Category: Not the Monthly Post

The Fall and Rise of Peak Oil

John Michael Greer279 Comments

It’s now been close to fifteen years since the Peak Oil movement collapsed and lost whatever temporary grip it had on public awareness. We could doubtless have an interesting conversation along the lines of “did it fall or was it pushed,” and there may be a point to that conversation a little further down the…

Parsifal: The Solution Assessed

John Michael Greer226 Comments

As we saw two weeks ago, Richard Wagner’s last opera Parsifal makes use of most of the same symbols as The Ring of the Nibelung, and thus provides a mordant commentary to the theme of that vast and sprawling work. The magic treasure, the magic spear, the antagonist who wins power by a terrible renunciation…

Intermezzo: The Ring and the Grail 2

John Michael Greer170 Comments

The Holy Grail! Most people think they know a certain amount about it, even if their only exposure to the legends of the Grail come from watching Monty Python and the Holy Grail and some forgettable film or other starring Harrison Ford. You can check this by asking a dozen of your friends to tell…

The Nibelung’s Ring: The Twilight of the Gods 2

John Michael Greer152 Comments

Siegfried’s betrayal of his ideals and his love for Brunnhilde, the central theme of our discussion three weeks ago, is also the hinge upon which the entire story of The Ring turns toward its end. Our blond and brawny hero was doomed the moment he took the Ring from Fafner’s hoard, Alberich’s curse guarantees that,…

The Nibelung’s Ring: Siegfried 2

John Michael Greer252 Comments

As we saw two weeks ago, the action of The Nibelung’s Ring is rising toward crisis in this third opera of the cycle. Siegfried, the child born of the incestuous relationship between Wotan’s human children Siegmund and Sieglinde, has grown to young manhood in the deep forest under the dubious care of Mime the Nibelung.…

The Nibelung’s Ring: The Valkyrie 2

John Michael Greer186 Comments

Let’s take a moment to review our story so far.  In mythic terms, it’s a straightforward fairy tale: the gold from the bottom of the Rhine, stolen by the dwarf Alberich and turned into a magic ring, was then stolen from him in turn by the god Wotan, who then had to hand it over…

The Nibelung’s Ring: The Valkyrie 1

John Michael Greer181 Comments

Yes, I know we had a presidential election here in the US yesterday. The remarkable thing about it, after a campaign season so packed with improbabilities and absurdities, is that it was a normal election, with no more than the usual amount of vote fraud and a winner declared by sunrise. While everyone recovers from…

The Nibelung’s Ring: The Rhinegold I

John Michael Greer266 Comments

In this and the posts to come I’m going to be presenting a social, political, and economic interpretation of what’s going on in the operas composing Richard Wagner’s opera cycle The Nibelung’s Ring. Now of course the usual reaction to such interpretations is to back away from the crazy person as quickly as possible, and…

The Nibelung’s Ring: The Early Philosophy

John Michael Greer255 Comments

One of the constant themes of middle class thought in modern times is the insistence that it’s possible to have one’s cake and eat it too. It’s for this reason that middle class activists demand world peace while also demanding lifestyles that can only be maintained at the cost of constant war, and middle class…

The Nibelung’s Ring: The Rediscovery

John Michael Greer218 Comments

At the conclusion of the last thrilling episode of our exploration of Richard Wagner’s opera cycle The Nibelung’s Ring, we watched bards and minstrels across the European world from Iceland to Austria keeping themselves fed and their patrons entertained by retelling traditional stories about the magic hoard of gold that Siegfried won by slaying the…