Essays by Larry Barnett
The death of Alexei Navalny affected me deeply. To all appearances he was an energetic man of great resilience, having recovered from poisoning and subjected to harsh incarceration. Video of him on his last day of life shows him cheerful, smiling, and engaged; what was going on inside of him I can only… Read the rest
Call it a demiurge, cosmic force, or God; for hundreds of generations humankind has believed in a prime mover of the universe, a cosmic hand upon the wheel. The alternate idea, that the universe and life began accidentally or spontaneously without the intercession of a divine or supernatural force … Read the rest
I’ve been thinking about the French Revolution, how it led to the bloody Reign of Terror that killed tens of thousands and eventually to the tyranny of Napoleon. Some view such revolutions through the lens of class struggle: the inevitable revolt of an oppressed and beleaguered underclass against … Read the rest
Mother Nature came crying to me last night.
“I’ve had it,” she said,
her tears falling loudly on the skylight,
“I’m done.”
But the creeks, dear one, had heard it all before,
And just laughed.
Life as we know it is impossible without water. Water is both a catalytic agent and a medium, forming the colloid … Read the rest