John Gray: "Progress is an illusion..."

In Straw Dogs, a work of thoroughgoing iconoclasm, British philosopher Gray attacks the belief that humans are different from and superior to animals. Invoking pure Darwinism, he savages every perspective from which humans appear as anything more than a genetic accident that has produced a highly destructive species (homo rapiens)--a species that exterminates other species at a phenomenal rate as our swelling numbers despoil the global environment. Gray explains the human refusal to confront the darker realities of our nature largely as the result of how we have consoled ourselves with the myths of Christianity and its secular offspring, humanism and utopianism. Human vanity, he complains, has even converted science (which should teach us of our insignificant place in nature) into an ideology of progress. But neither hope for progress nor confidence in human morality passes muster with Gray, who envisions a future in which the human population finally contracts as a world politics that grows ever more predatory and brutal shatters all such illusions. As a work of ruthless rigor, this provocative book will force readers to reexamine their own convictions. Bryce Christensen - 

SCARY STUFF from a British pessimist!

Simon Critchley - Philosopher

The Faith of the Faithless (2012)
From the paradox of politics and religion in Rousseau to the political stakes of the return to St. Paul in the work of Heidegger, Taubes, Agamben and Badiou, via explorations of politics and original sin in the work of Carl Schmitt and John Gray, Critchley examines whether there can be a faith of the faithless, a belief for unbelievers. Expanding on his debate with Slavoj Žižek, Critchley concludes with a meditation on the question of violence and the limits of non-violence. The Faith of the Faithless - Experiments in Political Theology will be published by Verso in 2012.

How to Stop Living and Start Worrying (2010)

How to Stop Living and Start Worrying (Polity, 2010), a sort of anti-self-help book, is a series of conversations between Critchley and Carl Cederström from 2009 and 2010, originally based on Swedish television series. The conversations are intended to provide an overview and introduction to Critchley's life and work. They are based around a series topics: life, death, love, humour and authenticity. The volume also contains a discussion with Tom McCarthy.

Lava Hot Springs Nostalgia

The View from Mt. Rubidoux

Orange Crate Art - My Hometown

South: the Endurance Expedition by Ernest Shackleton

"Although there have been a number of new books and reprints recently focusing on the Endurance expedition, this is the one book everyone should read, Sir Ernest Shackleton's own story of the tragedy he turned into a triumph. Shackleton fully covers the expedition from its inception, through the loss of the Endurance, the stranding of the men on desolate Elephant Island, the majestic small-boat journey in search of rescue to South Georgia, the many attempts to evacuate the men from Elephant Island, and the little-known story of the Ross Sea Party of the expedition, who established a base on the opposite side of the Antarctic continent to lay depots for the planned Antarctic crossing and in spite of horrible deprivation caused when their ship was swept out to sea in a storm, managed to complete all their work laying the groundwork for a trip that never happened. After rescuing his men on Elephant Island, Shackleton had to rescue this party as well, something pretty much ignored in most modern books about the expedition. Very much worth reading; also read "Heart of the Antarctic," Shackleton's book about his earlier expedition.' - from reader review by Susan Paxton

Oxen of the Sun

I can't help but wonder what the lesson of this episode is, given that Odysseus' men were starving when they were forced to eat the oxen belonging to the sun god, Helios Hyperion. To make matters worse, Odysseus failed to share with them some crucial information before landing on Thrinacia - namely, the prophecy given to him by Teiresias, the blind seer, that foretold their doom. One assumes that some of the men might have shown more restraint if they had known ahead of time that such sacrilege against the god was predicted in advance. As with the prior calamity involving Scylla and Charybdis, there are no easy solutions to certain, messy situations. Given the rift that has emerged between Odysseus and his crew, he has reason to be careful about the information he shares with them, lest by telling them all the bitter truth, he incite them to mutiny and parricide. They have learned the hard way, and perhaps hold this fact against him that Odysseus cannot always guarantee his crew's safety and well-being; his needs, desires, inclinations run contrary to theirs - even to the point of making their lives expendable.