an extended dialogue between a mentally ill boy and his psychiatrist, Shaffer’s play goes far beyond the realms of psychoanalysis and begins to stir the surface of an incipient numinous awakening. (more…)