Solarpunk Mythos

A container event is a party engineered to make the hosts appear high status and at the center of the attention of many women. While the purpose is obviously to facilitate sex, the result is a violent conflation of power, attention, and attraction. In the end, they constitute the sexist use of women as the means to the end of sexual conquest, violating even the most basic understanding of Kantian...

In this essay, I discuss Nussbaum's work on the power dynamics that allow abusers to harass women in professional settings, sometimes for years. In solarpunk societies, we must be aware of how power dynamics blind us so that we can keep our eyes open. This requires us to actually care about the agency and goals of the other rather than only our own agency and goals. If you like this episode, pleas...

In this essay, I discuss the necessity of a caring society in the development of people capable of autonomous rationality and of pursuing justice. We take these capabilities for granted and then wonder why we're surrounded by people wholly incapable of what seems to us to be basic decency. What if we actually have to be educated to be able to be more ethical? If you like this episode, please be su...

In this essay, I discuss the Greek form of love known as "xenia", or the love of foreigners and guests. The more diverse a population becomes, the greater the demands for xenia in order to have enough coherence despite that plurality. With the internet, we have even greater blending of people that crosses the boundaries of any nation or culture, but also even less in-person contact with the people...

In this essay, I discuss Peter Sloterdijk's philosophical work, "Bubbles". A bubble is the relational space that includes two people. In the past, people have created bubbles that were rich with meaning, but such bubbles have become nihilistic spaces under capitalism. How might we re-enchant our bubbles and reinspire post-capitalist meaning? If you like this episode, please be sure to 5 star the p...

In this essay, I discuss how creepy men are often simply low status in an unjust hierarchy. Importantly then, high status men can often be far more deserving of the label "creepy", yet their unethical behaviour is ignored by people who crave their social status. When low status men are attractive, they become vehicles for the perpetuation of the unjust hierarchy that sets the terms of what's socia...

In this essay I discuss Laura Bates book "Men Who Hate Women" and discuss the problem of speaking up, whether that means against or for a certain group or individual. When we fail to speak, we are held accountable when we live in the world our inaction allowed. Yet, speaking must be both against something and FOR something. If you like this episode, please be sure to 5 star the podcast and follow...

In this essay, I discuss how environments can force us to develop certain capabilities in order to survive. Once combined, these capabilities offer us access to new worlds, but also limit us to those worlds. How can we create a better society when our current society limits what we're capable of in order to survive? If you like this episode, please be sure to 5 star the podcast and follow for more...

To help frame this essay, my focus in my writing is on the psychology necessary to make solarpunk a reality. To create such a psychology we need to have an understanding of both the theory and practice behind it. Many people are engaged in political action or developmental practices like therapy, circling, dance, and other somatic/therapeutic practices that are incredibly powerful. Yet, what they...

In this essay, I discuss how our culture of narcissism has reduced friendships to selfish transactions. I then discuss "circling" as a practice for developing the deep mutuality that can facilitate healthy friendship and culture. Circling is an interpersonal practice meant to cultivate emotional awareness, interpersonal care, and healthy boundaries. If you like this episode, please be sure to 5 st...

In this essay, I question the use of the term "masculinist" to denote subjectivities that privilege the masculine above the feminine. I first steelman the term by deconstructing Red Pill via the Kantian Society of Mind. I then titanium-man "masculinist" as "patriarchal", though with a sensitivity to context. If you like this episode, please be sure to 5 star the podcast and follow for more! If you...

In this essay, I discuss the developmental process for how a misogynistic man who cannot be friends with women can become a man capable of being friends. While the thought may seem so grotesque, the fact is that there are men like this and far, far worse. The people who most need to change must not have the tools of change taken from them. If you like this episode, please be sure to 5 star the pod...

In this essay, I question whether men and women can ever truly be "just" friends. Research seems to suggest that women can, but men can't. How can friendship work when so many men would fuck all their friends? Think about what this says about the limits to egalitarianism in a solarpunk culture. If you like this episode, please be sure to 5 star the podcast and follow for more! If you think this me...

In this essay, I deconstruct Halloween as an example of a mythos. A mythos includes a narrative with practices, rituals, and festivals that orient people within that narrative. Think about the story you tell yourself about what it means to be a citizen of your nation, and how national anthems, national holidays, and art inspire you to be proud of that national identity. Halloween is a very specifi...

In this essay, I use platonic friendships as an example for how the self is created out of its relations with others. This may seem odd since I've been using romantic relations as a case study for the definition of a solarpunk self. Why are platonic friendships necessary for romance that can create us as ethical people? If you like this episode, please be sure to 5 star the podcast and follow for...

In this essay I connect the dots I've been laying down over the last 13 essays. If the self is relational, created out of its relations with others and the world, then we have to reckon with the meta-contextuality of the self. We are created out of contexts that we create through the person we become across all contexts. There is ethical weight to that insight. If you like this episode, please be...

In this essay, I outline the movement from Expert to Achiever, and beyond. To grow out of conformity we must conform to Experts who represent our emerging ideal. That means that our ideal is intimately bound up with what our culture takes to be "expertise". If you like this episode, please be sure to 5 star the podcast and follow for more! If you think this message is important, please share with...

In this essay, I discuss the psychological development that occurs from Conformist to Individualist/Pluralist. I first outline what it means to be Conformist, how we become defined by a social identity. I then outline the movement away from conformity through experts that represent an emerging personal ideal. If you like this episode, please be sure to 5 star the podcast and follow for more! If yo...

In this essay, I discuss the twisted forms of love, phobos and thanatos. Phobos is the love of unhealthy aspiration that drives us to hate the "lower" parts of ourselves. Thanatos is the love of our current world's desires to the exclusion of any aspirational self. I then explore the sexual-romantic worlds opened up by these different forms of love in feminist and manosphere men. If you like this...

In this essay, I united the loves of eros and agape into the stance of erotic agape and the self as a student/teacher. As we interact, we are each of us students and teachers of each other. I then apply this to the problem of consent. If you like this episode, please be sure to 5 star the podcast and follow for more! If you think this message is important, please share with your friends. You can a...

In this essay, I introduce eros as the creative love of self-transcending agency. In our development as human beings we must be called to learn and to grow, which requires the willingness to transcend who we currently are. This is not the love of consumption, but of aspiration. If you like this episode, please be sure to 5 star the podcast and follow for more! If you think this message is importan...

In this essay I introduce agape as the love of compassionate, educative hospitality for the student's flaws, faults, and mistakes. In producing solarpunk selves we need to be willing to make room for the imperfections of those we seek to change. Transformation is hard enough without punishing people for not already being where we demand they be. If you like this episode, please be sure to 5 star t...

In this essay, I discuss how self-development requires an ecology of practices that focus on multiple forms of development. I then talk about the philosophy of aspiration and define what an increase in complexity means. If you like this episode, please be sure to 5 star the podcast and follow for more! If you think this message is important, please share with your friends. You can also find writte...

In this essay I go deeper into the notion that we are composed of parts. In understanding the solarpunk self we need to take these parts into consideration because they can be at different stages of development. If we, despite our usual behaviour, frequently do things that defy our best intentions, then we need to understand why these parts of us do what they do. This was inspired by Internal Fami...

In this essay, I discuss the philosophy of Martin Buber, Emmanuel Levinas, and Byung-Chul Han, and how they can help us understand how the solarpunk self emerges. What does it mean to relate to the other as Alter, and why does this actually matter? If you like this episode, please be sure to 5 star the podcast and follow for more! If you think this message is important, please share with your frie...