Tag: epistemology

Copernicus, Wittgenstein, Gold, and The Dollar

In my previous post, I described how the Bretton Woods agreement placed the U.S. dollar at the center of the global financial system; how that embeddedness deepened over decades; and how the structural mechanics of that arrangement generated the imbalances we now experience as geopolitical strain, excessive financialization, and social fragmentation. Running quietly beneath that … Continue reading Copernicus, Wittgenstein, Gold, and The Dollar →

Triffin’s Dilemma: A Fundamental Frame for Understanding and Navigating Our Time

One of the bedrock principles in my sensemaking toolbox is simple: Always determine the role of mechanical, deterministic causality before imputing human motivation or making moral judgments. In practical terms, this means asking a prior question before doing any moral or political analysis: What would happen here even if no one were trying to make … Continue reading Triffin’s Dilemma: A Fundamental Frame for Understanding and Navigating Our Time →

The Axis Mundi; How an Ancient Symbol Still Reveals Integrity, Meaning, and What Endures

At the foundation of premodern symbolic thought lies a simple but profound intuition: reality is experienced as the meeting of heaven and earth. This claim is easily misunderstood by modern readers, who are accustomed to treating such language as a primitive attempt at cosmology. But symbolic language was never primarily an explanation of physical mechanisms. … Continue reading The Axis Mundi; How an Ancient Symbol Still Reveals Integrity, Meaning, and What Endures →

13 Things I Simultaneously (and Provisionally) Believe to Be True

Reflections in the wake of the Alex Pretti shooting Because the sovereign person is the highest-resolution unit of society—and because the state possesses an inherently asymmetric capacity for coercion—the default posture should always favor empowering the person and restraining the state. I strongly affirm both First and Second Amendment rights of the sovereign person (citizen) … Continue reading 13 Things I Simultaneously (and Provisionally) Believe to Be True →

The Accuser and the Embracer; Two deaths, two spirits, and the deepest story ever told

As the Orthodox Christian artist and thinker Jonathan Pageau is wont to say, “Symbolism happens!” Symbolism, he explains, “is not so much an arbitrary allegorical representation of something, but rather the very pattern by which we notice meaning.” Sitting by the fire in the predawn pall of this bitter Minnesota winter, I found myself gazing … Continue reading The Accuser and the Embracer; Two deaths, two spirits, and the deepest story ever told →

The Free Speech Principle

One of the cornerstones of my approach to navigating these fraught and destabilizing times is the near-daily habit of compiling, refining, reflecting on, and ever more fully embodying a collection of Foundational Axioms, Principles and Practices. One of these reads, "Free speech and free thought are the only correctives to human error. Think and speak … Continue reading The Free Speech Principle →