Living in Alabama, I don't often have the opportunity to walk through fresh snow. Fortunately, mud tells many of the same stories. After a good rain, a hiking trail or dirt road becomes a record of everyone who has passed that way. Every boot and every tire leaves an impression. Some tracks are deep enough … Continue reading Becoming the Gray Man in the Age of Surveillance Capitalism

I have noticed that modern people speak about myths with a certain confidence, usually while participating in them. The word itself is often used dismissively, as though a myth is merely a falsehood displaced by more rational understanding. We contrast myths with facts as though the distinction resolves the matter cleanly and permanently. And yet … Continue reading How and Why Do Myths Arise

Ancient Greece produced many memorable philosophers, but few left behind an observation as quietly unsettling as that of Xenophanes of Colophon1. He did not set out to dismantle religion, at least not in any modern sense. What he did instead was notice something that others, perhaps, had grown too accustomed to see. To a Greek … Continue reading Xenophanes and the problem of human gods