“Freedom is the right to tell people what they don’t want to hear.” ~George Orwell Overreaching, power-hungry, ill-trained, hyperviolent cops are a menace to society. There’s no way around this. Not even cop apologists can deny the fact that cops overreach in their duty, they have way too much power, they are ill-trained, and they are hyperviolent. If cops did not overreach, and if they weren’t ill-trained, and if they weren’t hyperviolent, then, perhaps with enough checks an

“Here the ways of men divide. If you wish to strive for peace of soul and happiness, then believe; if you wish to be a disciple of truth, then search.” ~Nietzsche What does it mean to be undeceived? To a certain extent, we are always deceived. For we are only human, all too human. But to the extent that we can become aware of deception—both self-deception and the deception of others—being undeceived means being ahead of the curve of the human condition. First, it means embrac

“I would rather be ashes than dust.” ~Jack London You have from this moment until the day you die to live the life you want to live. Most people will default to the culturally programmed setting of mere survival. They will make excuses for why they don’t strive. They will remain content with merely surviving. Strivers, by contrast, are not content. They choose not to default to the preprogrammed setting. They choose to strive. They choose to live life to the fullest despite d

"Life is meaningless, but worth living, provided you recognize it's meaningless.” ~Albert Camus Life is absurd. We are flash-in-the-pan creatures staring vacuously into the void. We highwire walk precariously over an existential precipice of which we cannot even begin to fathom. Our mortal coils are so tight they strangle us. Alas, we have no choice but to thrust them upward into halos. We do so in vain, and yet, we must do so lest we become crushed by the infinite. We wrestl

“Sooner or later, life makes philosophers of us all.” ~Maurice Riseling Wisdom cannot come by ignoring, denying, or escaping the nightmare; it can only come from rearranging it. Indeed. Life is less about getting what you want and more about making the best of what you get. The nightmare is only an aspect of the dream. It’s not the dream itself. Wisdom comes from reconciling the nightmare to make the dream more robust, more resilient, more antifragile. You can collect all the

“Understand how great is the darkness in which we grope, and never forget the natural-science assumptions with which we started are provisional and revisable things” ~William James Imagine you are the universe, and the universe is you. Feel it: the raw stardust in your bones, the ancient heat in your blood, the infinite interconnectedness of all things in your gut. Allow the fresh intensity of the moment to transcend all moments from quantum singularity to singular perception

“The trickster is not a trickster by nature. He is a trickster by necessity.” ~Malcom Gladwell Trickster is hunting you. Yes, you. He is the primordial hunter, the perennial fisherman. Hunter, tracker, predator, seeker. He (or she) is the only hunter for which everyone is his kill. None of us are off the hook for being hooked by this fisherman par excellence. But for those of us with the capacity to tap into this elusive energy, this mercurial metaphysics, it can be nothing s