The creation of this unique Internet resource, VINCENT'S REVIEWS, become something of a fait accompli when, to my surprise, I learned that my product and service reviews posted to Amazon.com were being censored, apparently because of excessive political correctness--my critique of superfluous homosexual themes in television programs, for example, such as PEEP SHOW--a comedic masterpiece were it not spoiled by its running, sometimes over-the-top, homosexual thematic.

VINCENT'S REVIEWS works in concert with two other of my sites, OUR BETTER SELVES and BEST OF WORLD CULTURE (down), and the PICK YOUR ISSUE section of yet another of my sites, BROTHERHOOD.LOVE.

IMPORTANT NOTE:  My reviews are not intended as "gotchas" for vendors of products or services considered inadequate; in other words, the reviews are not intended as vehicles for humiliation, blind insult, or revenge against companies who have sold inadequate or over-sold products or services, but are intended to help everyone, including the companies or individuals being reviewed, so mistakes can be identified and corrected.

This site gone live in germ form today, June 10, 2021.

Based on my above remarks about homosexuality, you might presume that I'm politically and socially conservative--and in some respects I am. Better, however, is to understand me not in terms of what is the conservative, moderate, liberal, or radical action or view, but what is the most loving action or view, for I am actually an Agapist, that is, one whose world-view and actions are based primarily on Agape [uh gop' ay], which is "brotherly love," or love for all, expressed in the language of Greek philosophy. This is what I am. And I hope that it's something that you'll begin to learn about and study, and one day become an Agapist, too.

Sometimes the most loving action will appear conservative, sometimes it will appear liberal, sometimes moderate, sometimes radical.

Why do I offer my reviews of everything and everyone?

1. I have a better question:  why don't you? Are you doing anything substantive to help the world? To help other human beings?

   We're all brothers and sisters in one human family. It is thus incumbent upon each and all--to help each and all.

   I offer these reviews for this reason. For the same reason that my adult life has been, and remains, devoted to developing and proffering a philosophy that I believe can save the world. I help people. And I want to save the world. That's what I do:  I want to save the world, from annihilation, at least, and from its own evident tendency toward unyielding mediocrity, at best, in favor of what I term Actualization, that is, the world rising to actually meet the highest condition of excellence that it's capable of.

2. The baseball player wants to earn their living playing baseball, he with a law degree wishes to earn their bread by practicing law, and he who loves to drive wishes the stick of a powerful semi in their hand, and the heavy roar of its engine under them. In like manner and for similar reason do I compose and extend this body of review for your consideration, and hope that if my reviews are an assist to you, you'll delight these aging ears with the sound of a few of your coins dropping into my cup, as well.

3. To assist in establishing proof-of-concept:  the idea that humankind does not need an impersonal and predatory system of market exchange (i.e. "capitalism") to conduct its economic affairs, or form and run a global economy. I seek to prove, in other words, that humankind can meet its need for the regular provision of high-quality goods and services through mutual-aid, whereby we each work at our craft to supply others, and they work at theirs, to supply us. Money no longer needed, thus effecting, by the way, a gross simplification in the operation of society (the kind of change in its operation advocated by environmentalist Derrick Jensen*).

   And underpinning all of this would be the society-wide cultivation, across every social group and unit of political and industrial governance, of transformed relationships based on Love, properly understood.

   What I supply to the world, now, to you, my brothers and sisters, is the product of the confluence of my intellect and my love for you:  writing and ideas to inform, assist, and inspire.

4. I'm intelligent, articulate, and know a lot about a lot of things. So even in areas where I might not necessarily be able to offer a revolutionary insight, I can still probably offer useful information and perspective. As I have a helping-orientation, I'm inclined to do so.

5. The objective of my work and my life is to effect a revolution in the mind and heart of Man, in the direction of Love of neighbor, and competence in all aspects of living, especially as we provide for each other's needs, in accord with our greatest potential in a condition or state of being or existence that I call Actualization, under a new mode of organization of our human family that I refer to as the BROTHERHOOD OF MAN.

   However, as I don't necessarily see this revolution right-around-the-corner, I also endeavor to help make life in the here-and-now as optimized and actualized, and pleasant, as possible for everyone--thus, these reviews.

*A, or the, notable book by Derrick Jensen in this regard is "Bright Green Lies: How the Environmental Movement Lost Its Way and What We Can Do About It." There is also an excellent accompanying documentary; I've seen the latter though not read the former.

In that volume Derrick asserts, in regard to the effort to combat climate change, that such large-scale shifts as coal-to-solar and gas to electric vehicles represent an illusion, because such changes are simply a swap, a trade of one intrusive, resource-intensive utilization paradigm (coal-based) for another (non-coal-based).

The actual answer to climate change, Derrick argues, is execution of a major lifestyle shift away from industry and technology, to a simpler lifestyle, carrying with it a much lighter footprint on the planet.

Of potential relevance is my own argument that our human family should rely less on digital and otherwise computerized technologies, and more on analog, both legacy and pioneering new ones. The lower-tech represented by nondigital technologies should decrease our resource use and thus lighten the footprint of Humanity on the planet. Thus does my paradigm seem, without initially intending, to conform to both of Mr. Jensen's criteria:  switch to a lower-tech culture, and salutary environmental effect, this being lighter planetary footprint and less adverse effect on climate change.

My work is generally conservative in means, expansionist and visionary in ends. Under development is my book LOVE, PROPERLY UNDERSTOOD, a work that can, and perhaps must, be seen as the new bible for the 21st-century and beyond, especially as global populations increasingly eschew established religion, yet continue to hunger for a moral code.

The world, of course, is at no loss for purported moral codes. But an insubstantial code is no code at all, and could even be worse than no code, at all.

It just so happens that I, uniquely, am in possession of that which can form the basis for the most powerful moral code that is, or could ever be, known to humankind:  the notion and its development that Love, properly understood, is the most powerful social principle available to humankind.

I genuinely believe my book to be, when completed, the philosophical document for the final liberation of humankind.

Read and study it as it develops, and see if you don't agree.

For full bio and other information on myself, Vincent Frank De Benedetto, political philosopher and writer, please see my home page.

ACTUALIZED WORLD

Every word of my work at this, and my other sites, intends to help build an Actualized world, that is, a world where humanity has reached its full potential, its zenith, in both spheres of existence:

1. MORAL. I seek to create a world where everyone loves everyone. That is, where we actively love all others as brothers and sisters, thereby effecting, among other things, a permanent end to essentially all human conflict.

2. FUNCTIONAL, including technical. I seek to create a culture of complete dedication to task by everyone, to cease incompetence and see society functioning perfectly day-to-day, through fully-realized technical processes and systems. Why did I find minute plastic shavings two days ago in my Mother's Whole Foods Market Broccoli & Cheddar soup? Why did we permit climate change to occur in the first place? Why are there constant product recalls, including foods?

   The mistakes and non-optimizations are endless.

Note that if we presume that our Functional sphere includes all social, which includes moral, processes, then our present deficit in the Moral sphere could actually be seen as simply one of the many deficits of the Functional sphere, and thus, were the Functional sphere fully actualized, all social processes rooted in morality, such as loving one another, would be, too. In other words, for persons seeking a more streamlined conceptualization of my argument and analysis, it can be had by simply conceptualizing and referring to a singular sphere of existence for humanity, the Functional.

In searching for anything, I recommend your visit here, instead of, or in addition to, your visit to Yelp! or Angies List.

It's important that each of you drop a coin in the cup to support this site, and, indeed, all my unique work.

Please make your donation now, while it's fresh in your mind.

Thank you.