Journal of Cogency:
for the philosophical study of power
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Protest and the Construction of Power
The surest sign that a protest is effective is if the military opens fire on it. I want to explain why this is. Of course, I’m considering both “protest” and “effective” in a narrow sense here but I think the general point is understandable on its face: as a challenge to the government, a protest’s…
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Thoughts on the Critique of the Gotha Programme
I wanted to talk about the Critique of the Gotha Programme because I feel it has relevance to our current situation where the left is in the political wilderness. The Gotha Programme’s aims, in the eyes of Marx, were to sand down the edges of the socialist movement such that it would not seem so…
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What Is Religion
In this bias I am going to lay out my general approach to religion and parareligion (or “secular religion”), mostly as a base to build off of in future articles. I want to establish a general framework that can be used to analyze religions and similar philosophical structures in a comparative way. I’ve always been…
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Group Discussion: Critique of the Gotha Programme
On Saturday, August 31st, at 8 PM ET, I’m going to host a discussion about Karl Marx’s Critique of the Gotha Programme in relation to the current moment in American politics. At the time of the critique’s writing in 1875, the German socialists were very far from power and were just about to form an…
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The Romans Had Religion
This will be another hypothesis blog. I’ve done a few of them already, but basically, I’m going to lay out some ideas that I want to follow up on later, especially through research. For this subject I’ve already been pointed to a book that should be really useful — Belief and Cult by Jacob L.…
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Whipping Ourselves and Weeping
This broad tendency among the Western left, from the end of the French Revolution to the present day, is fueled by an impulse towards self-flagellation. The question then is: why does the left feel the need to lash itself in penance? This is not a thorough study but I have been thinking about this for…
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What Is Capitalism?
What is the point of all this? The point is to be able to come to some sort of understanding of what capitalism means so we can understand the political implications and effects it has. We tend to be presented with capitalism as only partly political because it is so strongly associated with money. Because…
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What Happens When a Country Defaults?
If a ruler wants to get something done, they need to give orders. Personally, there are four types of orders: suggestions, directions, requests, and purchases. On a society-wide mechanistic level, these become two types: decrees (orders without the expectation of repayment, which includes suggestions and directions) and requisitions (orders with the expectation of repayment, which…
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What Is Divine Kingship?
It’s obvious that this includes two historical concepts — the divine right of kings in Europe and the mandate of heaven in China (and nearby regions) — but what else does it include and what does it not include? I live in the United States of America, a country whose population is officially about 70%…
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Technology of Authority
This is the theory of a theory, a pre-theory. Capitalism is not simply an economic system or mode of production, it is a method of establishing domination: a technology of authority. It is the more or less direct successor of divine kingship. When the European revolutions of the 19th century had destroyed divine kingship, at…
Which side are you on?
Ten thousand years or more in jet black meditation. Now I stand here, hands are sore, but that’s my motivation.
— High on Fire, “10,000 Years”