Articles – Page 3 – Gus diZerega

Two Sexes, Many Genders and the Perils of Thinking in Dichotomies

Posted on January 30, 2019April 13, 2019 by Gus

The NeoPagan community has been divided over issues of gender and sexuality, particularly the appropriate relations between natal and trans-women. While this controversy deals with important issues, its vehemence is due to mistaken ways of thinking about it, ways rooted in … Read more

Why arguments against abortion fail

Posted on May 7, 2018March 17, 2022 by Gus

I am struck with how the debate over whether or not abortion is morally acceptable has become a battle of slogans rather than of reason. I think the major culprits are on the so-called ‘pro life’ side, but at this … Read more

“Connecting the Dots: Hayek, Darwin, and Ecology” COSMOS + TAXIS, vol 5 | issue 3 + 4 2018

Posted on April 1, 2018August 11, 2020 by Gus

Social institutions viewed from a Hayekian perspective closely match evolutionary and ecological perspectives in biology. All rely on the same systemic relationships of variation, selection, and inheritance. What Hayek called spontaneous orders are variations of a larger range of related … Read more

Transforming the Cultural Appropriation Debate: Pagan and magickal insights.

Posted on September 2, 2017April 28, 2023 by Gus

The common academic issue of whether or not one engages in ‘cultural appropriation’ has divided the Pagan community. I have been very explicit in my dislike of the idea, but in working out just why I dislike the concept I … Read more

Thoughts on shooting Congressmen and the dissolution of America

Posted on June 14, 2017June 23, 2017 by Gus

The attempted murder of several Congressmen and shooting of one marks another step in the progressive dissolution of the U.S. occurring before our eyes. That the shooter could have been either from the right or the left indicates how close … Read more

Why would Russia want Trump to win? And why would Trump go long with it?

Posted on November 2, 2016January 8, 2017 by Gus

In an inexplicably naïve article Brendan Gauthier at Salon argued that Russia was the only country that seemed to want Donald Trump to be president. But rather than asking why this is so, or wondering what Russia might reasonably do … Read more

Circles and Lines in “The Wolf at Twilight”

Posted on September 29, 2016June 23, 2017 by Gus

I was started along this line of thought while reading Kent Nerburn’s powerful, moving, painful and hauntingly beautiful The Wolf at Twilight: An Indian Elder’s Journey through a Land of Ghosts and Shadows. There are many levels to this … Read more

Spontaneous Order and Liberalism’s Complex Relation to Democracy

Posted on February 8, 2016June 29, 2018 by Gus

Spontaneous orders are natural outgrowths of liberal principles and a better understanding of them sheds light on a fateful split between nineteenth-century American and European liberal traditions that remains very relevant today. This essay is my most complete discussion of … Read more

Social Justice from a Pagan Perspective

Posted on February 4, 2016February 4, 2016 by Gus

On January 23, 2016, I gave this paper as the keynote speaker at the Conference of Current Pagan Studies, in Claremont, California. It was well received and I want to make it available to anyone who is interested.

Social … Read more

What is Indigenaity in Religion?

Posted on November 19, 2015April 17, 2021 by Gus

With small changes this article appeared in The Interfaith Observer.

SourceURL:file://localhost/Users/gus/Downloads/INTERFAITH.doc

Can indigenous peoples not practice indigenous religions? What if a non-indigenous person claims to practice their religion? Can people normally not considered indigenous have an indigenous religion? Can … Read more