Gnosis: A Greek word meaning knowledge. It is commonly applied in the context of gnosticism, a belief that direct knowing is the key to spiritual enlightenment or understanding.

America: a large nation located on the North American continent, comprised of about 345 million people spread across 48 contiguous states, Alaska, Hawaii, and a few territories. Founded in 1776, America is a fascinating and complex place.

American Gnostic is a blog about everyday life in the United States. People across the globe have a lot of ideas about America. America is a savior, an oppressor and conqueror, a defender, a hegemon. It is a land of freedom and opportunity. It is a police state. It is a giant melting pot of ideas and cultures that is plagued by a small-minded desire to be anything but that.

As a seasoned American, I would say that America is all of these things and more, depending on who you are, where you are, and how much money you have.

The truth is that America, like anywhere else, is complicated. The tools of modern discourse do not leave a lot of room for ambiguity. Social media and television reward simple, easy-to-understand, emotionally charged content, which is not a great way to engage in any kind of meaningful conversation. To really know America, you have to live it. I am a pretty average American. I was born here but my grandparents and great-grandparents were immigrants. My family is not wealthy, but not impoverished. My wife and I work hard to provide a good life for our kids. I went to American public school followed by community college and a few traditional colleges. I have an average job and live in an average neighborhood. In almost every way, I am a pretty typical American.

American Gnostic is also a blog about Gnosis in the wider sense. My family was not religious. I have dabbled in a spectrum of religious ideas, but I have found that subscribing to a dogmatic set of beliefs is an unsatisfying way to understand the world and our experience of it. Despite that, I have had religious experiences. I believe there is something fundamentally human and true in religion, but I also believe that human incentives override the pursuit of truth and knowledge when organizations and power get involved. Our baser instincts corrupt our pursuit of the truth. I believe that there is far more to this world and this life than we are told, that there is much more to our existence and our experience than we can ever know or understand, and that the only way to know is to know.

These ideas seem unrelated, but they are tied together. Everything I know about the world has been filtered through my experience as an American. Those experiences affect my opinions. Being an American gives me access to a broad set of information and ideas that might not be available elsewhere, while simultaneously cutting me off from other information and ideas that might change my mind or affect my views. I’ve been propagandized since birth. I’ve been exposed to our information ecosystem, religions, politics, and way of life, and that lifetime of experience colors my perception and understanding of the world.

In a sentence: American Gnostic is about pursuing some version of truth in a land of complications.

I hope you enjoy it.