Category: Against Dogmatic Certainty

Ten Things to Consider (Thanksgiving Greetings ft. Zuckerberg’s Metaverse)

November 26, 2021

Do you think being grateful while eating your turkey is the best thing you could be doing today? Here are some thoughts to agitate you (and maybe get you to drink one less beer) on this US holiday. Along the way we ponder the “Metaverse” of Mark Zuckerberg’s dreams, why charity might not be the very best thing you could do, and why word vomiting on others is an activity to avoid–maybe particularly today. … More Ten Things to Consider (Thanksgiving Greetings ft. Zuckerberg’s Metaverse)

What is Freedom?

October 12, 2020

That means that those whose primary focus is ideological or economic, who spend most of their mental energy defending their earthly tribe or figuring out how to make the right money moves, are not free. Conversion can have the liberating effect of realizing the supremacy of God over all things human. All things human can come to seem inevitably partial, flawed, mixed. … More What is Freedom?

The Rise of the Illiberal Right: What We’re Missing

September 20, 2020

In this video I address, through some Ideas from Ch. 6 of my book Ideological Possession and the Rise of the New Right, some deeper systemic reasons for the rise of the illiberal right and other phenomena that are disturbing societies around the globe. The problem is bigger than just blaming one source of trouble, whether it be the Internet, new organizations, racial groups or university progressives. … More The Rise of the Illiberal Right: What We’re Missing

The Rise of the Illiberal Right: What We’re Missing

September 20, 2020

In this video I address, through some Ideas from Ch. 6 of my book Ideological Possession and the Rise of the New Right, some deeper systemic reasons for the rise of the illiberal right and other phenomena that are disturbing societies around the globe. The problem is bigger than just blaming one source of trouble, whether it be the Internet, new organizations, racial groups or university progressives. Here’s a link to Ch. 6, which discusses these ideas in more depth: https://lauriemjohnson.com/2020/09/16/signs-of-mass-psychosis-ideological-possession-and-the-rise-of-the-new-right/
… More The Rise of the Illiberal Right: What We’re Missing

Need a Nanny? Lasch on Narcissistic Education and Parenting (5-Audio)

August 1, 2020

This video deals with Chapters 6 and 7 in Christopher Lasch’s The Culture of Narcissism. While Lasch is critical both of how Americans teach their youth and how they parent, he doesn’t place all the blame on schools, teachers and parents. Rather, it’s the overly specialized bureaucratic capitalist system that necessitates a particular kind of education, the kind that puts out docile worker bees, and an absentee and guilt-ridden parenting that gives authority over to the child raising expert apparatus of the state and the economy. Everyone involved gets paid, if badly, but no one does a particularly good job. … More Need a Nanny? Lasch on Narcissistic Education and Parenting (5-Audio)

Need a Nanny? Christopher Lasch on Narcissistic Education and Parenting (5-Video)

August 1, 2020

This video deals with Chapters 6 and 7 in Christopher Lasch’s The Culture of Narcissism. While Lasch is critical both of how Americans teach their youth and how they parent, he doesn’t place all the blame on schools, teachers and parents. Rather, it’s the overly specialized bureaucratic capitalist system that necessitates a particular kind of education, the kind that puts out docile worker bees, and an absentee and guilt-ridden parenting that gives authority over to the child raising expert apparatus of the state and the economy. Everyone involved gets paid, if badly, but no one does a particularly good job. … More Need a Nanny? Christopher Lasch on Narcissistic Education and Parenting (5-Video)

Costco Karens: The Laschian Response (4-Audio)

July 20, 2020

Our current situation demonstrates the extremes of what Christopher Lasch leaned into in his book The Culture of Narcissism. How did we get here? Lasch’s answers take us deeper than the typical observations of the day, which mainly dwell at the surface. In this video, which primarily deals with ideas from chapter 4 of Lasch’s book, we find an explanation for the loose hold many people have on the truth, the deep skepticism about facts, which leads to the childish acting out that we are seeing more and more of, as well as the more serious expression of discontent of protest and riot. Lasch’s views here are not all of even his answer, let along THE answer, as to how we got here, but they deal with one dimension of it that is often overlooked–our often meaningless and unthinking work and our highly “mediated” selves. … More Costco Karens: The Laschian Response (4-Audio)

Costco Karens: The Laschian Response (4-Video)

July 20, 2020

Our current situation demonstrates the extremes of what Christopher Lasch leaned into in his book The Culture of Narcissism. How did we get here? Lasch’s answers take us deeper than the typical observations of the day, which mainly dwell at the surface. In this video, which primarily deals with ideas from chapter 4 of Lasch’s book, we find an explanation for the loose hold many people have on the truth, the deep skepticism about facts, which leads to the childish acting out that we are seeing more and more of, as well as the more serious expression of discontent of protest and riot. Lasch’s views here are not all of even his answer, let along THE answer, as to how we got here, but they deal with one dimension of it that is often overlooked–our often meaningless and unthinking work and our highly “mediated” selves. … More Costco Karens: The Laschian Response (4-Video)

Bureaucratic Dominance: Christopher Lasch on Controlled Labor (3-Video)

July 12, 2020

This video covers chapters 2 and 3 of Christopher Lasch’s The Culture of Narcissism. We explore why the strong narcissist is likely to work their way up the bureaucratic ladder in corporations and government service, and why, since bureaucracy is clearly not efficient, we insist on bureaucratic “rationality.” I also discuss Lasch’s ideas regarding detachment from a sense of time and from immediate experience, which robs people of life, and I introduce Lasch’s views on the origins of all this in the twisted turns of Protestant Christian development in the United States. … More Bureaucratic Dominance: Christopher Lasch on Controlled Labor (3-Video)