The Denial File
What We Can't Think About—and Why
Occupying Room 231
Bill Bornschein | November 4, 2011
The recent Occupy Wall Street movement has afforded a new way of getting Becker’s ideas to a broader audience. My regular classroom is room 231, …
Imperfect Sympathies
Bruce Floyd | November 1, 2011
Late yesterday afternoon I pulled from the shelves my copy of Charles Lamb’s Essays of Elia, leafed through it, and settled upon the essay “Imperfect …
Tea Party Thinking (Part 2)
Daniel Liechty | October 28, 2011
note: this contribution is continued from the previous one – it will make most sense if you read the previous one first. Thanks! Normal Dan …
The Psychic Bartender – Trick or Treat
Kirby Farrell | October 24, 2011
Here it is, Halloween, the holiday whooping up the joys of the harvest and playing at fears of the dark winter ahead. The ancient Celts …
Tea Party Thinking (Part 1)
Daniel Liechty | October 19, 2011
Many people are quite confused about the thought processes of our fellow citizens of the Tea Party. They seem to support very contradictory ideas and …
Robinson Jeffers
Bruce Floyd | October 14, 2011
Robinson Jeffers, the great poet of the California coast, says that poetry should address only the eternal things: “poetry’s function is the passionate presentment of …
Bad Moon Risin’
Bill Bornschein | October 11, 2011
This post begins with a sense of melancholy born of a reluctant realization that both Ernest Becker and Richard Heineberg are correct in their respective …
Silenced voices, ever louder symbols: Troy Davis and Mark MacPhail
Henry Richards | October 4, 2011
By the time I turned my attention to Troy Davis, he was already wrapped in symbols. The symbols I saw were channeled through my usual …
The Psychic Bartender: Killing till We Get It Right
Kirby Farrell | September 30, 2011
The media’s 9/11 memorial drill was almost as painful as the original attack on the World Trade Center. Like Big Brother’s loudspeakers, the TV in …
Making Faces at Death
Alex Murawski | September 27, 2011
I’ve always been drawn to ‘the human’ in people. When I was at primary school I remember looking at one of the so-called ‘tough kids’ …
Ipso Facto Inefficiency?
Daniel Liechty | September 13, 2011
In my last blog, I wrote about how confounded I am by the current antigovernment sentiment we are hearing everywhere. Moved to action, I did …
The Emotions of a Meadow Mouse
Bruce Floyd | September 9, 2011
Last night, because of no other reason than it was within reach and because it had been awhile since I looked through it, I picked …
The Current Antigovernment Sentiment
Daniel Liechty | September 7, 2011
I work hard to genuinely understand the views of those with whom I disagree. For me, it is not only a point of honor, an …
The Psychic Bartender-Fangs a Lot
Kirby Farrell | September 1, 2011
Lively summer outside the bar, no? In Norway a deadeye nobody competes for notoriety with rampage killers around the world by blowing up government buildings …
A Reading for the Fall Program
Bill Bornschein | August 30, 2011
As many of you know, the EBF Fall Program will have an environmental focus. With this blog I’d like to suggest a reading that would …
Don’t Pick the Buds
Bruce Floyd | August 23, 2011
The below poem, “The Picture of Little T. C. in a Prospect of Flowers” by Andrew Marvell is a pure Beckerian poem, by which I …
Full Faith and Credit…Congress and Wall Street
Henry Richards | August 18, 2011
I too was confused, until I realized that the model for understanding the whole thing was sitting in the trunk of my car. I have …
The Good Place of Religion
Daniel Liechty | August 15, 2011
Sunday afternoon, while driving through west Bloomington (what we might call “the poor side of town”) I saw a sign that said “Free Sale.” Intrigued, …
The Dark Knight Needs Paris
Bill Bornschein | August 11, 2011
The trailer for the latest Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises, begins with the following intonation: “If you make yourself more than just a man, …
The Psychic Bartender: Pole Dancing
Kirby Farrell | August 10, 2011
No, no: not a guy from Warsaw doing the boogaloo. Racier than that. Guy saunters into the bar wearing a striped tie with a gold …