Good Times in D.C.

 

Collapsing or Thriving?

Is the West collapsing, or is it thriving? On the evidence, it can be hard to tell. The correct answer might be some of both. In the arena of culture, the inheritance of the West is in decline; in regard to the institutions of civilization, it still advances. The meaning of this, and how it has happened, are questions that do not admit of easy answers. Will the attack on Western ideas and ideals lead to a collapse of the civilizational institutions that arose from them? Or might the continuing strength of those institutions provoke a revival of those ideas?

- James Piereson, "Culture Against Civilization" - The New Criterion, May 2022

Crank It Up

 

"Space Captain."

Productivity Boosters

Nicholas Bate has a nifty list. Jump right to the one about the f-word.

[Photo by Sophi Raju at Unsplash.]

Intellectual Candy Shop

 

I still have the above book, which I bought in 1966 for an Introduction to Government class. It cost 75 cents. [Money well spent.] 

Some people thought the class was boring. I thought it was fascinating.

Excerpt

For weeks after, Moscow-based state news agencies made no mention of the ongoing disaster. Nor did Communist Party General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev. Six days after the explosion, as nuclear fragments continued to rain down from Chernobyl's toxic cloud, party officials evacuated their own children to safety on the Crimean peninsula, even as they instructed Ukraine's citizens to carry on with their annual May Day parade. Just sixty miles south of Chernobyl's ground zero, thousands of people - including countless children - marched down Kyiv's main drag of Khreschatyk Street. They carried flowers, flags, and portraits of Soviet leaders, unaware that those same leaders had knowingly exposed them to the fallout of one of the worst industrial disasters in history.

- From Sandworm: A New Era of Cyberwar and the Hunt for the Kremlin's Most Dangerous Hackers by Andy Greenberg

An Intellectual Prison

 Quillette: Bo Winegard describes his experience.

They will defend unto death your right to agree with them.

Hmm

 

BUMMER

 Seems like a good moment to coin an acronym so I don't have to repeat, over and over, the same account of the pieces that make up the problem. How about "Behaviors of Users Modified, and Made into an Empire for Rent"? BUMMER.

- Jaron Lanier, Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now 

Don't Judge Me Populism

 Abigail Shrier on J.D. Vance and the "don't judge me" culture. An excerpt:

 “It’s one thing to take an appreciation that cultural circumstances matter,” Vance said to me, of his approach. “It’s another thing to wag your finger at people and tell them the reason they’re not doing better is because they’re just making bad choices. And I think conservatives have to be able to hold two thoughts in their head at the same time: Personal responsibility does really matter; we don’t want to tell everybody that they’re a victim… But also people’s circumstances matter too.”