Renée Gerlich

12/04/2025

"... each of the dominant political traditions — conservativism, liberalism, socialism, and libertarianism — is named after, and appears to espouse, a different set of values. This encourages us to believe that politics is a competition of values. Conservatives believe in stability and security, liberals in individual freedom, and the left in collective liberation. This is a misunderstanding: politics is not about values. Instead it is shaped by identifications. Each tradition identifies itself with the interests of a particular group of people. The values it promotes serve as justifications for promoting the interests of that group. And the identification determines how we are supposed to interpret the values.

Let's investigate."

It's a misconception that politics is an argument about values — politics is about identifications, not values.

31/03/2025

It's April Fools Day! So I wanted to write a piece about how the society we live in makes fools of us.

This happens when we become identified - with people in power, with particular groups and their interests. Once we are identified, we are susceptible to accepting a distorted view of reality. That's what this essay explains - exactly what distortion is, and how it works, and how to become resilient in the face of it.

"Identification reorganises truth. And the patriarchal system we live in, its politics, institutions and industries, do not rely on lies and fabrications as much as this reorganisation and distortion of truth, particularly the truths that human beings long to reconnect with most deeply. An artificial replacement for something as important and deep-seated to a human being as belonging, love, compassion or agency, is better than nothing at all."

When the language of belonging, altruism, love and kindness is used to advertise and exploit, what is taking place is called distortion. Distortion has a logic, a composition. It's explained here.

07/03/2025

This International Women’s Day, I’m sharing my passion project — the Brief Complete Herstory.

“The B*H is my own effort to address the way girls and women are alienated from conventional history. It offers an easily digestible illustrated overview of history from the birth of life to the present day, bringing together the work of critical and feminist historians. It is designed to be accessible, undemanding, and give women young and old a sense of the big picture of how the world got to the state it is in today.”

The B*H is a digestible, illustrated overview of history from the birth of life to neoliberalism. It's written for women who want to understand the world better, and now available on Substack.

03/03/2025

"To deny biological s*x is not equivalent to denying any other fact of life, because biological s*x is the foundational fact — the thing that brought you here, the first thing you knew for yourself. If someone can take that from you, they can take anything. Your mind is officially malleable. You are putty, and you are vulnerable to manipulation, exploitation and abuse."

Transgenderism and its fudging of facts about nature and human s*xuality represents a dismantling of natural intelligence dangerous in tandem with the rise of artificial intelligence.

03/03/2025

Transgenderism and its fudging of facts about nature and human s*xuality represents a dismantling of natural intelligence dangerous in tandem with the rise of artificial intelligence.

21/02/2025

Here is de Becker’s key point: “you are an animal of nature, fully endowed with hearing, sight, intellect, and dangerous defences. You are not easy prey, so don’t act like you are.”

Violence is not as unpredictable as we are led to believe. In 'The Gift of Fear', Gavin De Becker shows that violence is patterned, and we are better equipped to protect ourselves than we realise.

14/02/2025

"happy Valentine’s. May you never become preoccupied with the desperate search for Mr. or Mrs. ‘Right’ — but may your life be filled with love, of all kinds, that buoys you and that ripples."

I'm not typically a Valentine's person, but this year I want to share one of the most romantic things I've heard.

11/02/2025

What makes people choose conscience over compliance?

From 1960-63, Stanley Milgram explored this question from his post at Yale University's psychology department, where he conducted his famous shock generator tests.

I've just published a two-part series on Milgram's findings -- one on compliance and one on dissent. Milgram did 18 different variations on his experiment, for the sake of depth and precision, so though the tests are cited often, it is well worth knowing what exactly he discovered.

Here is my first piece on Miglram's findings on compliance:
https://reneegerlich.substack.com/.../the-milgram...

Here is the piece just published, on dissent:

What makes people choose conscience over compliance? Milgram explored the question in his 1960s shock generator tests. We previously explored his findings on compliance - now we investigate dissent.

07/02/2025

"Milgram went on to complete eighteen formal variations of the study, looking for the precise indicators for obedience. He concluded that the story of “just doing one’s duty” so often used at Nuremberg was not just “a thin alibi concocted for the occasion. Rather, it is a fundamental mode of thinking for a great many people once they are locked into a subordinate position in a structure of authority.” Through empirical research, Milgram essentially discovered what has long been established in yogic science: the aspect of mind called ahamkara or identification. On the outside, it looks like a desire to be a ‘good’, agreeable person. But it is premised on survival: if I satisfy the man in charge, I will be safe and protected. This mechanism is powerful."

The 1960s Milgram experiments are well-known, but not often thoroughly explored. Milgram did 18 variations of his famous shock generator tests, and the details are worth knowing.

07/02/2025

"The 1960s Milgram experiments are well-known, but not often thoroughly explored. Milgram did 18 variations of his famous shock generator tests, and the details are worth knowing."

More here:

The 1960s Milgram experiments are well-known, but not often thoroughly explored. Milgram did 18 variations of his famous shock generator tests, and the details are worth knowing.

05/02/2025

* TRIGGER WARNING *

"Consider that the ultimate way for a human being to assert dominance over another is by murder. If I wipe you out, I prevail. You have no power over me. I call the shots.

The problem with murder is the victim is gone. She is not around to concede the point, and the perpetrator cannot make use of her submission. R**e is the solution. A ra**st prevails by creating not a co**se but a victim: someone whose will is overridden. A ra**st asserts himself by forcing someone else into submission, cannibalising her will."

R**e, and the threat of r**e, instils a basic belief inside a woman’s mind: “for me to be okay, he has to be okay first.”

02/02/2025

"In yogic science, mind has three major components: buddhi or intellect, ahamkara or identification, and manas, the chattering mind.

Buddhi, intellect, is the discriminatory faculty. It is our non-judgemental and impartial capacity to discern x from y, a from b, man from woman. If we are cutting a carrot on a chopping board, buddhi allows us to distinguish between the carrot, the board, the knife, and our fingers. It is key to our survival, because without this discernment, we hurt ourselves.

Buddhi is trumped by ahamkara, identification. Often translated to ‘I-sense’ or simply ‘ego’, ahamkara literally translates to I-maker. It refers to our identifications (they are what ‘make’ the ‘I’). Sadhguru, founder of Isha yoga, explains: “In the yogic system we consider the ahamkara, or the identity that you take on, far more important than the nature of the intellect itself – because intellect is a slave of the identity that you have taken.”

Interesting. The intellect functions for our survival, but it is trumped by our concern for our identity. How can that be possible – that our concern for identity can override our survival-based discernment of facts?"

Yogic philosophy of mind, and the concept of ‘ahamkara’ or identification, offers the clearest explanation for the human condition and today’s political madness