Why I Write Without a Face
I’m not here to be recognized. I’m here to be read. In a world obsessed with branding, I choose the slow, deliberate work of ideas over the quick hit of image. If you’re here, it’s because you value thought over theater. Welcome.
Welcome to Johan’s Study
Who I Am
I come from the intersection of finance, economics, diplomacy, and foreign policy, advising on geopolitics, citizen diplomacy organizations, and think tanks.
I am a Professor of Behavioral Economics & Applied Cognitive Theory, and my work blends academic rigor with real-world strategy.
Subscribe to receive future essays directly in your inbox — and to stand with a community that values truth over comfort.
How I Work
I see the world through an interdisciplinary lens, bridging behavioral economics, diplomacy, and strategic advising. I do not just analyze cognition; I deploy it to help organizations and systems evolve with clarity and ethical precision.
My writing speaks with clarity and conviction. I let the words stand alone, inviting you to engage with ideas, not image. That is rare, and it is deliberate.
I write to provoke thought, not to comfort.
I do not offer a face — I offer a lens.
This space is for those who value rigor over branding, honesty over polish, and the slow crawl toward truth.
Why I Am Here
As I publish for wider audiences and academic journals, I will use this space to test ideas, sharpen arguments, and learn from you.
I welcome feedback, challenges, and perspectives that push the conversation forward.
Over the coming months, I will bring in guest writers to expand the dialogue. If you find value here, share it. That is how this community grows.
And when you can, step away from the noise. Walk a trail, sit by the ocean, find a patch of green, pour a cup of tea. That is where clarity lives.
Publishing Schedule
• Sunday – Recap, reflections, and a featured article
• Wednesday – Long-form research and analysis
What I Am Reading
• The Dawn of Everything — David Graeber & David Wengrow
• Moral Ambition — Rutger Bregman
What I Am Watching
• The Brutalist — Review coming soon, and why it matters.
First, My Thoughts
What we have just witnessed is a clear example of how a system can take the death of one person and weaponize it for political gain. This is not new. History is full of moments where tragedy becomes a tool to consolidate power.
The first move is almost always the same: assign collective guilt. Turn an individual act into a narrative about an entire group. Once that framing takes hold, the machinery of propaganda can do the rest.
Words are the ignition point. Before violence, before laws, before prisons or camps — there are words. Words that dehumanize, that divide, that tell people their neighbors are enemies. Once those words are normalized, action follows.
The pattern is consistent:
1. Exploit fear and resentment already present in society.
2. Amplify it through media and messaging until it feels like truth.
3. Offer a “bold vision” that promises safety or restoration, but only by targeting an “other.”
4. Use the resulting unity against a common enemy to justify extraordinary measures.
This is why historical memory matters. The Holocaust did not begin with mass violence. It began with a shift in language, in what was acceptable to say out loud, in who it was acceptable to blame.
What we are seeing now is the same architecture of division being rebuilt in real time. The names and technologies change, but the mechanics do not.
The danger is not just in the hate itself, but in the speed with which it can be repackaged as virtue, loyalty, or patriotism. That is how movements harden, how dissent is silenced, and how democracies erode from within.
The lesson is simple and urgent: pay attention to the words. They are not just commentary. They are the blueprint.
Why This Matters Now
In the past few days, we have seen how quickly a single event can be reframed into a rallying cry for division. The speed of that transformation, from tragedy to political weapon, is faster than at any point in history because the channels of amplification are instant and global. This matters because once a narrative is set, it becomes the lens through which millions interpret reality. And when that lens is built on fear, resentment, and the targeting of “others,” the path forward is no longer about truth. It is about power.
Today’s Article
When lies became reality, nothing else mattered.
Sunday, September 14, 2025
Czesław Miłosz’s realism and
Václav Havel’s moral philosophy
Czesław Miłosz — Nobel‑winning poet, exile, and witness to the moral compromises of the 20th century — sought truth through an unflinching realism of lived experience. Václav Havel — playwright, dissident, and the first president of a free Czech Republic — grounded politics in the moral duty to live in truth. Together, they remind us that clarity and conscience are inseparable.
Miłosz saw the world as it was.
Havel insisted we live as it should be.
Between them lies the narrow bridge of truth.
Manifesto for a Civilization That Remembers
Truth, in times of ideological captivity, becomes not just inconvenient, it becomes dangerous. People do not believe lies because they are convinced; they believe them because it is safer. The system does not demand belief, only obedience; and so citizens learn to live within the lie, repeating slogans they do not mean, voting in elections they do not trust, and silencing doubts they dare not voice.
Fear becomes the architecture of daily life, and dignity is traded for survival. In this climate, truth suffers not because it is refuted, but because it is abandoned. Everyone caves; not all at once, but piece by piece, until the scaffolding of society is built entirely from falsehood. And when truth is no longer spoken, it ceases to exist in public life.
What remains is a hollow civilization, where the greatest crime is to remember what freedom felt like.
We speak not as ideologues, but as witnesses to erosion.
In times ruled by fear and deception, truth does not fall with thunder; it dissolves quietly, traded for comfort and survival. People do not cling to lies because they are convinced; they do it because questioning is dangerous. The system does not require belief — only silence.
Slogans replace sincerity. Elections become rituals. Conscience becomes a liability.
And so, truth is not debated; it is abandoned.
We have watched how fear reconfigures society. How dignity becomes deviance. How everyone caves — not in one dramatic collapse, but inch by inch. Cowards are crowned. Conformists are rewarded. Those who remember freedom are punished for the crime of memory.
This manifesto rejects that decay.
We believe that truth has value even when it is fragile. That freedom does not vanish until we forget its taste. We are not here to comply. We are here to remember, and to remind.
Let this be our refusal:
A refusal to live within the lie.
A refusal to normalize the destruction of integrity.
A refusal to silence the soul.
Because when truth suffers, all else follows. And when truth is reborn, so is civilization.
Why the Snail
It carries its home.
It moves with intention.
It leaves a trail.
So do I.
If this resonated with you, don’t just close the tab.
Join the conversation. Carry the memory. Refuse the lie.
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It’s the quiet normalization of injustice that does the deepest damage.
To better instill and uphold our core principles, we need to stop treating them as abstract ideals and start treating them as daily operational standards.
Equality isn’t a slogan, it is a hiring decision.
Justice isn’t a theory, it is a budget line.
Truth isn’t a virtue, it is a refusal to repeat what’s convenient.
In today’s climate, defending values means making them material: visible in policy, embedded in process, and non‑negotiable in leadership.
Otherwise, we’re just decorating decline with good intentions.
What do you think it would take for truth, justice, and equality to become non-negotiable in our institutions, not just ideals we reference, but standards we enforce?
I’ve watched with horror over the past few years, trying to understand how so many people could believe such obvious lies. Sadly, we have reached the point where it is dangerous not to parrot the lies. It’s a tipping point from which it may be nearly impossible to recover without prolonged moral trauma.
I fear that the murder of Charlie Kirk will be the catalyst that precipitates the violent reaction that results in open persecution of the target groups. The intent of the architects of this tragedy are blazingly illuminated for anyone who dares to look at the truth that’s is plain for all to see. We know who the first victims will be, and we know who they will come after eventually. I fear few will be brave enough to continue to shout the truth. Yes, words do matter, they are all we have to fight with.