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Public Citizen

Larry Barnett: The Doom Scenario

“We’re doomed,” said my therapist. It was a notable moment that has stayed with me over all these years. He was a Jungian – not a school of psychotherapy known for being pessimistic – and he made this announcement while we were discussing humanity. I’ve... Continue

Larry Barnett: You May Call It Heaven

We imagine ourselves as having had a beginning, although at precisely what point in time it happened is uncertain, and that like taxes our end will come. We think of most things this way because that’s the way they appear and it’s what we’re taught.... Continue

Larry Barnett: The Universe Abides

No matter how much order nor how many distinctions we make about the universe, in essence, it’s just a soup of subatomic waves and particles. Whether this represents some sort of primordial order or billions of years of entropy and chaos, is incidental. As human... Continue

Larry Barnett: Our American Crisis

There is a point of view that argues America’s crisis is inevitable, that authoritarian barbarity is baked into our system and it’s what we have regularly and violently inflicted upon targeted domestic and international populations. It’s not an easy argument to refute. Our brutal exercise... Continue

Larry Barnett: Old Love

We only have one word for love, yet love is vastly more than one feeling or experience, so we modify it to better express its nuances. Thus it is we say, “first love” and “young love” when we speak about love in adolescence, implying its... Continue

Larry Barnett: Lost in Imaginary Space

The story of America we were told in school painted a pretty picture. Unfortunately, it was not truthful, as current events make abundantly clear. There were always contradictions within the story of America: Equality under the law accompanied by its opposite; the message of welcome... Continue

Larry Barnett: The Loom of Spacetime

There’s a reason that weaving was among humankind’s first technologies. Spacetime is constantly weaving The Eternal Now, the only time there really is. The fabric of events we tie together into a coherent narrative are the yarns we spin, and like the Ancient Greek mythology... Continue

Larry Barnett: Haben Zu Gut Geschlafen?

When I was a child, my father, a Brooklyn boy with absolutely no mastery of German, would nonetheless say this to me in the morning, i.e.: “Did you have a good sleep?” “Ya, gut!” I would dutifully answer, and we would laugh. Many people have... Continue

Larry Barnett: Mercy, Mercy, Mercy

There’s no shortage of anger in the world. People go out of their way to punish or harm others with their words and opinions. Social media has become a hotbed of cruelty, falsehood and accusation, and people are numbed by an endless stream of insults... Continue

Larry Barnett: Home Alone

Common wisdom is that women live longer than men, but at a recent holiday party, I found myself in the company of two other widowers. Like most men, we conversed stoically about the loss of our wives in straightforward fashion; there were no tears shed... Continue