The Post-Partisan Emporium

  How Christianity rebooted cognitive evolution The aftermath of a collapse Peter Frost Portrait of Augustine, 6th century fresco Mean cognitive ability fell under Imperial Rome but rose again as the Empire became Christian. Cognitive ability is the capacity to process information, recognize patterns, and solve problems. It initially served to meet the challenges of hunting and gathering – a way of life that, by 30,000 years ago, spanned the full range of natural environments from the equator to the Arctic. Colder environments presented a greater number of cognitive challenges, as shown by the inverse correlation between temperature and technological complexity among present-day hunter-gatherer groups (Hoffecker, 2002, p. 10, Figure 1.5). The coldest and most challenging environments existed during the last ice age, and covered northern Eurasia until about 12,000 years ago. Food was potentially abundant but made up largely of “meat on the hoof” – large herds of wandering reindeer and o

  The Laughter of Wolves John Michael Greer As I write these words, lean gray wolves are pacing through a rain-soaked landscape in eastern Europe.  Dim rumbling sounds in the far distance, like summer thunder that’s strayed into the wrong season, don’t bother them. Nor does it trouble them that the forest around them is dotted with the decaying ruins of buildings abandoned half a century ago. Something else doesn’t disturb them, either, but we’ll get to that. Keep the wolves in mind as we proceed. Keep them in mind. It may seem like an improbable leap from wolves running through the forest to a flustered speech by one of the pampered darlings of the Western world’s corporate aristocracy, but there’s a connection. The pampered darling is Yuval Noah Harari, the chief intellectual of  the Davos set these days. I hope I won’t be accused of setting up a straw man if I mention that he’s a gay vegan atheist who practices mindfulness meditation and writes the kind of big-picture history books