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Oct 10, 2024 | 
merionwest.com | Peter Clarke
“Admirably, Dawkins continually made it clear that his objective was to promote a clear understanding of the world as discovered through the scientific method, and if scientific facts caused offense with anyone, then so be it.“or much of my life, merely hearing the name “Richard Dawkins” made my blood boil. Growing up as a Christian, Dawkins was the embodiment of evil, flooding the world with dangerous ideas about evolution and naturalism. Worse still, he was smug about it.
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Sep 16, 2024 | 
merionwest.com | Peter Clarke
“Bringing this back to the United States: While we need to address our current housing crisis, the goal should not be to build, build, build anywhere at any cost.”merica needs more housing! This is no longer the mantra of only YIMBYs or cash-strapped Millennials. Suddenly, the most prominent figures in American politics have taken up the call to build, build, build.
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Sep 11, 2024 | 
rss.com | Peter Clarke |Margo Kingston |Tim Dunlop
by Peter Clarke, Margo Kingston and Tim DunlopMargo Kingston, Peter Clarke and Tim Dunlop came together to talk through the transitions and transformations happening in the world at that moment as we all dealt with the Covid-19 pandemic. With regular guests from a range of occupations and disciplines, with minds wide open, and a heartfelt desire to see the best of what is possible at that weird moment in the history of the world. The SarsCov2 pandemic continues. And we ... ... Read more
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Jul 8, 2024 | 
merionwest.com | Peter Clarke
“While it might be intellectually fascinating to dig into the Marxist or postmodern roots of wokeness, Bowles’s book is a welcome reminder that sometimes things are simply crazy on their face. And maybe all that is required to defeat the crazy is to point it out.”ellie Bowles recently appeared at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco to promote her new book Morning After the Revolution. I was in the audience that night, sitting near the front of the relatively small room.
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May 30, 2024 | 
merionwest.com | Peter Clarke
“Although the project to end death is clearly important to Istvan, his forthcoming biography, ‘Transhuman Citizen: Zoltan Istvan’s Hunt for Immortality’ by Ben Murnane, reveals that he has arguably lived his life in response to a related but slightly different question…”“What are you prepared to do to stop your own death?”his question has preoccupied Zoltan Istvan for much of his life.
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May 8, 2024 | 
merionwest.com | Peter Clarke
“In Carlin’s time, it was edgy and cool to push back against the prudish ideas about obscenity, so playing with the boundaries of the metanarrative was practically encouraged (at least from audiences). Today, quite the opposite.”“You can’t say hobo anymore. They prefer bum.”his line, from Jerry Seinfeld’s new film Unfrosted, is not a scold. It is a punchline. Although it is not an especially funny punchline, it serves as an instructive example of the current state of comedy.
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May 2, 2024 | 
merionwest.com | Peter Clarke
“But I am not interested in chiding Bronze Age Pervert—as other publications, such as National Review, have done—for his use of dehumanization. Instead, I want to offer a full-throated defense of these nasty bugmen.”n the new Netflix series 3 Body Problem, aliens on their way to Earth determine that humans are like bugs. Throughout the first season, there is commentary about whether or not humans are, in fact, no better than bugs. Maybe it is true?
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Apr 12, 2024 | 
merionwest.com | Peter Clarke
“In other words, now that I have become an atheist, I feel free to appreciate and even dabble in various religions. To put this in terms of Waits Paradox: Once one has quit religion, he is free to be religious.”n the 2003 film Coffee and Cigarettes, Tom Waits says to Iggy Pop, “The beauty of quitting [smoking] is that, now that I’ve quit, I can have one. Because I’ve quit.”This is a funny snippet of dialogue because it sounds absurd even though it technically makes sense.
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Mar 19, 2024 | 
quillette.com | Peter Clarke |Maarten Boudry |Meghan Daum |Roger Bate
The concept of metamodernism isn’t particularly well-known, but once you learn about it, you will recognize it everywhere—in pop music, in movies, in social media posts, in podcast conversations. Here’s Eric Weinstein inadvertently articulating the spirit of metamodernism in a recent interview:You need to keep the scarcity mentality; it’s not a mistake. The problem is, you also need an abundance mentality, and then you need to selectively access them in different circumstances.
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Feb 18, 2024 | 
merionwest.com | Peter Clarke |Erich Prince
“No doubt [Araya] Baker’s experience is legitimate, and, of course, it is true that state surveillance is a very serious problem, but paranoid delusions are real, too.”he surveillance state is a threat to everyone in a free country. But that does not mean that it impacts everyone in the same way. For some, state surveillance may provide a welcoming sense of security.
