When a Russian general wanted to fool an Empress, he constructed fake villages that showcased an idyllic life for their inhabitants and concealed the less pleasant actuality. Culturally, the world has accepted a Potemkin village as the concept that those in power can craft a fake reality in order to dissuade oversight. However, we live [...]
Posts from ‘December, 2012’
We’re not all nice
When you were young, as they buttoned you into your coat to go to school, some parent or other oblivious well-meaning wooden adult figure probably told you to go to school, work hard and “be nice to others.” Like all language, or all tokens if you think about it, the problem isn’t the sentiment of [...]
Why the West is dying
At this point in history, it’s disingenuous to equivocate at all: the West is plummeting downward. In both Europe and the USA, governments are overspending on direct citizen stimulus as a means to wealth transfer. Long-term problems are unpopular and they are ignored. Art, culture, etc. have become trash. The death-signs are obvious. The more [...]
Emotions you cannot trust
Recently, someone shot up a school. This happens on a regular basis, and it always makes us uncomfortable, because we have this nagging feeling it’s a reminder. Like that last item we forget at the grocery store, or that strange feeling of having forgotten something before we discover we’re late for an appointment. When kids [...]
The hidden reality that politics obscures
The grim truth about politics is that it’s a translation of a translation. People set out ideas about how we should rule ourselves, and then to make them palatable to the masses, we dumb them down and turn them into the mechanics of a football game. Conservatives are at the disadvantage here because conservatism is [...]
A sign in the sky
When thou seest an eagle, thou seest a portion of genius; lift up thy head! – William Blake Like black clouds of war, our fears of the unknown perpetually haunt us as if they are looming in the sky. Terrorism, death, accidents –- how does one combat such things? Men on the ground? Education? Awareness [...]
Things fall apart
The collapse of a civilization is a big deal. Carry off everything you can, or form small secessionist retreats, but you face the problem of what the rest of the people escaping the failure will do. Most likely, they charge en masse and then kill you and take your stuff. There’s also the lost learning. [...]
Secular conservatives
The right has always tried to be a big tent because we acknowledge that within a certain range of reality-based behaviors, there’s more than one way to do it. For example, you do not have to be religious to be a conservative or even a traditionalist. This upsets a lot of people who tend to [...]
As downfall approaches, tragedies become more commonplace
I’m told there was another lugubrious school shooting. I refuse to read about it, because there’s nothing I can do except make myself miserable. Even more, I’m ignoring the political blather. Gun control couldn’t have stopped this, because if we can’t stop marijuana from invading the country in giant bales, making guns illegal will ensure [...]
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