From Catastrophic Messianism to Comic Fatalism: A Reply to my Critics

Issue 1
September 25, 2020
By Frank Ruda Issue 1 September 24, 2020 Download PDF This bad system has now issued in such a pompous display of power and such a terrible tyranny that […] the knowledge […] of liberty […] has utterly perished…. — M. Luther[1] I am worst at what I do best. — Nirvana, “Smells like Teen...

From Catastrophic Messianism to Comic Fatalism – Part VI

Issue 1
September 25, 2020
By Frank Ruda Issue 1 September 24, 2020 Download PDF Intro Part I Part II Part III Part IV Part V Part VI Part VI. Ending the Long March: On Aaron Schuster’s “I’m a Fatalist, But not by Choice” To end this long march through the wonderful counter-provocations against Abolishing Freedom, I will now finally...

From Catastrophic Messianism to Comic Fatalism – Part V

Issue 1
September 25, 2020
By Frank Ruda Issue 1 September 24, 2020 Download PDF Intro Part I Part II Part III Part IV Part V Part VI Part V. Excrementalism? From Hobbes to Maradona: On Andrew Pendakis’ “Dialectics of Determinism” This is the point where I’d like to turn to the reply of Andrew Pendakis, who painted a charming...

From Catastrophic Messianism to Comic Fatalism – Part IV

Issue 1
September 25, 2020
By Frank Ruda Issue 1 September 24, 2020 Download PDF Intro Part I Part II Part III Part IV Part V Part VI Part IV. Fatalism and the Anthropocene: On Mark Pingree’s “Geohistorical Materialism” Against this background, Mark Pingree presents me, for several reasons, with a greater challenge. This is not because he criticizes my...

From Catastrophic Messianism to Comic Fatalism – Part III

Issue 1
September 25, 2020
By Frank Ruda Issue 1 September 24, 2020 Download PDF Intro Part I Part II Part III Part IV Part V Part VI Part III. The Significance of the Grotesque: On Andrew Cutrofello’s “But Wait—It Gets Worse” Andrew Cutrofello’s reply is so pointed that I will ruin its beauty by even commenting on it. So,...

From Catastrophic Messianism to Comic Fatalism – Part II

Issue 1
September 25, 2020
By Frank Ruda Issue 1 September 24, 2020 Download PDF Intro Part I Part II Part III Part IV Part V Part VI Part II. Kantian Problems? On Alenka Zupančič’s “The End” Against this background, let me finally turn to my inquisitors. I will pass through the individual counter-provocations and address some of the points...

From Catastrophic Messianism to Comic Fatalism – Part I

Issue 1
September 25, 2020
By Frank Ruda Issue 1 September 24, 2020 Download PDF Intro Part I Part II Part III Part IV Part V Part VI Part I. Introduction: Catastrophic Messianism and Beyond 1. Mythical Catastrophism It is well-known that Walter Benjamin in one of his most famous texts, the Critique of Violence,[1] draws on one of the...

I’m a Fatalist, But Not By Choice

Issue 1
September 11, 2017
By Aaron Schuster   Issue 1     September 11, 2017     Download PDF   Against Free Choice It is almost impossible today not to be a consumer of the apocalypse, whether in films, novels, magazines, or TV series, or simply on the daily news. Against the multiple visions of the end on offer, one...

Dialectics of Determinism

Issue 1
July 11, 2017
By Andrew Pendakis Issue 1 July 11, 2017 Download PDF      We Are All Compatibilists Now The metaphysics of the shopper owes a secret debt to Hobbes. Like Kant, Hobbes espoused a metaphysics of freedom that was compatibilist. Unlike Kant, he was able to balance consistent scientific materialism with the requirements of freedom, not by...

Geohistorical Materialism

Issue 1
February 20, 2017
By Mark Pingree Issue 1 February 21, 2016 Download PDF “But, in the end, it is the threat of universal extinction hanging over all the world today that changes, totally and forever, the nature of reality and brings into devastating question the true meaning of man’s history.” —James Baldwin[1]   “What if the always already might explode?...