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Richard Smoley's blog

Psyche

What is Reality?

Richard Smoley

What is accounted as real must, among other things, accord with our preconceptions. Nonetheless, the content of our preconceptions may differ wildly according to time and place. Many cultures give far more credence than we do to ghosts, spirits, good and evil, possession, and witchcraft. So did Western civilization five hundred years ago. (more)

11-18-09

Life

You're Doing It Wrong

Richard Smoley

My friend, you cannot escape doing it wrong. And of course, being, like you, a part of American culture, neither can I. There is an Ogallala aquifer of guilt sitting a few inches below the surface of the American psyche. (more)

2-11-09

Commons

Everybody's Political What's What

Richard Smoley

At this point in American history, the interests of the few have vastly outstripped not only those of the many, but those of the common good. There is an imbalance, and it is going to be corrected. (more)

10-21-08

Psyche

Truth in the Form of a Lie

Richard Smoley

Zen golf, Zen gardens in a box, Zen stuffed animals -- How do ideas that are originally mystical or esoteric make their way into mass culture, and what do such ostensibly terrible things as commercialization and vulgarization have to do with this process? (more)

7-24-08

Life

Just What Is Love, Anyway?

Richard Smoley

Romantic, unrequited, codependent or familial – it's all love. But why do we believe one thing about love with one corner of the mind and something very different with another? (more)

4-17-08

Psyche

2012 and the Annoying Persistence of Time

Richard Smoley

Apocalyptic writings – those purporting to reveal the secrets of the end of time – got their start in Judea in the second century B.C. Since then, predictions of the end of time have become as consistent and reliable as the calendar. (more)

1-11-08