CJ Green is the managing editor of the Mockingbird website and head of Mockingbird Publications (store.mbird.com). His favorite books are for ages 7-12.
About CJ Green
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Another Week Ends: A Peaceful Prison, Accidental Killers, Walking Report Cards, Nihilist Dads, Sin and Mental Health, and a Lot of Exorcisms
1. We’ve all been there. Exhausted from the daily grind… Overwhelmed by expectations from work and family and social commitments… Needing the peace and quiet of a nice, structured jail cell… Wait, what? Our first story this week (ht CB) tells of a mock prison where ‘inmates’ pay $90 to spend 24 hours in solitary confinement, […]
John Stuart Mill's Crisis of Faith
This excerpt comes from John Gray’s latest book Seven Types of Atheism; the chapter is “Secular Humanism, a Sacred Relic,” where Gray deliberates over ‘the religion of humanity.’ In this passage, he tells of nineteenth-century philosopher John Stuart Mill’s faith in personal satisfaction and human progress — and the voice of doubt that arose amidst it: …John […]
Another Week Ends: A Dark Consensus, Social Credit, Untrainable People, New Detective, Complicit Christianity, and the Unimportance of Jerry Seinfeld
1. A fascinating parable appeared on NPR this week, a 5-minute radio story about China’s “social credit system.” Apparently, this system of credit scoring functions like the US’s in that your financial history affects your financial future: it differs, though, in that “China’s system also considers information like what you buy and how you treat […]
In Praise of Confusion and John L'Heureux
John L’Heureux’s latest short story, published recently in the New Yorker, tells of a woman who wants a sign from God…and receives one, just not in the way she expected. You can read the whole thing here. It’s called “The Rise and Rise of Annie Clark.” Annie, a “capital-C Catholic,” is trying to measure her sanctity. […]
Another Week Ends: Comparisonitis, Funk Apostles, Boring Adults, Coffee Wars, Religious Radicalization, and the Ageless Persistence of Vision
“It’s not quite reality. It’s like a totally filtered reality. It’s like you can pretend everything’s not quite the way it is.” – Joshua Leonard 1. Envy: according to Moya Sarner at The Guardian this deadly sin is more present in our everyday lives than ever before, thanks to social media. More than a mere […]
Not Very Good at This: On Hobbying for Hobbying’s Sake
This year my pumpkins died. Not a farmer by any stretch, I aspired wide-eyed to yield a massive patch for the Hallow-season, envisioning hearty fruit sprawling across my backyard, ripe for picking, carving, and smashing. For several July weeks, hopes were high. Curling tendrils crossed the ground, leaves pluming of prehistoric size. Then, August. A […]
On Being the Center of the Universe: A Reminder for the Narcissist in Me
Without giving anything away, NBC’s The Good Place (returning September 27) features six major characters, one of which is Tahani al-Jamil: a tall, gorgeous philanthropist with an exclusive interest in herself. When asked to describe Tahani, her friend Eleanor rattles off the following, with affection: “self-obsessed socialite, ridiculous giraffe, absurd British aristocrat, narcissistic attention seeker.” […]
Another Week Ends: Cognitive Bias, Christian Impurity, Authoritarian Safetyism, Evil Nuns, Self-Care, and the Gentle Whisper of the Divine
1. The theme that binds today’s links seems to be cognitive bias: the way our brains maneuver away from rational thinking, particularly under duress or in highly pressurized situations. Much of the pop-coverage of this topic, post-2016 (and there has been quite a bit), has been political: seeking to answer how anyone could be so […]
Another Week Ends: Summertime Blues, Aspirational Suffering, Sacrilegious Dumplings, Eternal Stakes, and Average Grades
1. This week let’s start with a beautiful, seasonal reflection from B.D. McClay at Commonweal. Relentless summer heat inspires this moving commentary on the tension between absence and presence, eternity and finitude, the ever-presence of God and man’s inability to comprehend that presence. It’s called “Summer Blues: Anticipating Eternity”: What would it be like if […]
The Future of Our Children: Doom, Gloom, and Love at the End of the World
This week Roy Scranton wrote a stirring op-ed for the New York Times called “Raising My Child in a Doomed World.” Frankly it’s not a headline you would have seen before 2016. Now, this rhetoric is everywhere. Fictional dystopias are no longer phantasms of who we could become, of where we might go, but of […]
Sleeping the Pain Away: A Young Woman Takes a Chill Pill in "My Year of Rest and Relaxation"
When asked about her favorite holiday, writer Ottessa Moshfegh says, “I don’t know if I’ve ever been on holiday…?” And then laughs. On the one hand, I suppose she could be speaking literally. But I take the above response as an invitation. Do human beings ever really relax? After all, we never catch a break […]
Another Week Ends: Death Cafés, Eighth Grade, Basement Revolver, Sterile Style, Church Planting, and the Meekness of God
1. Lots to consider from this week’s first link: “The Positive Death Movement Comes to Life,” by John Leland for the Times (ht SZ). All told, this article is partly amazing, partly ridiculous. First, the amazing. “Death is having a moment,” the subtitle says. This is good news in the context of modernity’s widespread denial […]
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