Los Altos Institute Archive
By Los Altos Institute
Learn about identity politics, economics, popular culture and a host of other themes on which we teach right here.
Los Altos Institute ArchiveAug 01, 2021
How To Do Your Own Research Course
This is our four-hour course on how to do your own research. You should download our course slides and reference pages here: Slides Reference Page
Western Civilization - Episode #13: Course Conclusion
The class discusses the utility of the idea of Western Civilization.
Western Civilization - Episode #12: Ukraine, Palestine and the West
In this episode, we return to the theme of the West in war propaganda, focusing on the ideas of JRR Tolkien and Edward Gibbon in modern war propaganda.
Western Civilization - Episode #11: Post-Colonial Theory and the West
Post-colonial theory is largely a theory of and about the idea of Western Civilization. In this episode, we discuss the plurality of opinions and thinkers in this academic movement and outline some common positions.
Western Civilization - Episode #10: The Neo-Spenglerians
We discuss the influence of Oswald Spengler's Decline of the West and its influence on the political movements of his day and those of the present, and how the idea of Aryanism interacts with ideas of "the West."
Western Civilization - Episode #09: The 'White Man's Burden' and Rise of the US
In this episode we talk about how nineteenth century ideas of whiteness reshaped the idea of Western Civilization.
Western Civilization - Episode #08: The Enlightenment
The Enlightenment was a global event that had peculiar and specific effects on the West.
Western Civilization - Episode #07: The Age of Discovery and Rise of European Supremacy
We discuss the importance of Henry the Navigator and the highly contingent character of Europe's rise to global hegemony during the Age of Discovery.
Western Civilization - Episode #06: Alfred Crosby and the Crusades
We discuss the Crusades from an ecological and intellectual rather than military perspective and tease out emerging features of the West in the Middle Ages.
Western Civilization - Episode #05: The Victorines
We discuss the emergence of "Western Civilization" as a religious idea developed near Paris in the High Middle Ages.
Western Civilization - Episode #04: Feudalism and Environmental History
We discuss how feudalism arose out of reforms designed to save the Western Roman Empire from structural decline and the Darkening of the Sun.
Western Civilization - Episode #03 - Bouleteria vs. Baal
We discuss the competition between the Greeks and Phoenicians in colonizing the Mediterranean of the Axial Age.
Western Civilization - Episode #02: Homer and Herodotus
We begin with the earliest texts of the Western Canon: the Iliad, Odyssey and Histories.
Western Civilization - Episode #01: Introduction
This is the first part of our thirteen-part course on the history of the concept of Western Civilization.
Wokeness as Religion - Episode #13: Is Wokeness an American Space Religion
Mormonism, Scientology, Nation of Islam, original Sandinismo: is Wokeness part of the lineage of American Space Religion?
Wokeness as Religion - Episode #12: Canadian Wokeness, Jansenism and the Social Gospel
The particular history of Jansenist secularization in Quebec and the Social Gospel in English Canada prepared the ground for our extraordinary Wokeness.
Wokeness as Religion - Episode #11 - Canadian Wokeness, Progressivism and Social Justice
This is the first part of a two-parter about the historical and theological underpinnings of Canada's unique susceptibility to Wokeness.
Wokeness as Religion - Episode #10: Magian Dualism
Some people mistakenly call Wokeness "cultural Marxism" because it organizes the world into a binary. But that binary isn't Marxian at all. It is far more like the Kingdom of Peace/Kingdom of War Islamic idea or, closer to the mark, Manicheism's Sons of Light/Sons of Darkness.
Wokeness as Religion - Episode #09 - Enemies of Wokeness
This lecture was requested by one of the students and caused the remaining lectures to be reorganized. It is the only lecture that does not contain a religious history component. Instead, it engages with movements in the present that are oppositional to Wokeness, radical feminism, black conservative intellectuals from the Thomas Sowell tradition and, in Canada, convoyists.
Wokeness as Religion - Episode #08: The Rise and Fall of the University
Universities came into being in response to excessive orthodoxy in higher education. Could the same thing be happening again eight hundred years later?
Wokeness as Religion - Episode #07: Woke Politics of Emotion
Wokeness seeks to resolve a central paradox of Protestant Christianity: the relationship between its two most prized emotional characteristics, restraint and sensitivity.
Wokeness as Religion - Episode #06: Wokeness, Language and the Adam-God Heresy
Wokeness offers what appears to be a novel approach to language in religious tradition. But is it novel?
Wokeness as Religion - Episode #05: The Postmodern Turn
Postmodernism is often blamed for the Woke moment, and unfairly so. Nevertheless, there is a complex relationship between the French poststructuralists, Wokeness and American traditions of popular literacy.
Wokeness as Religion - Episode #04: Self-harm, Asceticism and Drag
This class was on self-harm and asceticism in the Western tradition. In the discussion portion, it turned into a lively discussion of drag.
Wokeness As Religion - Episode #03: Progressivism and Time Consciousness
The idea of progress is a theory of sacred time based on postmillennial evangelicalism. Wokeness is one of its descendants.
Wokeness as Religion - Episode #02: Donatism and Institutional Capture
This class elaborates on my essay on the Donatist movement, in which I explain points of resemblance between modern Wokeness and the new brand of orthodox Christianity we associate with Constantine, the Council of Nicea and the Donatist Crisis of the fourth century.
Wokeness As Religion - Episode #01: Introduction
This is the course introduction in which the approach of the course is explained. We are examining Wokeness only one angle, the theological and looking at past events and movements that resemble its key doctrines.
The 4th World - Episode #13: Concluding Thoughts
We end with some concluding thoughts with issues raised in the course but no answers.
The 4th World - Episode #12: Globalized 21st Century Indigeneity
In this episode, the instructor argues that globalized indigeneity does not refer to an uptick in grassroots engagement but rather a restructuring of patronage structures.
The 4th World - Episode #11: From the Longest Walk To Neo-Zapatismo
Indigenous actions in the Western Hemisphere 1978-92.
The 4th World - Episode #10: The Fourth World Declaration
We finally reach the moment of the actual Fourth World declaration.
The 4th World - Episode #09: Indigeneity and Nationalist Struggles in Egypt and Taiwan
Students are introduced the the surprising intersections between discourses of Indigeneity and nationalism in Taiwan and Egypt.
The 4th World - Episode #08: The White Settler States
Indigeneity in the white settler states.
The 4th World - Episode #07: Pan-Indianism from Pope to Wovoka
Beginning in the 1680s, Indigenous people began coming together to form military and political coalitions that sought to include all Indigneous people in a common front against European invasion.
The 4th World - Episode #06: Indigeneity on the African Continent
Bantu speakers and others in sub-Saharan Africa.
The 4th World - Episode #05: Polynesian Conquests of the Middle Ages
History of Polynesian peoples up to the present day.
The 4th World - Episode #04: The Arctic
The Arctic and Indigeneity: from the Sami and Inuit conquests to the Frobisher expedition.
The 4th World - Episode #03: Early Modern Indigeneity
Indigeneity does not work the same way at all times and place. Here is a talk on how it worked when it got going.
The 4th World - Episode #02: The Blameless Ethiopians Who Still Dine with the Gods
For as long as there has been ethnography, there has been the trope of ancient, primitive, noble savages who have some kind of connection with the natural world that civilized people have supposedly lost.
The 4th World - Episode #01: Introduction to the Fourth World
The first episode describes the idea of the Fourth World, that global community of nations and peoples that remain colonized.
Ira Zbarsky Public Lecture on Fair Trade and Bioregional Organizing in Guatemala and Ukraine
Los Altos Institute sponsored a public lecture by Ira Zbarsky on his forty years of eco-anarchist bioregional organizing in Eastern Ukraine, Guatemala, Mexico and BC on November 28th. You can listen to it here.
Globalization - Episode #13: Course Conclusion
We wrap up the course in a fairly freewheeling discussion.
Globalization - Episode #12: Class and Cosmopolitanism
In this class, we try to situate the globalization debate in a broader historical context.
Globalization - Episode #11: Bannonite Populism and the Rise of the Anti-Globalization Right
The rise of Bannonite populism is explained as the context for the rise of the anti-globalist right.
Globalization - Episode #10: Social Democrats Choose Globalism
This class covers the rapid twenty-first century decline in anti-globalization on the Left.
Globalization - Episode #09: The Beginnings of Right Anti-Globalism
This episode examines the beginnings of right anti-globalism with Henry Cabot Lodge Sr. and Enoch Powell.
Globalization - Episode #08: From The Zapatistas to Occupy
The period from 1992-2012 was the golden age of the anti-globalization left.
Globalization - Episode #07: The Second UN Order and the Rise of Neoliberalism
This lecture deals with the resurgence of original capitalism under the new brand of "neoliberalism."
Globalization - Episode #06: Villagization, the Hidden Master Discourse of Anti-Globalization
Central to Los Altos Institute's analysis is the continuing global significance of twentieth century villagization movements.
Globalization - Episode #05: The League of Nations and the First UN Order
This lecture covers the Keynesian period of globalization.