Mike Vargo: Living in the Republic of Unreality
The practice of living in unreality consists of three sub-practices: Denying real reality. Bingeing on pseudo-reality. And adopting a myth.
Mike Vargo: System Failure, from the Bronze Age to the Age of Trump
Did a long-ago collapse of civilizations portend our future?
Mike Vargo: Magical Realism — in Literature, in Life, and Online
My daughter called herself Dark White Wolf, and when I was a child, I had an imaginary companion — a second self — whom I brought to the dinner table with me. Nobody was allowed to sit in my doppelgänger’s chair.
Mike Vargo: The Insanity of Our Times, According to Philip Slater
Nothing explains everything, but some things explain a lot.
Mike Vargo: Getting Smart About Education
In each life, hovering behind the facade or maybe in plain sight, something important may await discovery, something that words can only approximate.
Mike Vargo: Bad Religion, Good Religion
What sort of personal meaning can any of us extract from the current state of religious affairs, which is very strange?
Michael Simms: Politics as a Spiritual Practice
Those of us who wish to follow a spiritual path cannot ignore the malevolent policies of our government.
Mike Vargo: Truck Drivers Who Hitchhike
I met my first hitchhiking truck driver one morning on a freeway near Columbus, Ohio.
Mike Vargo: Is There a Real Me?
Believing in a real self would be easier if the self were not so inconsistent.
Mike Vargo: The Holiday Rant
Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve celebrate the three great indulgences of our culture: overeating, overspending, and getting overly intoxicated. The unifying theme is excess.
Mike Vargo: ‘Cat’s Cradle,’ Community, and Fascism
Maybe Bokonon had a point. Bokonon, for those not familiar, is a character in Kurt Vonnegut’s 1963 novel Cat’s Cradle. On a fictional Caribbean island, a holy man lives in the mountains. … Continue reading
Mike Vargo: AI and the Quantification of Everything
As someone who in fact aced the SAT and similar tests — but who then goofed off probably more than he should’ve at a fine university, and who in adult life has displayed episodes of colossal stupidity — I would not trust any attempt to put a number on a person’s intelligence.
Mike Vargo: Ancient Footprints and Bighorns
The Valley of Fire, northeast of Vegas, is a maze of canyons and towering rock formations in hues from yellow to red…. And on some of those, Indigenous people 2,000 to 4,000 years ago scraped figures and shapes into the varnish.
