The thirst for knowledge has consumed humanity since the dawn of civilization. However, until recently there have been numerous “gate-keepers” to the world of knowledge. Prior to the rise of the Internet most knowledge was conveyed to the populace through a centralized educational system, the state and the mass media. What this meant was that whomever controlled these institutions controlled the ideas that spread through a population.
The advent of the Internet has initiated a revolution like no other. The Internet is smashing all barriers to knowledge by granting individuals across the globe free and easy access to the vast library of ideas built up by humanity. For the first time in history we can seriously say that knowledge is free – the contemporary gatekeepers do not have the capacity to censor and control information on mass scale. At least, not yet.
The goal of the Academy of Ideas website is to further the spread of knowledge and freedom. We create content examining the ideas put forth by humanity’s greatest philosophers, psychologists, and economists. These individuals left us with a commodity more valuable than all others. Some people have said that money rules the world, some say politicians, some say weapons – they are all wrong. The truth is that ideas rule the world, they always have and always will. It is ideas that will, for better or worse, shape the destiny of mankind.
“Thoughts that come on doves’ feet guide the world.” - Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra.
Academy of Ideas is the creation of two brothers from Canada. All of the content is produced by us. We are not supported by or affiliated with any organization or university. Our goal is to spread the message of individual liberty and empowerment to as many people as possible.
Please visit: https://AcademyofIdeas.com
Marie-Louise von Franz was a Swiss psychologist who closely collaborated with Carl Jung from 1933 until his death in 1961. One of von Franz’s primary topics of interest was fairy tales. For like myths, fairy tales contains timeless wisdom that teaches us about the human condition. Jung believed that so much wisdom was contained […]
The following is a transcript of this video. “News is to the mind what sugar is to the body: appetising, easily digestible and extremely damaging.” Rolf Dobelli, Stop Reading the News Most people think that consuming the news makes one an informed citizen who is equipped to form intelligent opinions on social and political […]
“We only believe in those thoughts which have been conceived not in the brain but in the whole body.” W.B. Yeats, Essays and Introductions Intuition is one of the most powerful faculties for gaining knowledge about the world. Along with reason, science, and imagination, it is one of the primary means by which we […]
“Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.” Hanlon’s Razor What is responsible for the sickness of modern society? Is it the evil machinations of the power hungry? Is it due to a conspiracy of the ruling class? In this video, relying on the Italian historian Carlo Cipolla’s essay The Basic […]
“Big Pharma is one of the largest and most profitable businesses in America, and in order to sell their chemical goods to allegedly treat the mind/psyche, pharmaceutical companies must convince society that people’s mental and behavioral problems are caused by their bodily chemicals.” Daniel R. Berger, The Chemical Imbalance Delusion An epidemic of mental […]
The right to self-defense is perhaps the least disputed of all moral principles. It is also common sense that we have the right to defend other people who are aggressed upon. Virtually everyone recognizes these rights as the most obvious of ethical principles, yet many people believe that our rights to defense do not apply […]
TRANSCRIPT “It’s easy to be a naive idealist. It’s easy to be a cynical realist. It’s quite another thing to have no illusions and still hold the inner flame.” Marie-Louise von Franz To be a philosophical pessimist is to be acutely aware of the tragic side of life and to believe that suffering overshadows […]
The following is a transcript of this video. In an interview in 1964, the science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke stated: “The most intelligent inhabitants of that future world won’t be men or monkeys. They’ll be machines—the remote descendants of today’s computers. Now, the present-day electronic brains are complete morons. But this will not […]
The following is a transcript of this video. “The Great Rewiring of Childhood, in which the phone-based childhood replaced the play-based childhood, is the major cause of the international epidemic of adolescent mental illness.” Jonathan Haidt, The Anxious Generation The release of the iPhone in 2007 profoundly transformed how we interact and experience the […]
The following is a transcript of this video. Fyodor Dostoevsky is considered one of history’s greatest novelists, but he is also one of history’s greatest psychologists. His stories contain depictions of characters who span the spectrum of human personality, from those of abject evil, to those saintly in nature. Friedrich Nietzsche was so impressed […]
“Psychiatry is a science…and it has the tools and knowledge at its disposal to help us when our lives break down. This is the official story we hear, the one gaining airtime in the media, the ear of government policymakers, and widespread dissemination through celebrity chat shows and popular magazines. But what if the actual […]
How an Entire Population Becomes Mentally Ill and Immoral – Herd Psychology by Academy of Ideas “Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, one by one.” Charles MacKay, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds In […]
“…in those wretched Countries where a Man cannot call his Tongue his own, he can scarce call any Thing else his own. Whoever would overthrow the Liberty of a Nation, must begin by subduing the Freeness of Speech.” Silence Dogood, pseudonym of Benjamin Franklin, The New-England Courant, Number 49, 2-9 July 1722 Freedom […]
“Remember Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes exhausts and [destroys] itself. . .It is in vain to Say that Democracy is … less proud, less selfish, less ambitious or less avaricious than Aristocracy or Monarchy. It is not true in Fact and no where appears in history. Those Passions are the same in all […]
The following is a transcript of this video. “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – forever.” George Orwell, 1984 George Orwell’s writings have experienced a spike in popularity over the past several decades and for a good reason – modern societies are becoming ever […]