Eric Scheske

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Eric Scheske

Eric Scheske

How to Rebel Against the New Barbarism

How to Rebel Against the New Barbarism

We might be entering a new Middle Ages. The Middle Ages were a contest between the Catholic Church and barbarism. The Church won. That's not what's happening in the new Middle Ages. Here's how to deal with the new barbarism. Russian mystic and philosopher

Fyodor, Flannery, and GoodFellas Reveal Something Ironic about Our Modern World

Fyodor, Flannery, and GoodFellas Reveal Something Ironic about Our Modern World

Essences become meaningless in both a perfect and marred world.

When Virtue Becomes Vice

When Virtue Becomes Vice

We can't pursue virtue without vice. Every pursuit of virtue, after all, requires us to strive to advance our happiness. Every such pursuit, in other words, is selfish, which is the root of all vice. It's a paradox. Paradox, The Hemispheres, and the TaoA basic tension

Scrolling Blog: April 2024

Scrolling Blog: April 2024

The Cell Phone is a Monkey Trap for the Left HemisphereAnd Eight Other Short Observations about the HemispheresThe Daily EudemonEric Scheske April 30, 2024 Art Appreciation: One Way to Reclaim Your Attention?Nathan Heller at The New Yorker (“The Battle for Attention”)The Daily EudemonEric Scheske April 29, 2024 Monday

Elitism v. Snobbery

Elitism v. Snobbery

I never could "get into" Bell's Crowd Culture. This micro review kinda makes me want to try again, but only "kinda." The book falls into "snobbish conservatism," which I've never much cared for. We tend to think of liberalism as

Small Talk: How to Cultivate the True Disposition of the Artist

Small Talk: How to Cultivate the True Disposition of the Artist

Practice being an artist by being a good conversationalist

Why Curb Your Enthusiasm is Funny

Why Curb Your Enthusiasm is Funny

Good-Bye, CurbThe last Curb Your Enthusiasm aired Sunday. It will be sorely missed, even if I think this last season hasn’t been as good as the previous ones. Britannica has a great entry about Curb basics. I don’t think you’ll need a subscription to access it. Two

Partial Payments: Essays on Writers and Their Lives, by Joseph Epstein

Partial Payments: Essays on Writers and Their Lives, by Joseph Epstein

A Micro-Review/Essay “I am indebted to these writers.” Paean. Nineteen of them. An essayist removes his hat, lowers his head, and says “thanks.” The essayist convinces us these subjects are great. We then understand that the essayist is great. Like recognizes like. Max Beerbohm’s prose is difficult to

Are We Really Supposed to Believe Psychedelics Gave Us Our Souls?

Are We Really Supposed to Believe Psychedelics Gave Us Our Souls?

A mushroom? Or God? I didn’t fully appreciate the implication of The Stoned Ape theory until listening to Lex Fridman’s interview with Brian Muraresku. Muraresku recently published The Immortality Key: The Secret History of the Religion with No Name, which claims psychedelics, in particular psilocybin, has made huge,