The Other Kind of Safety Net We Keep Forgetting
When we talk about safety nets in America, the conversation almost always swings back to money. Retirement accounts, emergency savings, insurance policies, college funds; we build them,…
Health and Wellness
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The Man Who Didn’t Starve
The man knew how to fix a roof. Not beautifully, but well enough it didn’t leak. He could wire a house without burning it down. He could…
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The Question of a Life Unshackled
I have often wondered why a man, when given the choice, so often chooses to be a beast of burden. It is not that he delights in…
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Let’s Get Back to Our Roots
In the years since World War II, a slow but deliberate shift has taken place. Once, Americans prided themselves on self-sufficiency. They built their own homes, repaired…
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The Weight of Need: On Helplessness and the Crushing of the Soul
To be chronically needy is not simply to lack; it is to be placed in a position of spiritual collapse. It is not merely hunger, nor solely…
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Peter Kropotkin’s “Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution” – a summary
In the modern study of evolution, much has been made of the doctrine of competition as the primary force shaping the natural world. Influenced by interpretations of…
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A Suburban Commons: Reclaiming the Village in a Disconnected Age
Not long ago, I drove through a sprawling suburban neighborhood where every house was a castle, every lawn a moat, and not a single person in sight.…
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Reality Engineering
Lily Tomlin once said that reality is just a collective hunch. She was right. We all squint at the world, shrug, and agree on what we think…
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Notes from a Passive Luddite
We tend to think of resistance as something loud; people marching in the streets, waving signs, breaking things, shouting down systems. But there’s another kind of resistance,…
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Living Authentically in the Concrete Jungle
If you’ve ever spent a long, quiet afternoon alone in nature, you may know the allure of Thoreau’s Walden. The idea of retreating to a quiet cabin…