My latest at the Belmont Club. When two groups decide to divorce they build increasingly separate lives. Although competition will predominate, conflict is also inevitable because of the winner take all nature of the game.
The Certitude of True Believers
My latest at PJMedia VIP. Activists who would change the world want history’s approval in advance. Alas, sometimes history has other ideas.
We Should Know What History Says Before It Happens
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way…”. So begins Charles Dickens’ famous opening paragraph in “A Tale of Two Cities.” By setting his story in the days of the French Revolution, at a distance of time from publication nearly equal to that between our present and WW2, Dickens is able ask the same question of a different generation. What would they have done had they lived in 18th century France? Be as vengeful as Madame Defarge or as self-sacrificing as Sydney Carton?
AI to the Rescue
Religion in Disguise
My latest at the Belmont Club. How a 19th century theory that failed in economics returned as a 21st century theory of everything.
Belmont Club: The Woke God
The writer James Lindsay said in a talk (here available on YouTube) before the European Parliament that ‘Marx was not an economist. He was a theologian’. Lindsay, described in Wikipedia as a promoter of right-wing conspiracy theories, goes on to describe how 20th-century Marxists, disheartened by the failure of the abolition of economic property to create wealth, expanded their evangelical model to include other types of properties. Race, civilization, and even sexual normalcy were all regarded as oppressive advantages that had to be mocked, abolished, and otherwise scattered for “equity” — the great leveling — to be achieved. This expanded their audience considerably and allowed them to expand beyond the traditional working class.
Don’t Run Too Far, Reb.
My latest at PJMedia VIP. A cold civil war where the hated Other still needs to pay his taxes.
Birth of the Nations
There is considerable speculation about where the “cold civil war” alleged to be taking place in the West might be headed. “Is there any possibility of healing the rift and bridging the polarized gap?” From confrontation videos of pro-Hamas demonstrators versus their opponents it seems the answer is no. Both sides of the divide have increasingly set their faces and hardened their hearts. They are no longer attempting to persuade the Other. They are restating their beliefs with no intention of changing them.
Avoiding Catastrophe
My latest at the Belmont Club. You don’t walk but stumble into conflict.
Belmont Club: Flashpoints
It’s a tough time for those awaiting the End of History, “a state in which human life continues indefinitely into the future without any further major changes in society, system of governance, or economics.” The safe harbor we sought has eluded us; we seem to be reliving the bad old days, when good and evil fought for the dominion of the world. One bad sign, as Mike Studeman in War on the Rocks observes, is that China is embarked in absolute terms on perhaps the greatest military buildup the world has ever seen. “Despite … China’s recent economic setbacks and faux conciliations … Xi is militarizing Chinese society and steeling his country for a potential high-intensity war.” His theory is the buildup is happening for a reason.
Our Immaterial World
My latest at PJMedia VIP. In a century where information and sentience have become tangible realities, governments will do anything to control the collective mind. The next big industry is censorship.
The Battle for Your Soul
How do you regard people who set themselves on fire? Like Max Azzarello or Aaron Bushnell, the USAF airman who burned himself to protest Israel’s actions in Gaza? Or people who write manifestos, like Karl Marx, the Unabomber or Azzarello? Are they martyrs or cranks? Prophets or paranoid? Self-proclaimed “investigative researcher” Max Azzarello posted a repetitive message to his Instagram story just minutes before setting himself on fire outside of former President Donald Trump’s Manhattan criminal trial on Friday.
Beware the Singleton
China Syndrome
My latest at PJMedia VIP. The population doomsters may have prevented the rise of China by persuading Beijing to kill its children. How people become valuable again.
From Useless Eaters to the Stuff Dreams Are Made On
Through some cosmic accident, Stanford entomologist Paul Ehrlich, author of “The Population Bomb,” may have saved American power by sabotaging the rise of China. The trouble was, China listened to him. Early editions of the 1968 book began with this grim vision of an overpopulated world starving itself to death:
The Holy Ghost
New at the Belmont Club. Why has religion frequently been viewed as a threat by worldly leaders? Something to be repressed, replaced or derided?
Dark Waters
My latest at the Belmont Club. With the battlefront static, the war in Ukraine has become a war of logistics in which deep strikes are critical. This creates a problem for Washington: do they embrace stalemate or try to break it?
Belmont Club: Is the Black Sea Fleet Still a Factor?
Is the Black Sea Fleet no more? Recent attacks by drones and missiles have whittled it down to a shadow of its former self. Grant Shapps, the UK secretary of state for defense, said, “Putin’s continued illegal occupation of Ukraine is exacting a massive cost on Russia’s Black Sea Fleet which is now functionally inactive. Russia has sailed the Black Sea since 1783 but is now forced to constrain its fleet to port. And even there Putin’s ships are sinking!”
A Change in Priorities
We Promise You Hell On Earth
Our Secret History
My latest at the Belmont Club. The Western world thinks of itself as secular and rational. But is it?
Belmont Club: Monsters We Have Known
One of the controversies surrounding the coverage of the chaos in Haiti has been the reluctance of mainstream outlets to mention such matters as voodoo and cannibalism in connection with gang violence, as if the influence of the occult and barbaric were somehow anti-black or racist. But it is universal. Ironically, the idea of the “zombie,” derived from African word “zonbi,” was popularized by William Seabrook, an ex-reporter at the NYT who was a friend of English occultist Aleister Crowley. “Seabrook had a lifelong fascination with the occult, which he witnessed and described firsthand both in Third World countries, as documented in The Magic Island (1929) and Jungle Ways (1930).”
The Narrow Ways
My latest at PJMedia VIP. In the last few years both maritime traffic and navies have been challenged in the Black Sea and Red Sea. The world waits with bated breath for a similar challenge in the South China Sea.
The Challenge of the Littoral
The Russian Black Sea Fleet may have just lost another ship to the Ukrainians. “Ukrainian intelligence says seven people have been killed and six more injured after a Russian patrol ship was hit and sunk in a sea drone attack,” the BBC is reporting. “The Sergei Kotov was allegedly hit in the early hours of Tuesday morning.” The Kotov is a Project 22160 patrol ship belonging to the Russian Navy. From Wikipedia:
None So Blind
New at the Belmont Club. Why Woke censorship is so powerful and so dangerous.
Belmont Club: Why DEI Is So Powerful
The biggest threat posed by censorship is the objective effect of suppressing the facts, which is far more consequential than any resentment a dissident group may feel. Censorship is like plucking out the eyes of an individual but multiplied by millions because it affects not merely a single person but a whole population.
Second Anniversary
New at the Belmont Club. The long war in Ukraine. The second anniversary of what pundits reckoned would last two weeks.
Belmont Club: The Surprising Indeterminacy of the War in Ukraine
It’s been two years since the beginning of the war in Ukraine and the big news is there has been no battlefield decision, something few would have predicted in 2022. It’s hard to say who is even winning. Putin wants victory more than Biden, a fact reflected by Russia’s huge war production of arty ammo and manpower mobilization but the Kremlin is paying for it by starving its economy and military of innovation investment.
The Lure of the Perfect
My latest at PJMedia VIP. Everyone should want World Government to fix Climate Change and to obtain Global Justice, right? That’s what all the visionaries tell us. But nothing could be more dangerous.
The Conqueror and the Prophet
Imagine you are teaching high school and ask the question: “Who has more authority: the World Government Summit or the World Economic Forum?” What answers would you expect to get? Probably that whatever authority these had it was not enough. World government is one of those evergreen ideas that was popular in both ancient times and in science fiction but never realized in the present. As an historical concept it has taken many forms, from the Chinese “all under heaven” to res publica totius orbis, the “republic of the whole world.” In sci-fi “well-known examples include the ‘World State’ in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, the ‘Dictatorship of the Air’ in H. G. Wells’ The Shape of Things to Come, the United Nations in James S. A Corey’s The Expanse, and United Earth (amongst other planetary sovereignties and even larger polities) in the Star Trek franchise.”
America Version 2
New at the Belmont Club. The end of history won’t last forever. But will America risk creating the successor to its own unipolar moment?
Belmont Club: Taking a Chance on Risk
It’s been nearly 40 years since the Berlin Wall collapsed and the end of history arrived. While most people welcomed the peace and prosperity the interim has brought, the organic evolution of the world has been stunted, forced into a straitjacket and grown misshapen. Our predicament is that we fear the bad old 20th century and yet the shoes we walked out of its ruins with are pinching our 21st century feet. No one feels the contradiction more than the hegemon itself. Is there any way for America to relax the reins on the world order stagecoach without risking a team of runaway horses?
