Years go, when R. W. Bradford sought to recreate H. L. Mencken’s “Americana” feature for Liberty magazine, which we produced starting in 1987, he wanted a new name. His notion was a strict revival of Mencken’s format: a single page of news stories sans commentary for this back-of-the-book page, focusing on the weirdness and absurdity of life in these times.

We could have called it “Life in These Times,” or something similar, but I suggested “Terra Incognita.” Bradford went with it.

This feature of Liberty has not been retained by the magazine’s remaining Web page, so I revive a version of it here. For now, snippets of Actually Existing Civilization in video form:

  1. A Decadent Amen
  2. A Quirk of Ugliness
  3. Biden… His Time….
  4. What COVID Really Is?
  5. Compromised!
  6. Bidens’ Abiding Love
  7. Even Libertarians!
  8. A Signing of Our Times
  9. Liberta! in Italy
  10. Coronavirus Cringe
  11. Dr. Fauci, Double-Masked
  12. Mic Drop
  13. God Herself
  14. Taking Questions (“Nance”)
  15. Libya?
  16. A Very Democratic Fourth of July
  17. The Nature of the Embargo