What is life due?
Collective life requires us to pay attention. Yet, we seem to "know" that life is not always worth its due. Traction feels good.
Articles for category: Quick Thought
June 11, 2025
Weird Delight
I am delighted by these weird, radically centered spaces where the things of the world no one wants gather and cannot (easily) be reached.
May 8, 2025
Friendship/Communion
Friendship and/as communion.
Does the resurrection of the dead make sense?
The resurrection makes sense as an expression of sentient animal desire for uninterrupted thriving.
On (the Reign of) Insignificant Speech
Thomas Hobbes is rolling over in his grave. Today, insignificant speech--a train of meaningless words--reigns supreme. And we enjoy it. Why?
March 31, 2025
Jesus Lacked the Rights of a Citizen
Caravaggio's *Ecce Homo,* misattributed and nearly sold for €1,500, was rediscovered and eventually auctioned for €30 million. Caravaggio depicts Pilate as conflicted. He asks the crowd, "Are you sure you want Jesus killed?" As one without the rights of a citizen, Jesus's fate is once again in our hands.
March 26, 2025
Fixated on Masculinity
In episode 3 of Netflix's "Adolescence," Jamie Miller, accused of murder, meets psychologist Briony Ariston, who takes extra time to assess him, realizing he cannot accept his actions. The episode highlights the complexities of social media's influence and parental responsibility, questioning societal narratives around victimization and empathy.
February 5, 2025
What is Biological Truth?
Trump's Executive Order to restore "biological truth" is a will to power that expresses his desire to be saved from "immutable" biological reality. It gives renewed meaning to David M. Halperin’s argument, made in *Saint Foucault: Towards a Gay Hagiography*: Whenever we (i.e., bodies that incarnate different truths) hear the Trump Administration “invoke the notion of ‘truth,’ we reach for our revolvers."
September 12, 2024
Marriage 101
Adam Phillips’s book, Monogamy, is a collection of 121 (think 1 to 1, the logic of a certain kind of relationship) provocative aphorisms. Monogamy has activated my curiosity (see here, here and, here) by highlighting what we so often ignore (and, manifestly, at our peril): the problem of (the promise of?) infidelity. Here is my try at aphorism making: #101 Heterosexuals say they are happily married, but one can never be sure because they always declare their matrimonial bliss with a straight face. Homosexuals also say they are happily married, but not without having a laugh.
August 26, 2024
Why do we hate (political) monogamy?
Roman Polanski, Rosemary’s Baby (film still), 1968. Quick thought(s): I was provoked to think about political monogamy by an excerpt of Josh Marshall’s recent blog about “the media’s” thirst for the Democratic Party’s “honeymoon” with Kamala Harris to end. Political “honeymoonism” (at least the Democratic variety), or so we are told, must end with the Democratic National Convention (so on August 22, 2024). Is the honeymoon over? “The media” asserts the honeymoon must end. You know, the joy must end; electing Harris must get miserable, nasty, awful, etc. That is, if we are serious Harris supporters, serious about our future, serious about
