The Emptiness of Emptiness: Nagarjuna, Lindie Botes, etc.

Veganism as a Civilizing Mission: a new moral definition for an ancient, aging movement.

The end of the era of utilitarianism and its implications.

LINK: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6m4WYF5znyULE4HwrMqcVo?si=0XtLriqFR5u9VYXKXuP-KA

On the Idiocy of Extinction Rebellion ~or~ Roger Hallam is in Jail for a Reason.

I'm amazed that this is less than one hour long. Action packed.

LINK: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6mQlnozY8EwhysGjXBnGQs?si=baf66a1fd8ff4382

• This is Terrorism: the Nonviolence of Extinction Rebellion. 28 October 2021

• The Vegan Antichrist: Questioning Extinction Rebellion. 18 January 2022

• Peaceful Protest Doesn't Work. #NotSatire 19 November 2021

• Climate change: the vegan perspective is the only perspective. 24 January 2022

Elagabalus and the Religion of Rome: Emperor, Empress, Priest and Priestess.

Episode 02 of Doomed Republic: a podcast about ancient ideals, modern utopias, dystopias and attempts at democracy, including Greece, Rome China, India, Europe and America. (AR+IO-005)

LINK: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1C5ZwBqaTEd150XGBefnPs?si=YmYb9Cj-T0KOeqbuRWEmkQ

Elagabalus is now celebrated as "the first transgender emperor of Rome", raising questions of the limits of tolerance in the Ancient Greco-Roman world: did he cross some line that Nero never crossed? And was that line sexual, religious or political? Why is it that Elagabalus would be remembered as the lowest of the low by Roman historians who had already narrated the excesses (gay, straight and bisexual) of Nero and so many others? Why would Elagabalus have his name scraped off of monuments at the command of the senate after his death, while others who'd committed worse offenses would undergo apotheosis, and instead be referred to as gods?

Anyone who says "Only God can judge me" hasn't had their biography written by artificial intelligence. Yet.

If there's any truth to the old phrase, "history will be written by the victors", we should consider the extent to which machine intelligence is winning.  ;-)

The Critique of DXE: a Decade of Vegan Opposition to "Direct Action Everywhere."

LINK: https://creators.spotify.com/pod/show/a-bas-le-ciel/episodes/The-Critique-of-DXE-a-Decade-of-Vegan-Opposition-to-Direct-Action-Everywhere-e2rgv6f

One of the most despised (but most influential) movements in veganism's 21st century, DXE was known for public protest "stunts" that earned them momentary notice in newspapers but permanently discredited the movement as a whole. Initially claiming to be "fully horizontal" and "leaderless", the organization later revealed just how narrowly hierarchical it was as the donations poured in, eventually surpassing a budget of one million dollars per year, and sex scandals (amidst rumors of cult-like conditions at their live-in compound) were responded to with bureaucratic red tape. DXE was founded by Wayne Hsiung, with significant leadership roles played by his sister and two of his ex-girlfriends (Priya Sawhney and Cassie King) who continued to control the money after Wayne resigned, ran for mayor, and dealt with the details of world's most boring (and insincerely exaggerated) sex scandal. More than any other organization, DxE has associated vegans with screaming and weeping at random customers on the floor of fast food restaurants, and getting yourself banned from the local grocery store, with their dubious methodology of "disruption" justified by even more dubious "social science research". Despite big budgets, celebrity endorsements, and court cases with (brief) prison sentences keeping their name in the news, the organization has slid into obscurity in recent years —but the damage done to veganism as a movement (and to the lives of hundreds of individual vegans who were foolish enough to join their "network") still endures.

The Art of Being a Student: A Definition.

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right, but I can almost guarantee that you won't like or respect whoever is running or teaching the program

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I remember a French film, fiction, not documentary, in which the protagonist was a prostitute...

and she said that the art of the thing was FINDING something attractive about the men you slept with.

There'd be something you could admire about each one, no matter how ugly, but you had to find it.

Likewise, I can say, the art of being a student is FINDING something to respect about your professors.

No matter how ignorant, no matter how evil, no matter how stupid.

They have something they can teach you (perhaps just about the nature of ignorance, evil and stupidity) if only you can "find" it.

Is this the end of à-bas-le-ciel?

Or is it merely the end of my working relationship with YouTube?

Dénouement.

Department of Minor Ironies.