The most interesting aspect of the New Right is that, in following Vaclav Havel, it has diagnosed “soft totalitarianism”: the absolute state administered not by its police force, but by its citizens. Citizens turn each other in for rewards, whether official or simply social. Soft social forces like this can work in a positive way. […]
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CNN makes an interesting comment on Amanda Knox case
CNN finds a writer willing to acknowledge the racial dimension to the Amanda Knox case: From that interview and many more, I pieced together a picture of a young man who seemed to be acting out some sort of fantasy of a home, a fantasy that perhaps abruptly cracked when Meredith Kercher came home unexpectedly […]
How we betray our soldiers by omission
One of the worst things about living in a collapsing society is the faithlessness of people. They idealize being entirely self-sufficient. To that end, they refuse to invest themselves emotionally in any idea that lacks self-interest. Nation, culture, religion, nature, marriage and ideology beyond “more rights” get the axe. As part of this, the first […]
The economy is not coming back
When the economy gets ill, people claim it’s a recession and then a depression. What they can’t do is tell you why this happens. The answer is simple: the economy is re-adjusting its own value after having been oversold. Unlike energy, value can be destroyed. If you build your economy up and claim it has […]
Unions are great at exporting jobs to China
An American icon has fallen. Although repellent as a food item, the Twinkie did exemplify America of the old days. In that time, there is no nanny state. If you want to eat a sugar-filled inflated cake, it’s not our job to stop you. That kind of system works only where each person is responsible […]
Election 2012 Part III: Moving forward (but not progressing)
In the unhappy current state of affairs, we have an election that is basically demographic warfare, an electorate that has a tenuous hold on reality, and a great chance of being eliminated when entitlements and amnesty make the population go Soviet Lite. As analyzed in other parts of this series, our civilization is in the […]
How to capture the hearts of a people
Politics — the art of convincing others to do things — presents a rough field of play because it’s half policy and half theater. One can be a good leader, or even a great one, without being a good politician. Like other things in life, learning to be a politician is a skill that succumbs […]
Cultural revolution
Nature abhors a vacuum, even in her choice of methods of change. Today a bizarre battleground was selected for the culture wars: fast food. The story is fairly well-known: CEO makes relatively mild statement about his company’s support for traditional marriage. Liberal lynch mob forms, foaming with hatred over the idea of dissent, and demands […]
Is power the path to self-destruction?
All great empires look the same after they die. They resemble what we might call “third world” living conditions, with a venomous oligarchy ruling behind the curtain of a governmental facade. Living conditions are disorganized, resulting in poor quality and hygiene. The behavior of citizens is random, discoordinated, self-destructive and non-cooperative. What is missing most […]
Funny money
On this blog in the past I have complained about the devaluation of American currency. Right now, they’re blaming it on the housing boom, but it seems to me the housing boom was a symptom. The cause was the Clinton era “fast money” that Robert Rubin and Bill Clinton made into policy. This drove the […]
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