In the winter of 1821, a boy named Isaac Tange was born in a coastal town on the North Sea, Vrouwenpolder, in the United Kingdom […]
Category: Old in New Light
People of the Past
Much of our modern world depends on selling the future. When selling anything from mortgages to new medication, the latest vacuum cleaner or tickets to […]
Marx Attacks!
Jordan Peterson recently made an attempt to equate philosopher Karl Marx (1818-1883) to the devil, but this was nothing but an insult to the devil […]
Until Morale Improves
“The beatings will continue until morale improves.” ~Cartoonist and illustrator Gerald Scarfe (1936) Many years ago a friend of mine was managing a sales team. […]
The Little Man
In the summer of 1945 psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich (1897-1957) wrote a riveting essay entitled Listen, Little Man! – addressing all the forms of the ‘Little […]
Old Wild Horses
All wisdom found outside the rational mind has consistently received a bad rap, particularly during the last fifty to one hundred years. Much attention was […]
When the Worst Won
In a kakistocracy the worst of all people are in charge. This Greek word can be applied to any governed entity, a country, an institution, […]
Heroic Historians
At the moment I am writing a history book and I am realizing that our old ways of conducting historic research are existentially broken. The […]
From Individual Power to Collective Shame
In 1919, Sigmund Freud’s nephew, Edward Bernays (1891-1995) founded America’s first public relations firm, applying psychoanalytic discoveries to promote consumerism and to use latent sexual […]
The FBI and the Why of the Blue Sky
The biggest censorship case in modern history is that of the brilliant Austrian-American psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich (1897-1957), who worked closely with Sigmund Freud. On August […]
“Oh, What’ll You Do Now?”
On Action in the Face of Destruction “I’m a-goin’ back out ’fore the rain starts a-fallin’” -Bob Dylan, A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall (1963) Is […]
Addiction Cure Suppressed
The strange disappearance of books and articles on baclofen “Drinking heavily, you abandon people–and they abandon you–and you abandon yourself–It’s a form of partial murder […]
On Indifference and Identity
When Moral Relativism Becomes Nihilism Back in 2007, Argentinian native Máxima Zorreguieta, who married Dutch crown-prince Willem-Alexander in 2002, angered many Dutch people by saying […]
All Talk, No Action
Journalism Since the Great Financial Crisis In early 2009 I attended a memorable panel discussion at Columbia University’s Journalism School in New York. A handful […]
Long Live All Who Can’t Be Fooled
A poem by HK & The Saltimbanks This is my first post in a couple of weeks. I intend on blogging more in the nearby […]
New Words
The beauty of language is that it can’t be stripped of its human, unpredictable, flawed, emotional, dynamic, local, temporary and irrational elements. Language is always […]
Journalism, Truth and Time
If I don’t speak my truth, I will never be able to take myself seriously again. I would be betraying myself AND my profession. My […]
Er klopt iets niet
Het was nog erg vroeg, maar zoals altijd en overal in New York was het leven op straat in volle gang. Ik liep vlak bij […]