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Raymond Klassen – Ideals and Identities

Raymond Klassen – Ideals and Identities

A blog about values


  • February 11, 2026

    Donald Trump and Hannah Arendt’s On Violence: Power Without Power

    Donald Trump and Hannah Arendt’s On Violence: Power Without Power

    “A politics that cannot cooperate must coerce. And a politics that must coerce has already failed.” Continue reading

    Politics and Society, Spirituality
    Authenticity, books, coercion, cooperation, Donald Trump, Hannah Arendt, History, Mass Society, philosophy, Politics, power, Spirituality, Violence
  • February 10, 2026

    Beyond Mastery: Grounded Human Power

    Beyond Mastery: Grounded Human Power

    The choice between domination and cooperation is therefore not merely political or organizational. It is existential. How we exercise power shapes who we become. Leverage secures obedience but hollows identity. Cooperation demands patience and humility, but it produces belonging. Continue reading

    Politics and Society, Spirituality
    Alberta, Authenticity, Buber, Canada, coercion, cooperation, Faith, Hannah Arendt, History, Jesus, philosophy, Politics, power, Spirituality
  • February 3, 2026

    A Letter to David Brooks

    A Letter to David Brooks

    My brother and I have had recent dialogues about the necessity of the death of self. I feel like in much of the conversations surrounding the death of self, many people have meant the complete submission of the individual. But some mystics have understood the death of self to mean the destruction of the false… Continue reading

    Politics and Society, Spirituality
    American Culture, Authenticity, consciousness, Conservativism, David Brooks, hyperindividualism, individualism, Moral Decay, New York Times, philosophy, Politics, religion, Spirituality, Time to Say Farewell
  • January 29, 2026

    Why Everything Feels Worse (And Why That’s Not an Accident)

    Why Everything Feels Worse (And Why That’s Not an Accident)

    At first, these systems work well. They serve people. But once we depend on them—once leaving becomes risky or complicated—the priorities shift. The system starts serving itself. Continue reading

    Leadership and Business, Politics and Society, Spirituality
    ai, America in Decline, colonialism, degrade, enshittification, Internet, life, mental-health, philosophy, platforms, technology, Writing
  • January 24, 2026

    Understanding Sovereignty in Modern Political Discourse

    Understanding Sovereignty in Modern Political Discourse

    Sovereignty renewed appeal cannot be explained solely by shifts in global power or the breakdown of international institutions. Rather, sovereignty has become inspirational because it mirrors a deeper concern of our age: the struggle for authenticity, i.e. the desire to act from within one’s own values rather than as an instrument of external systems. In… Continue reading

    Leadership and Business, Politics and Society, Spirituality
    Authenticity, Charles Taylor, Donald Trump, Hannah Arendt, History, Mark Carney, News, philosophy, Politics, religion, Sovereignty, Spirituality, Technocratic Rationality, The Malaise of Modernity, Walter Benjamin
  • January 20, 2026

    Carney at the World Economic Forum – with commentary, links and references

    Carney at the World Economic Forum – with commentary, links and references

    Greenland looks like it will be an international testing ground. Minneapolis looks like the domestic testing ground. Continue reading

    Leadership and Business, Politics and Society, Spirituality
    Authenticity, autocracy, Carney, DJT, Donald Trump, EU, Greenland, Mark Carney, Mass Society, rules-based, Trump
  • January 12, 2026

    Sovereignty: The Power Beyond Ownership

    Sovereignty: The Power Beyond Ownership

    ” Sovereignty and ownership overlap in everyday speech, but philosophically, linguistically, and practically they point to very different kinds of authority and relation.” Continue reading

    Leadership and Business, Politics and Society, Uncategorized
    Authenticity, Authority, Donald Trump, God, Greenland, History, Ownership, philosophy, Politics, religion, Sovereignty
  • December 31, 2025

    The Death of Ivan Ilych and 3 Days of Screaming on the Beach

    The Death of Ivan Ilych and 3 Days of Screaming on the Beach

    “Once we faced the existential terror and went through it, we began to re-connect and enjoy life.” Continue reading

    Spirituality
    Authenticity, books, bourgeois, Existentialism, leo-tolstoy, life, literature, Mass Society, Mexico, The Death of Ivan Ilych, Tolstoy, Writing
  • December 18, 2025

    Anabaptism and the Post Secular Condition: Witness, Pluralism, and the Limits of Secular Reason

    Anabaptism and the Post Secular Condition: Witness, Pluralism, and the Limits of Secular Reason

    I had gone out into the world as if it was completely unknown; I came back with the world in tow. Continue reading

    Leadership and Business, Politics and Society, Spirituality
    anabaptism, anabaptist, Authenticity, buddhism, Charles Taylor, christianity, Faith, God, hinduism, islam, Jose Casanova, Jurgen Habermas, Mass Society, philosophy, Politics, religion, religions, Saudi Arabia, Stanley Hauerwas, technological rationality, Thailand, Yoder
  • November 16, 2025

    Doubt Beyond Certainty

    Doubt Beyond Certainty

    My hunch that our religious instinct is best realized when we are exploring, and when we occupy places that permit exploration. Continue reading

    Politics and Society, Spirituality
    Authenticity, Charles Taylor, Meditation, Spirituality, Thomas Merton
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Recent Posts

  • Well-formed Small Groups Form Their Members
  • A Sovereign Alberta Within a United Canada? When Political Language Conceals More Than It Says.
  • Known Enough to Become Yourself

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