We played badly at the park for whomever had the courage to leave their house and brave our music. I thought of every note I played into the world as an impenetrable shield against the Sword of Damocles threatening our existence.
The only thing that the current, deliberately orchestrated onslaught against culture has in common with Spengler’s diagnosis, a century ago, of the demise of Western culture, is precisely that: the controlled demise of culture. Except that, for Spengler, this was an inescapable process that unfolded in the course of centuries (going back to the European Renaissance), whereas at present we are witnessing a hubristic, megalomaniacal attempt to torpedo both Western and other cultures for the sake of retaining financial and hence, political control over world affairs.
The people who grasp at the fire of Prometheus are all very frightening. They are brilliant, true. They have the capacity to do great things, and have accomplished them. But it’s easy to see how they can be seduced by their desire for knowledge, the fruit of the tree, access to fire.
The “expert” class is nothing special in intelligence. If anything this is a clarion call to the general masses of the US to stop assuming the “experts” know something. You can use the same search engines as they do to learn facts, and together we far, far outstrip the intelligence of all the experts put together.
Don’t Assume that Experts Know Something You Do Not Read More
The social class that has received university education during the last thirty years has taken control of our institutions without assuming the responsibilities that go with this power. As a result we find ourselves in a society that depends on experts who, seeing the people as a manipulable mass, systematically ignore their will. They seek power but no longer even try to establish the moral authority required for the exercise of respectful leadership.
The revolution we seek then is about a turn away from the artificial and ridiculous toward the real. That would seem to be the most natural and rewarding turn of all. But the human condition and the flaws in human nature are such that we are always fighting a battle against the temptations of the artificial and idolatrous. Together we must build an entire culture and economy based on cherishing the good, the true, and the beautiful in everyday life.
Our planet is a very complex set of ecosystems that have lifespans far beyond even human existence, some working together and some in competition. Most of these we have not even begun to understand and we have only begun to collect data. Our knowledge of our ecosystem history is only slowly gaining (and it is not aided by avoiding debate and cherry-picking data).
The Rise and Rhetoric of the Climate Chicken Littles Read More
The Covid epoch was injection normativity on anabolic steroids. Injection makers and mandators asserted hegemony by popularizing their preferences as “normal.” They created power dynamics and hierarchy, social structures pressuring everyone toward compulsory protein production. They thereby stigmatized the “other” – the injection questioning and injection nonconforming.
One of the cardinal precepts of today’s Machiavellians and their esoteric court philosophers is the imperative of rewriting the operative rules early and often to the point where only the most stubborn and mindful among the rubes have the will to object to their carefully planned campaigns of moral disorientation.
The Cunning Tyranny of Abstract Notions of the “Common Good” Read More
In keeping with the narrative of the original story, a fitting response from ‘the Man’ would be to grant the government its wish. If they really never want to hear of us again, we should accommodate them in that foolish claim. They can be a Country without a Man.
If we survive the current crisis, it will be because of this new coalition of disaffected Democrats together with evangelical Christians and “small l” libertarians who reject postmodernism, authoritarianism, and fascism and fight with everything we’ve got for freedom, rationality, and common sense.
Capital, Postmodernism, and Left Authoritarianism: The Unholy Alliance Read More
How amazing it is when we can keep one another alive. How extraordinary it is when we can feed one another. What a revelation it is when we can see one another – not as monsters; but simply as living beings, who are always hungry; for nurture, for understanding, and for love.
