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Maxwell Matson

America and capitalism: a complicated relationship

By Maxwell Matson | February 20, 2018

Money. We all want it. We want the comfort that it brings. The things that it can buy hardly matter more than when there isn't enough of it to cover their cost. And while money might not buy happiness, but it can certainly buy peace of mind. And even if that peace of mind is as paper thin as the currency traded in for it (and often it is), every now and then, it's all that stands between the "us" that we know, and the "us" that would do anything to get more of it.

Puritancical progress - today's liberal issue

By Maxwell Matson | January 30, 2018

What does it mean to be someone's equal? For the brave men and women of the Civil Rights era, the answer was simple: the right to one's own body, freedom from the tyranny of corrupt law officials and racist systems of governance and the right to live free of mistreatment based on something as superficial as race. For the LGBT rights movement that began in and helped characterize 1960s America, and continues today, the goal was the same -- the right to be free, to be an American as all other Americans are, unburdened by the institutionalization of hatred.

'Mindhunter' goes inside the minds of the damned

By Maxwell Matson | November 14, 2017

What is evil? Like any philosophical argument, the question of what evil is, how it manifests itself and how it is best dealt with can descend quickly into abstraction. That said, no matter your views on good and evil, it can be objectively agreed upon that within the darkest corners of our society there exist men and women who personify the concept. Men like Adolf Hitler confound us with their propensity for committing evil. ISIS, the North Korean government and white nationalist terrorists are boogeymen haunting the newsrooms of CNN and MSNBC.

'Narcos' is still magical realism that (almost) never disappoints

By Maxwell Matson | October 17, 2017

"Narcos" season three, episode one, "The Kingpin Strategy," begins with Agent Javier Pena, a Drug Enforcement Administration agent who's been through this all before, in an intimate conversation with his father. The older man pleads with his son not to put his life on the line in the name of the drug war again, knowing that he's already made his decision. "So, Cali . . ." his father says, begrudgingly accepting his son's choice. The younger Pena nods his agreement,."Cali," he says in a grave tone as the screen quickly fades to black.

The complicated nature of white identity

By Maxwell Matson | September 13, 2017

What makes a person "white?" For minorities, like myself, the idea of a monolithic characteristic called whiteness is all too real. Whiteness in the U.S. can be defined as a social system through which the presence of phenotypic characteristics which are characteristically European allows for an artificial or undeserved sense of superiority and elevated social standing. This definition of whiteness is of course only one of many, and as the issue has been discussed more openly in the public forum with the proliferation of identity-centered politics and the increased visibility of racist hate groups, the public consciousness has never been more divided regarding what it means to be white.

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