In my view, the two most extreme forms of language on Planet Earth are code and icaros, which are the songs of the ayahuasca shamans in the Upper Amazon Basin. These two linguistic processes are like the opposing goal posts of human language; all language falls somewhere in between these…

Where is the power? Regarding the history of revolutionary or insurrectionist flash points, the goal in such moments was always to seize power: the most obvious example, in 1789 the French revolutionaries stormed the Bastille, an institution that represented for them the power of the French state that they wanted…

I think Claudia Conway, the daughter of Kellyanne Conway who has become a recent TikTok star, is making a very strong case for being the symbol of the emotional, psychological, and spiritual devastation that excess social media is having upon the lives of American teenagers and their families of origin. …

We are fast approaching a point in the intersubjective texture of American life in which if one does not find immediate agreement with someone else’s discourse or language, it will automatically be experienced as oppressive, violent, and privileged. This does not point to something simple like, “The problem is we…

The function of the sacred in indigenous communities and archaic societies across the planet was always the power to keep violence at a distance; the capacity to somehow protect the community from the specter of internal destructive violence.(1) This sacred power was always accessed through ritual, ceremony, and in certain…

The greatest “social justice warrior” in the history of the West is perhaps St. Paul. And the reason why Paul’s words are so powerful regarding equality and justice is because Paul was very much in touch with his own corruption and violence; he knew very well his own weaknesses and…