Month: January 2004

Should hermits work, or does work in the world contradict being a hermit? Self-sufficiency is still largely possible to hermits in wilderness and small towns, b...

A few years ago the notion of “jamming” culture arose, from Kalle Lasn’s book Culture Jam: How to Reverse America’s Suicidal Consumer Bi...

According to some scientists, the brain works as much in sleep as in waking, busy problem-solving and prioritizing what should go into memory. This is why the &...

Apologists for society, institutions, and the state, insist on the necessity of social and civic duty above all other virtues. Hence Cicero, the defender of Rom...

The ancient Greeks warned that we must call no one happy until they are dead. Our present good fortune may change and our disposition with it. But a more import...

Some modern moralists say that a state or government should never be labeled as “evil” because this label obliterates accountability and moral respo...

Going out late at night (for the dog), I consciously look for the moon. The full moon is hidden among dark pines; a huge silver globe is not obscure. The moon i...

The poignancy of traditional hermit writing the world over is in the hermit’s contrast of society (cities, temples, palaces) with the freedom of the deser...

Wilderness survival books usually address emergency conditions of stranded hikers, skiers, hunters or accident victims. They focus on clothing, shelter, wood, f...

In probably every culture much is made of the end of the calendar year and the beginning of a new one. But we must remember that this arbitrary assignment of da...