Here Be Monsters / Here Be Friends (Lebanon Meet Israel)

This week in Metapsychosis:

A new essay from philosopher Jonathan Cobb takes a fresh look at our global predicament, with its interlocking social, political, economic, and ecological crises, and finds grounds for concrete hope in the possibility of radical action rooted in the concept of the “novum.”

Cobb’s personal history with the Occupy movement—both the inspiration it provided and the lessons learned from its dissipation—informs his view that:

“We must be our own solution. The stakes have never been higher and no one else is here to save us. We must direct our gaze toward the concrete utopia of the novum. As the current crisis crushes the institutions on which the old system relied, the only alternative to the present tyranny is to make the world anew.”

Read “Here Be Monsters,” and be sure to leave a comment on this timely topic and share the essay widely.

Also this week, we are delighted to welcome storyteller extraordinaire Katherine Eid Wild to the pages of Metapsychosis. Of Lebanese descent, Wild tells of an unlikely encounter with an Israeli doppelganger (artist Ananda Kesler) in a small town in Iowa.

If there be grounds for hope in the horrific conflicts we are witnessing across the globe, one source will be such human relationships as the one Wild weaves into her heartwarming sketch.

Enjoy not only the text of Katherine’s story, but also a video interpretation and an audio recording. Watch / Listen / Read: “Lebanon Meet Israel.”

(And, for another wonderful example of Wild’s work, see her performance at the Cosmos Co-op launch event in November, 2024.)

As always, we welcome your thoughts, questions, and feedback. Please also consider becoming a patron of Metapsychosis, so we can continue bringing you this journal without ads or paywalls. As a patron, you will gain access to exclusive community offerings, such as editor Mary Thaler’s Writers’ Circle starting this spring, as well as our private community forum, Infinite Conversations.

If you’re curious about the bigger vision of our cooperative organization, Cosmos Co-op, and how you could become involved, you might also be interested in our upcoming community meet-up on Friday, February 28th. This cooperative project is one of the concrete ways we can take action to bring about the new world that so many of us desire. I hope to see you there!

Stellar wishes,

Marco V Morelli
Editor-in-Chief, Metapsychosis journal
Co-Creator, Cosmos Co-op