I have a simple, possibly impolite thesis: the “nation” is a beautiful story we tell to coordinate strangers, and loud nationalism is what people reach for when the story stops paying their bills. Nations are not ancient tribes waking from deep time; they are recent inventions—clever ones—that industrial print, schools, and armies stitched together so we would feel kinship with people we will never meet. That is not an insult; … Read the rest
It’s amusing, really, how people insist their religion is eternal while living on a planet that can’t even keep a hairstyle for more than a decade. Civilizations come and go, continents drift, and yet we imagine our particular faith—born on one patch of soil in one historical moment—to be the final revelation. But if the gods of Egypt could overhear us from their long sleep, they’d probably chuckle. They had … Read the rest
Why “Traditional Values” Never Existed
Let’s face it: every time someone says we must “return to traditional values,” I look around in confusion, wondering which exact century they are referring to. Is it the one with the public latrines and communal sponges, or the one with corsets so tight that women fainted during polite conversation? People love to imagine some golden age of virtue, but history—being its usual uncooperative self—refuses … Read the rest
Content 16+ The universe, in its infinite wisdom (or lack thereof), operates under laws that are indisputably consistent. Drop an apple, and it will plummet with no regard for whether you are Newton or a hapless pedestrian beneath a fruit-bearing tree. The stars burn, the planets spin, and gravity persists, utterly indifferent to petitions for fairness. This brings us to the grand question: Is the universe governed by fairness, or … Read the rest
By Eric LeRoy
Content 18+ I have always wondered why some people make a powerful impression on us and others don’t. Of course the effect can vary from person to person, and that’s a good thing: for example, it would be a real mess if every man fell in love with the same woman – to the exclusion of all others.
Just imagine it: the longed-for Wench-Princess-Nymphette standing on the … Read the rest
