To impose a centrally dictated objective, and a unidimensional one to boot, on complex societies comprised of billions of individuals with extremely diverse preferences and capabilities is to wage war on human nature, and humanity. Sustaining it necessarily requires the application of massive, and massively increasing, coercion. It requires people to “choose” what they would not choose of their own volition.
The experts are nothing if not certain about what (if anything) you should know and when (if ever) you should know it. And by all indications, that’s not likely to change anytime soon. In the profound words of the multi-talentless Kamala Harris, “It is time for us to do what we have been doing, and that time is every day.”
Sunetra Gupta, epidemiologist at Oxford University and a prolific historian and novelist, and a contributor at Brownstone Institute, speaks to Jeffrey Tucker of Brownstone about the brutal attack on democracy and equality that came with lockdowns, and how they unleashed a reactionary spirit in the world in which we were all invited to divide society by class, race, profession, and political compliance with mandates.
Lockdowns Shredded the Social Contract: Interview with Sunetra Gupta Read More
In these times of summarily rejecting people we disagree with or treating those with differing opinions as dangerous or diseased, I have felt led to remember what I would have missed if I had rejected certain people with whom I disagreed on significant issues but from whom I had also received wonderful gifts.
The Urge to Shame, Purge, and Exclude Diminishes Ourselves Read More
The moral problem here is that, regardless of intent, a participant in a declarative fad is knowingly and personally benefiting from an injustice without doing anything to put right the wrong from which that personal benefit is being extracted. To do so is to benefit slightly from the very injustice at issue without providing at least as much benefit to anyone else.
How Signaling Turns Virtue Into Vice Read More
The theme of Tchaikovsky‘s 1812 Overture is a truly horrific event that took place when a despot lost his sense of reality. Precisely because of this, performing it is never more fitting than now, when yet another despot has gone too far. The failure to realize this signifies we have lost our relationship with the very values by which we define our culture.
The Cancellation of Tchaikovsky Read More
Although individuals may be faring better, the profound damage to religious institutions is also quite remarkable. Charitable giving at many places of worship dropped precipitously during the pandemic. Many churches took government PPE funds to help weather the financial storm, but those funds only lasted for so long.
Lockdowns Had a Devastating Impact on Religion Read More
Our response to the pandemic not only elevated false authority, built on ideas disconnected from the realities of human existence, and not only did it create a system of idolatry, of symbols which were used to mediate this authority; but furthermore that system of idolatry was welcomed in and installed within the very hearts of Jewish communities, and therefore in many ways we directly relived that destruction ourselves, which is so powerfully described in the Book of Lamentations.
The Missing Progressive Jewish Response Read More
The event: “Medicine, Science and Public Health: Restoring Trust and International Ethical Principles,” premiered March 20, 2022. What follows is a complete transcript of this important meeting.
Concerned Ontario Doctors’ Covid-19 Summit Part II: Complete Transcript Read More
It is not only about resistance but also rebuilding, not giving up on the dream of peace and prosperity, along with logic, science, and truth, even when so many have stopped believing. We welcome supporters of this vision. Indeed we need you and so does the future of civilization.
The Moral Imperative of Sanctuary Read More
Trust in government and its ability to solve problems has always tended to be higher in more urban areas. Government solutions tend to constrain individual action, and this too tends to be tolerated more in more populated areas. Across cultures and times, areas of higher population density have been associated with more politically and culturally progressive attitudes, manifested in a greater willingness to trust governmental power and to follow its lead.
How Proximity Makes Progressives Read More
Now that the population has gotten used to one form of mobilization and a sizable fraction has found it enjoys the opportunities that mobilization opens up for bullying, new mobilizations for new excuses will be harder to resist.
Crowd Creation: A New Political Tool Read More
