Deeper unconsciousness, not greater awareness, characterizes the modern mind. This may be the fundamental irony of our times. The intersection of ignorance and intention has been the site of art and argument for millennia. Greek tragedies such as Oedipus Rex explore the limits of knowledge to powerful effect. After visiting the theater, Athenians returned to daily life [...]
Communists know that the strength of their regime is measured in terms of ideological uniformity. This is what makes the pervasiveness of COVID kitsch so unnerving. The coordinated censorship of opposing viewpoints, both scientific and conspiratorial, is creepily reminiscent of 20th-century excess. Sabina, the headstrong artist in Milan Kundera’s Unbearable Lightness of Being, is haunted [...]
The sheer variety of economic schools and methods suggests that there must be something influencing researchers before they even begin to address their questions. Economic literature expresses a set of pre-existing convictions, a vision of the social world, in the same way art does. Economists often complain that no one takes their advice, yet it [...]
Dostoevsky’s “Demons” remains relevant more than a century after it was written as it invites readers to a melancholy symphony of self-reflection. The novel’s flailing revolutionaries are not caricatures of archaic belief systems but embody the very structure of human conflict. Dark, funny, and frenetic, Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Demons is a startlingly accurate portrayal of possession [...]