"Shame," wrote psychologist Silvan Tomkins, "strikes deepest into the heart of man... it is felt as a sickness of the soul which leaves man naked, defeated, alienated, and lacking in dignity."  Shame is the great barrier that keeps people from acting as individuals and from expanding beyond a minimum-energy state. The expectation of shame is paralyzing to the vast majority of humans at some points of their life, and to some more frequently than others. Many people have spent their lives...

The idea that running away is a virtue bothers a lot of people, but when you that find the greatest men and women of history have done precisely this, it’s time to re-evaluate, no matter how it makes you feel. Compliance is how we shrivel and ultimately die to ourselves. Acting on your own decisions – with all the risk that implies – is the path of life and liberation.

Due to the number of questions I've received about Jesus, I thought it was fitting to produce a podcast on these subjects. People addressing this material, from whatever angle, tend to have fiercely held opinions and to cherry pick facts to support their opinion. I won't do that, and I think that opens a fascinating subject to us.

Serfdom was... and is... a state of mind far more than an economic or social position.  The Serfdom State of Mind focuses on the desire for safety and security... of remaining clear of blame... to the detriment of self-reliance and living as a free and independent moral agent. Everyone enjoys safety, of course, but to place placidity above life itself is a grave error, and lies at the root of serfdom.  

Lèse-Majesté, an offense against the dignity of a ruler, is a little used but very important concept. And it is the central crime that cannot be tolerated by the ruler. Lèse-Majesté stands against the concept of free speech, of course, but when push comes to shove, necessities stand above the law, and lèse-Majesté is a necessity to rulers. As we examine in this podcast, lèse-Majesté is crucial for the  legitimacy of the ruler (without legitimacy the whole structure of rulership would fail),...

Here is something that was thrown in my face at a relatively early age, as I began to think seriously and independently: So, the world is wrong and you’re right!? But as it happened, I was more or less right. And very definitely the world was wrong. The hierarchies of the world are trying to freeze everything and everyone in place. That means they will always be wrong. Even when they say the right things – like “murder is bad” – they’ll always be doing it for twisted reasons, with twisting...

The second and final Farber essay, composed while both character and author were involved in dangerous cypherpunk projects, some twenty years ago. 

This podcast (published originally in an appendix to A Lodging of Wayfaring Men) was composed twenty years ago, while working in a difficult and even dangerous cypherpunk project. It expresses the things that were on our minds as we stepped away from the status quo and dared to build afresh outside of it. 

"Men," wrote Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., "are idolaters, and want something to look at and kiss and hug, or throw themselves down before; they always did, they always will; and if you don't make it of wood, you must make it of words." Idolatry is a frame of mind. We’ve all experienced it, though we haven’t been clear on what it was. But once you do recognize it, you’ll be at least half immunized against it, and probably for life.  

It is up to us to improve the world. If obediently waiting for someone or something else could work, the dominating structures of the world would have improved long, long ago. But they haven't, leaving the job to us.  To do this, however, we must first change the way we look at ourselves and experience ourselves.