The German philosopher Hannah Arendt writes in Tradition and the Modern Age that an unsettling paradox emerges in the modern world’s view of history. If history is a struggle towards a perfect political system, then when that system is achieved history will be complete — and then what will the purpose of mankind be? The [...]
Posts Tagged ‘crowdism’
Us versus them
The internet is infuriating because it is not reality. The internet is pure symbol. As a result, no one can tell you’re a dog on the internet, or if you’re pushing a dog of an argument. In particular, it is popular for random people to follow you around and insist that you’re wrong. “It’s logical,” [...]
“Intellectuals”
The difference between readers will never cease to be fascinating. Like choice of car, cigarette, where you buy your house, what you feed your kids, and how you keep your desk organized, it reveals the conscious decisions of the individual. Although this outlook may seem similar to the consumerist idea that you can buy a [...]
The drama
In our society, what you see depends on what role you have. If you are the CEO of a bank, you may “know” that traffic exists but never experience driving through it. If you’re an urban intellectual, you will “know” how farms work, but have no concept of the actuality involved. All of us “know” [...]
Greed
At an intersection in the midtown area, two cars approach a four-way stop at right angles. One car, driven by a blonde woman, pulls up second but pulls away first, perhaps absent-mindedly. The dark-haired man driving the second car taps the horn as the other car pulls in front of him out of turn, and [...]
Suicide of a Superpower, by Patrick J. Buchanan
Suicide of a Superpower by Patrick J. Buchanan St. Martin’s Press, 428 pages, $16 Some books exist to comment on trends and to show us the richness of events unfolding before us. Other books come out of the cold with a singular mission, which is to find a pattern — connecting the dots — between [...]
Neo-Nazism
If neo-Nazism would die, several necessary and positive things could happen. Honest conservatives, whose ideology inherently includes nationalism, could gain more power. People could stop wasting their time on a self-isolating movement that undermines its own members. Minorities could avoid the risk of hate crime. And no one would have to hear the horrible two-note [...]
Out of touch
When we go through life, we feel a schizophrenic disconnect between what we think we’re doing and the results we see in reality. Think about the political programs you read about in the news. Almost none of them achieve their desired effect; some do, “on paper,” meaning that they meet some arbitrary targets but don’t [...]
“Educated” people
Let’s talk about the word “educated.” It’s a snotty little word, when you think about it. It’s a way we can both insist that we are all equal, and still be elitist. In the past, people were chosen for an elite based on who their parents were (which makes sense, given that most traits are [...]
Occupy irrelevance
All revolutions are bunk. Honest people see a broken system, and find a way to get ahead in it, and then change it from a position of power. A revolution is the contrary impulse: throwing out the whole thing and starting from scratch. This would make sense if all of it were bad, but for [...]
