Pseu·do·sci·ence

noun

a collection of beliefs or practices mistakenly regarded as being based on scientific method.

I am the last person who should be writing about spirituality. I’ve always been a not-so-secret admirer of facts and evidence. After all, what can be known, outside of objective reality? How can one truly believe something that remains both unlikely and unproven?

Many articles online try to argue that trendy spiritual practices have some objective truth. …

“A fundamental mistake that urban planners made… was to infer functional order from the duplication and regimentation of building forms: that is, from purely visual order. Most complex systems, on the contrary, do not display a surface regularity; their order must be sought at a deeper level. To see complex systems of functional order as order, and not as chaos, takes understanding. The leaves dropping from the trees in the autumn, the interior of an airplane engine, the entrails of a rabbit, the city desk of a newspaper, all appear to be chaos if they are seen without comprehension. …

Why Anarchism?

Anarchy has become a largely misunderstood expression amongst the general public. Despite the term’s casual use as a synonym for chaos, the approach actually calls for increased local organization and empowerment, and the rejection of exploitative and unjustified hierarchies. Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, the first self-proclaimed anarchist, wrote:

“Liberty is the mother, not the daughter of order.”

Why will societal criticism today be sold en masse by a corporation tomorrow? Worsening media reflections of an exploitative cultural system paint a bleak forecast for the future. Increasingly, our thoughts and ideas are becoming commodities, and meaningful societal change feels impossible.

Introduction

Modern capitalist society has increasingly been viewed as an absurd system. Workers have lost ownership of the ‘fruits of their labor,’ while capitalists find themselves chained to an insatiable process (Boltanski & Chiapello, 1999). Why do people subscribe to an exploitative system that relies on perpetual growth for success? In The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism…

The Internet is saturated with advice about which cryptocurrency moves you should make next. From entrepreneurial Youtube channels to trade-expert Discord servers, it seems like everyone is following someone else’s trade — or at least someone else’s advice.

It can be easy to fall into the habit of shadowing exhaustive technical analyses and seeking validation from other traders. In my experience, this method isn’t even close to a formula for success. Although it might sound counter-intuitive, listening to your gut feelings when trading can help you come out on top.

I’m not referring to trading emotionally, which can lead to…

I’ve had a Medium account for all of three days now. I created an account because I needed to write down my ideas all in one place. Evidently, this account has become a gateway — not only to writing — but to a myriad of remarkable articles that have been composed by talented and popular writers on the platform.

After an expedition through the most applauded articles, I came to a cold realization. For every work of literary art poured from the heart of a writer, there is another article composed for the sole purpose of creating content. …

In the late 1820s, a philosophical movement began to stir in the United States that would transform the country, and soon the world. Rooted in the recently flourishing movements Romanticism and Skepticism, and joined by the emerging Unitarian movement, Transcendentalism emerged, carrying with it new perspectives on justice, spirituality, and the environment. Transcendentalism shifted American ideology to seek out individualism and a deeper understanding of the universe, having profound social, political, and economic impacts; eventually developing into the civil rights movement and modern environmentalism. …

Surrealism is a cultural movement dedicated to unnerving, illogical scenes that resolve the waking world with that of dreams. A response to existentialism at the turn of the 19th century, it eliminated objectivity, compelling people to observe the world in a novel way. The genre has a tendency to display uncomfortable, hyper-realistic portrayals of all-too familiar dreamscapes.

Surrealism forces us to confront our own subconscious. Accordingly, the famous theories and methods of Sigmund Freud regarding the subconscious were a major influencer of the movement. The literature of authors like Franz Kafka, often utilizing Freudian symbols, paved the way for the…