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Welcoming Cities: Sites of Resistance & Reflection

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President Trump recently tweeted a rather odd threat to Democrats. He tweeted, “Democrats must change the Immigration Laws FAST. If not, Sanctuary Cities must immediately ACT to take care of the Illegal Immigrants – and this includes Gang Members, Drug Dealers, Human Traffickers, and Criminals of all shapes, sizes and kinds. CHANGE THE LAWS NOW!” Of course, this was followed by a dozen more, barely legible tweets. Ignoring for a second the threat to release “gang members, drug dealers, and human traffickers” onto American streets for the express purpose of causing violence as a lesson, or the xenophobic inflation of undocumented and asylum seeking migrants with dangerous criminals, it was one of those rare times Trump suggested doing something his enemies actually want him to do. (see more)

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Last Minute Responses on Peter Kobak

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At the tail end of the 2019 local elections for At-Large Peoria City Council seats, a mailer promising to expose the “liberals” running in the race was received by the general public. It was sent by Spotlight on Progressive PAC (whoever that actually is hiding behind dark money clothes). (view more)

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The Inadequacies of Growth

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If you attend one of the many Candidate forums for Peoria’s At-Large City Council seats, you’ll likely hear the dull piano that accompanies John “Growth™” Kelly as he prattles on about the wonders of tax abatement and deregulation. “GROWTH!” he says: so much he must own the trademark for the concept. A perennial candidate, the retired, libertarian septuagenarian made his career as a financial planner for investment bank Morgan Stanley. From the tall towers of the banking world–far removed from the masses–Mr. Kelly has foreseen the true path to growth and prosperity; and, he’s convinced Peoria, IL is blind to these wisdoms and desperately needs him to lead the sightless masses to the promised land. (view more)

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Reflections on Dwight: The Logic of the Savior

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On March 11, the Board of Trustees for the Village of Dwight voted 5-2 in favor of the construction of a privately-run, for-profit immigrant prison operated by Immigration Centers of America (ICA). While over 90 percent of those who spoke at the village meeting opposed the prison, two Dwight residents spoke in supported of the prison. A key reason for them was the idea Dwight may be able to help these poor immigrants by providing better living conditions than the conditions provided at other facilities.

The utilitarian logic that “we can make the oppression benevolent” is not new and has a rather insidious history. (view more)

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On Heidegger’s Aletheiology: A Response to Tugendhat

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Heidegger’s theory of truth is one of the most complex in his philosophy, yet it is also one of the most important. Only recently has his understanding of truth been illustrated in greater detail through the publications of his numerous lecture courses. Heidegger states that the primordial origins of truth are to be found not in the correspondence of subject and object, but in the concept of uncovering, in the sense of the Greek word aletheia. Heidegger contends that the truth of a being is uncovered from out of its hiddenness when it is asserted. However, because Dasein (the ontologically neutral term for a human) is finite, any entity which is uncovered will still be partially covered and remain unavailable to Dasein… (view more)

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Nietzsche and The Problem of Knowledge

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Of all the clever “knowing” beasts which have existed on the planet Earth, one stands out above the rest, not for his “knowing”, but for his “unknowing”. Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche stood tall among great thinkers. It was Nietzsche who saw the dam of knowledge becoming too full and released the floodgates, creating room for life, not knowledge, to be filled in humanity. Nietzsche shows how humanity has lost its natural inclinations by following Socratic dialectic and believing in the mystery of the thing in-itself. It is the belief that humanity’s knowledge is absolute and eternal which Nietzsche attempts to discard. Nietzsche’s thought is a recoiling away from the thing in-itself of “meta”-physics, back to the immediate of appearance and impulses. Nietzsche is not concerned with the timeless concept of Being… (view more)

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Overcoming Nihilism

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This essay will show that Nietzsche overcomes nihilism with the “Philosopher of the Future.” It will explain nihilism from Christianity through modernity by critiquing them. It will explain the concept of pity and the consequences of the Death of God. The essay will then explore Nietzsche’s solution to humanity’s nihilism in the idea of the “Philosopher of the Future.” The “Philosopher of the Future” is the most radical thinker… (view more)

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