Paul Kingsnorth thinks the modern West has become a kind of evil Machine, hostile to true human flourishing. I disagree.

In 1802, Louis Delgrès led a doomed revolt in Guadeloupe against Napoleon’s bid to restore slavery, choosing death over chains and defiance over surrender.

The Haitian Revolution’s final two years were a spiral of atrocity, betrayal, and disease that destroyed Napoleon’s army and gave birth to the first independent nation founded by former slaves.

Byung-Chul Han sees Anomalisa as a dystopia of sameness. I argue it’s really about depression—and why choosing embodied life still matters.

A poem by Paul Wilke

A reflection on poetry, imagination, and the cultural cost of living online.

A poem by Paul Wilke

The Republic was dead long before Augustus rose to power. This essay pushes back against modern comparisons, showing how Augustus buried a broken system and built something that endured for centuries.

The beginning of the end of the Roman Republic started with the best of intentions. A fiery young aristocrat named Tiberius Gracchus set out to reform a corrupt system dominated by the wealthy. During one turbulent year as tribune, he challenged the Senate’s authority, bent the rules, and paid with his life. What followed was nearly a century of escalating violence that tore the Republic apart.

Huxley’s Brave New World warned of a dystopia where comfort and distraction erase depth, struggle, and meaning, echoing our world today.