Maledicendum
You want to stare into the abyss. You imagine you will discover something there, a boisterous polysemiotic laughing that reverberates against your high temples. You want to plough into new and unique territories uncontaminated by other intellects and you realize it is the fervor of your fear that strangleholds you: the others! the others! They …
Writing exercise #1: Deconstruction
Just for fun writing exercise, this time about a religious Ph.D. candidate in philosophy and what he had to say about Christopher Hitchens. His article can be found in crisis magazine. Please be candid with your comments and lay out to me where grammar and rhetoric are still lacking I would like to exercise and exorcise the vacuity …
Cum granu salis
There is the commitment of a slow suicide inside my mouth flaring nerve tissue makes me a beast of seconds foregone my extravanganza, the wordsome Walpurgnis Night of wild hue candelabras burning into the popliteal intimacy of progress – relinquished Swearing and sweltering I lock myself in debasement reddish eyes sore at glaring screens a …
On people who live on in our dreams
I dreamt that the late British American public intellectual Christopher Hitchens was walking next to me. He was bald, like in the last months of his life when he underwent chemotherapy, but appeared in excellent health and was obviously not aware of his impending death. The image was so vivid that I could see the …
The contiguous society
The exponential growth of computing power has created unprecedented possibilities for the democratic organization of a people. Looking at the current voting system of democracies around the world however, very little of these digital innovations to improve the finding and execution of the ‘will of the people’ have been realized. It is largely unchartered territory, …
Two types of religion
A father can call the deepest motivation of his child the tentative and most fragile design of his heart morally reprehensible. So he summons the energy that will self-destroy his child. There are two types of religion In one, there is a Father and He shall forgive you In the other, you shall forgive the …
Digital Detox
I woke up one day wondering how long it had been since I last went an entire week, or even a few days, without an Internet connection, without being absorbed by the virtual reality of our all-encompassing communication network. I couldn’t remember. Was it 1996, the year before I purchased my first laptop computer? Was …
Learning by improv theatre
Dear Miru, You are four years old now. We have real conversations. When I pick you up from kindergarten and I ask you what have you done today (in Dutch) you tell me brief but wonderful stories about making a snowman, observing insects and hedgehogs, dancing or taking the bus together with all the other …
Self-confidence
Because of all the wonderful and extraordinary selves that are currently on display if you are bored enough to browse the Internet, it is easy to misconstrue the nature of self-confidence. Our Internet heroes have grandiose that make them seem independent. The veil of their staged independence is paper-thin, but no-one cares to lift it …
What is a dystopia?
What we see here is the purest form of a dystopian future. Everything we hold dear in traffic will be sacrificed for the convenience of apathatic air-conditioned slumbering in self-driving ugliness, on our way to a slightly colder place in hell. What we cherish most about ‘traffic’ (that concept will disappear during this disenchanting transformation) …
gaze
I observe myself with scientific precision: a large-brained primate manipulating an artifact with dexterous fingers. I have gone to bed with blackness lately for those who know how that feels. Time’s racing. Imagine you are the only one in the universe you are its grimace and everything is suspended Perhaps we need words that last, …
Plastic Jesus
Among the finalists of the yearly Dutch ‘Turing’ poetry competition was a small notable poem by Raph de Haas, that should have won the first prize. I suggested to have it translated into a number of languages, so I contacted the relevant literature funding programs, who put me in touch with publishers, who in due …
Trump threw me in prison!
Dear kamiel79, We have intercepted a lot of communications coming from your accounts on Twitter, Facebook and Google that have lead us to believe you hold certain extremist views. We don’t like your views. They’re terrible views. So, we’re gonna punish you. We hereby convict you of believing the wrong truth and condemn you henceforth …
