By Sasha Alex Lessin, Ph.D. (Anthropology, UCLA) CARTHAGE, A CITY THAT REFUSED TO BE “JUST A COLONY” Phoenician sailors from Tyre (in what is now Lebanon) founded Carthage on the Gulf of Tunis, traditionally dated to around 814 BCE. Carthage began as a trading outpost, but its merchants, shipwrights, farmers, and priesthood turned it into …
By Sasha Alex Lessin, Ph.D. (Anthropology, UCLA) WHY THIS MATTERS A man stared at his paycheck and said quietly to his partner, “I did everything right. Why does it still feel like I’m falling behind?” Karl Marx began with that same human pain. He saw clearly that unregulated capitalism concentrates wealth upward and leaves workers …
By Sasha Alex Lessin, Ph.D. (Anthropology, UCLA) Durkheim: Elementary Australian rituals reveal religion’s origins ABORIGINAL AUSTRALIAN CLANS RELATED TO SPIRIT TOTEMS Durkheim sought the origins of religion—the first spark that led humans to feel a force greater than themselves. He found it among Australian clans, who gathered around painted poles, engraved rocks, the bodies of …
Irish Migration, Shays’ Rebellion, Cromwell’s Dictatorship, Parsons’ Pattern, and Monopoly Capitalism** By Sasha Alex Lessin, Ph.D., Anthropology (UCLA) Introduction: THE STORY OF CLASS IS THE STORY OF DOMINATION From Cromwell’s conquest to the Irish diaspora, from Shays’ Rebellion to modern monopoly capitalism, one thread ties the ages together: Class. Class is not merely an economic location—it …
By Sasha Alex Lessin, Ph.D., Anthropology WHAT MAKES A SOCIETY FAIR OR UNFAIR Every society—ancient or modern—had to answer one big question: Will we treat each other fairly, or will a small group hold all the power? Among the Anunnaki, Ninmah encouraged sharing, balance, cooperation, and respect for every person. Enlil and Marduk, by contrast, …
The Irish Took the Blow and Carried the Fire The Irish rose from a land that England treated as expendable—a field to harvest, a people to grind down, a spirit to break. From the Boyne to the Penal Codes, from Cromwell’s burnings to the Great Hunger, each generation carried scars that were meant to silence …
by Janet Lessin, CEO, Aquarian Media AN OLD ARCHETYPE RETURNS Every so often, a political figure steps onto the stage, and the atmosphere around them thickens. The usual categories—left and right, conservative and liberal, hawk and dove—start to feel inadequate. Something older and deeper stirs beneath the day-to-day noise, and people experience that person less …
By Sasha Alex Lessin, Ph.D. (Anthropology, UCLA) England tore itself apart again. James II—Catholic, stubborn, authoritarian—had frightened Protestant elites into imagining he might create a French-style absolutist monarchy on English soil. When his Catholic son was born in 1688, they panicked. Whispers swept elite salons and military camps alike: A Stuart dynasty raised as Catholics—never. …
1688–1689: JAMES II RAN WHEN WILLIAM OF ORANGE INVADED England tore itself apart again. James II—Catholic, stubborn, authoritarian—had frightened Protestant elites into imagining he might create a French-style absolutist monarchy on English soil. When his Catholic son was born in 1688, they panicked. Whispers swept elite salons and military camps alike: A Stuart dynasty raised …
1641-1649: IRISH CONFEDERATE WARS: DOMINATION, PARTNERSHIP & THE SHADOW OF THE GODS By Sasha Alex Lessin, Ph.D. (Anthropology, UCLA) 1641: IRELAND IGNITED Ireland in 1641 trembled like a harp string stretched too tight—land seizures, sectarian humiliation, and centuries of English domination pressed the Gaelic and Old English Catholic population into desperation. When the Catholic gentry …
