Eric Scheske

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California, I Barely Knew Thee!

California, I Barely Knew Thee!

Riddle: What do you get when you combine great weather and great social welfare programs that make it feasible to live outdoors with a housing inventory that isn't nearly sufficient to accommodate the throngs of people who want to live in the same place? Answer: California. Geographically, it

You See What You Are

You See What You Are

"[E]ach man judges others by his own state, that is, by what he is himself--in virtues or sins." Symeon the New Theologian. Many thinkers, such as Marcus Aurelius, made this same observation. The Amazon link takes you to an excellent book about Symeon. Like all books in

Why Gnosticism is Left Hemispheric

Why Gnosticism is Left Hemispheric

Gnosticism is logical. In fact, it can be argued that logic and rational conclusions are the gnostic's gods. The gnostic uses rationality to construct abstract ideas of how the world works . . . of what full reality is. The gnostic then embodies these abstract ideas into structures (the belief in

Preliminary Notes Re: Focus

Preliminary Notes Re: Focus

I will be exploring the difference between the left hemisphere's method of focus and the right hemisphere's. For now, I only note that a cottage industry has risen around focus, concentration, meditation, and the desire to rid ourselves of distractions. It's a good thing,

California Nut Jobs

California Nut Jobs

California "is a renowned haven for faddists, individualists and nuts of every kind. . . There's always some screwball out here who's got some new cult or ism working and a band of happy unrealistic acolytes around him who are now convinced that they've discovered

High Time Preference and Class

High Time Preference and Class

I remember my Dad telling me that time preference is the best measure of class. Class isn't based on race, nationality, religion, or money. The single-best determining factor of class is the ability to forego short-term pleasure for the sake of long-term gain. He told me that a

The Three Ideals of the Enlightenment

The Three Ideals of the Enlightenment

Isaiah Berlin summarized the Enlightenment ideals in these three premises, which Enlightenment thinkers held with religious-like fervor (to David Hume's amusement and, later, to Dostoyevsky's disgust): 1. Every genuine question can be answered. If it can’t be answered, it’s not a genuine question. 2.

The Hemisphere Hypothesis Briefly Collection

The Hemisphere Hypothesis Briefly Collection

Re: Evelyn Waugh

Re: Evelyn Waugh

When someone called his attention to a typographical error in one of his books, he replied that one cannot get any decent proofreading now “that they no longer defrock priests for sodomy.”******* While serving in the British army in Yugoslavia during World War II, he spread the rumor that Marshal

Carting Away Hobbits

Carting Away Hobbits

I've started to re-read The Lord of the Rings. While listening to Brad Birzer's three-part interview on the National Review “Great Books” podcast, I realized that I had forgotten a lot of things about the books. More troubling, I had forgotten a lot of the charming