Author: Alexander

I would like to express my opinion, that in 2015, no video has come close to the magnitude, power and precision of Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright” in articulating an American condition. “Alright” is a triumph, and one of the best music videos I have ever seen. It is more than a music video, it seems, it… Continue reading Alright

We live in a time where it is fashionable for ‘rationalists’ to believe that the modern scientific paradigm presents the ultimate truth of matter, and that recent discoveries such as DNA, neurons and natural selection fully account for the existence and faculties of mind, a thing that we have barely even begun to study.  … Continue reading Materialist Reductionism is a Faith Like any Other

Drugs are among the most emblematic aspects of our world, calling to mind a truth that cannot be reconciled with our daily lives: life eats itself. It swallows itself, consumes itself, it is the mystical oroboros in its truest form. Civilization is self-consuming, as are individuals, as are drugs. The indulgence of drugs is the… Continue reading About Drugs and the Fall of Empires

If Obama genuinely believes that “all people are created equal”, then every time he kills some innocent person in a drone strike he is killing someone with the same worth as himself and his own family members. Obviously he doesn’t believe this. Obviously he’s a moral fraud. No surprises here. Who has the right to… Continue reading Today, Obama, Lena Dunham and Taylor Swift Win the Day

I feel nihilism, the world truly closed and empty, then without warning nihilism gives way and blossoms into the aesthetic of a song, or a story, something finite but meaningful. Through nothing there is everything, even though everything is finite. I can think of no greater nihilism than the idea that art is greater than… Continue reading Thoughts Born of Depression; Some (nuanced) Nihilism and Neurosis

It is difficult for me to read philosophy. It is either pages upon pages of technical detail and nuance that amounts to some system which either makes sense or does not based on one’s aesthetic preferences, or it is one beautiful line which strikes me so powerfully that I must stand and absorb it. Reading… Continue reading Some Various Notions

 The brilliance of the moral themes of The Sopranos emerges most clearly in the scene where Tony Soprano murders Ralph Cifaretto. He believes Ralph killed a horse, a crime he never committed. A man who beat a stripper to death was finally put down for killing an animal. Tony Soprano loves ducks and horses, and… Continue reading On The Sopranos (Season 4 Spoilers)

I think, closest to the truth, is the analogy of the pirate (ISIS) and the emperor (the US). Yes, the pirate is despicable, but he is hanged for the same crimes that the emperor is hailed for. The pirate beheads, the emperor rains death from the sky. The emperor has more power, and has ravaged… Continue reading This Time, I Speak Some Words About ISIS

The brilliance of The Sopranos always strikes me in waves. It’s a story that cannot be underestimated. Think of Vito Sapatafore, killed by all his closest friends for being gay. All along he was alone. The same is true for Christopher Moltisanti, who shortly after breaking his sobriety with a person he feels safe with,… Continue reading Tony Soprano ate my Lunch (Spoilers)

The genius of The Sopranos (I know, again) is its deeply psychological writing. The quality of its portrayal of each characters’ psyche is the one thing that puts it above all other shows. It shows both the aggressive, violent destroyer and the screaming, terrified baby inside us all, and it shows that both these personas… Continue reading I Love The Sopranos