Upward Spiral #8 – The Interpersonal.
In this very intimate episode Eric Duffy and Ken Vallario explore the interpersonal as a political space.
Upward Spiral #7 – Facebook and the Game of Life.
In this episode we take the advice of our progenitor podcast the Downward Spiral and we shoot from the hip, discussing mostly my recent Facebook fast and the nature of social media. What is the purpose of all this virtual play, and what options do we have? King’s Corner starts us off, and we also [...]
Upward Spiral #6 – The Pros/Cons of Full Economic Collapse
In this bonus episode (possibly our best yet)…we feature a recording of an unplanned discussion about the benefits and dangers of the possible economic collapses that we’ve all imagined are possible. This episode not only features one of our most engaging discussions but King’s Corner is back with an awesome picture of what it looks [...]
Upward Spiral #5 – The Pope and Religious Tolerance
In episode 5 we discuss the Italian film We Have a Pope and the concept of religious tolerance. As with all our episodes, we are reaching for the outer edges of these concepts, so some might find our treatment of religion offensive. King’s corner is not featured this week, but we have a special call-in [...]
Upward Spiral #4 – The Sound of My Voice, Cults and Corruption
In our fourth episode we discuss the film The Sound of My Voice, and the issues therein, including cults, the nature of history and rationality. With your usual co-hosts Ken Vallario and Eric Duffy, expect wild tangents, but there will be no spoilers in this episode, but as always Byron King will deliver another excellent [...]
Upward Spiral #3 – Homeland and The Holy War
In our third episode we explore the oft neglected fact of the ongoing Holy War, and how our Western habit of neglecting the power of culture is an aspect of this Holy War that only becomes apparent after we’ve been engaged in it. We use the show Homeland (Season 1) as a starting point for [...]
Culture Is Your Reality.
Culture is a field of perception, a mind-state that pre-registers incoming information as belonging to conditioned categories. It is an inevitable totalitarian aspect of growing up as a social animal. It is innate to the experience of culture that many aspects of one’s own are not only imperceptible but that they are perceived by other [...]
Upward Spiral #2 – Sanity and Society
In our second episode we explore the themes Sanity and Society in response to our recent viewing of David O. Russell’s Silver Linings Playbook. Co-hosts Ken Vallario and Eric Duffy, with special guest star Byron King. Enjoy! As always, if you have any feedback we would love to hear from you.
Upward Spiral – #1 – Slavery and Freedom
In our first episode we explore the themes Slavery and Freedom in response to our recent viewing of Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained. Co-hosts Ken Vallario and Eric Duffy, with special guest star Byron King. Also featuring a surprise visit from Downward Spiral co-host Geoff Feder. Enjoy!
Confession of Gender Prejudice
Watch the video below. I believe it is one of the most important speeches of our time. I want to confess a few things, to get them off of my chest, to do what this speech inspired me to do. First, I want to confess that I came to this issue because of what the [...]
Marriage and Politics
My wife and I recently celebrated our 7 year anniversary. I am very proud of this, mostly because my wife and I worked very hard to develop what has become a strong and happy marriage. Anybody who knows us well knows two things. One, that we are both very strong-willed individuals and that we struggled [...]
Human Rights
All human beings have rights. By this I mean they have the right to act, express, struggle, resist or surrender. It is the protection of these rights that is a luxury. And such protection requires protectors, people who are capable of applying force (either physical or moral) in opposition to those who seek to exploit [...]
Political Consultation – 2012 End of the World Campaign
One of the things that will make it hard for Obama in the coming election is that some of the criticisms the Republicans are making are true…they are a ridiculous source, that promises only a further entrenchment in the very things I dislike about Obama, but that does not make it any safer to avoid [...]
A Hero Rises – Follow Up
The practice of philosophy demands we put down our thoughts, even if they are raw, in order to get beneath them to the deeper insights. It is a wasteful art, and this cannot be helped. And the reason I point this out, is to defend the reason why I would return so quickly to what [...]
It ain’t easy eating that.
It might seem absurd to respond so vociferously to such a ridiculous story as this, as the Muppets have apparently withdrawn their products from the Fast Food Chain Chick-Fil-A. However, it is exactly this kind of pseudo-story that the machine is feeding to us to keep us passionately committed to NOTHING. If any of you [...]
The Dark Knight Rises – A Critical Analysis of Context
I went to a morning show of The Dark Knight Rises last Friday because it had not been 12 hours since the massacre in Colorado, and I was afraid if I went that evening there might be copycats. Having been the victim of random and senseless acts of violence I was well aware of how [...]
Silver Lining
After hearing news reports in the background of my distracted morning driving of European countries downsizing their governments under economic pressure I realized that there is a global deconstruction of representative government. That is what is really happening. Anybody who knows anything about economics (like me) knows that there is plenty of ‘capital’ out there, [...]
Saints and Sinners
If terrorism is defined as ‘the use of fear toward political ends’ then who among us has not cast this stone. In other words, who has never made their political arguments based upon some fearful future outcome. In an age of fear, the accusation of terrorism is itself a form of the crime. My point [...]
New Tactics for OWS #2 – ONE WORLD CURRENCY
HEY OCCUPY WALL STREET! PUT OUT A CALL AROUND THE WORLD FOR A SINGLE GLOBAL CURRENCY. From the beginning of my participation with Occupy Wall Street I have advocated for an absurdist approach to demands. Why? Not because I want chaos, but because the problems we face are too large for singular or systemic legislative [...]
Eureka Moment #1 – Neurotic Blasphemy
I just realized that neuroses are a threat to the system because they protect our healthy childhood desires. They are, by definition, defense mechanisms. They are an emotional bulwark against a society that sees desire as dangerous and organizes itself toward its elimination.
Advocacy Free Philosophy
I am taking a stab at my own body of thought. And it might be a mistake…a part of my philosophical system that does not hold up…but nonetheless, here it goes. When I am tackling the mystery with one of my fellow philosophers, when we are discussing the radical changes in our political/social/existential environ, whenever [...]
Full Retard
The following clip is interesting for a lot of reasons, besides the absolute hilarity…but that’s my point, much of the hilarity arises from the collision of subtexts at such a high rate that it is impossible to keep a hold of just what taboos are being broken, and hence it becomes transcendental comedy. The actors [...]
Rap News has gone transcendent
The latest episode of rap news is so wonderful. It’s deep reading of our present crises and integration with historical cycles is beautiful and inspiring…these are some of the true cultural gems of our time…thank you Rap News…
