The Conservative icon we in the US need, the antidote to “Wokism,” “doomerism,” adolescent depression, climate change, fertility decline, Bernie Sanders, Chinese-Russian expansionism, is … JFK: “Ask not …” “Not because it is easy but because it is hard”. Brink Linsey’s advocacy of Prometheansm gets the spirit right.
That this temporarily misplaced Golden Age coincided with when I was 21 “serving” (ha!) in the Peace Corps is pure coincidental. 😊
Good joke about Bari Weiss, but to be fair to her, the hatred came first and the subscriptions are, at least partly, a response to that. Both sides can play the "hatred will not win" card, although her substack does cover a broad range of topics and is admirably open to.
I think I agree with Bernie Sanders about CEO pay and billionaires, although he doesn't suggest a solution (and I fear that higher taxes will mean they only pay themselves MORE). Whenever I see the sentiment "billionaires shouldn't exist" on Twitter, though, it always seems to mean "if we put Bezos, Gates, Musk, Trump, and JK Rowling against a wall, things will go back to how they should be" and I'm instinctively against that. (Rowling being so rich shows that this is partly a matter of scale; she just massively outsells other writers.)
A modern phenomena is older people living as if they are younger. My grandparents' generation seemed to accept turning 65 or 70 as becoming old and behaved accordingly. My parents' generation is now in their mid to late 70s and are vigorous and active. My 80 year old godparents still sail from the US to the Bahamas every year, wintering there and then returning back to the US. At 80!
I am in my early (ahem, increasingly mid) 40s and you do notice people starting to age at different paces. Health, fitness, appearances all go in different directions, making those school reunions awkward, to say the least!
Re Bernie Sanders, America is certainly in a flux. The white working classes and growing share of the Latino working classes have swung decisively Republican. The professional upper middle and upper classes have swung decisively Democratic. Weird times. His failure is that America doesn't hate billionaires and class war has rarely played out well in the United States, being a pet project of Brooklyn hipsters, usually from affluent backgrounds. And particularly problematic for Sanders is that the billionaires, particularly in big tech, founded companies that employ hundreds of thousands of highly paid professionals and are faces of modern liberal progressive wealth and the modern upper middle classes. Based on these factors, if class revolution was to come, it'd have to come from a now staunchly Republican voting bloc.... can one see that happening? Actually, perhaps, yes, one can.
Maybe we feel younger than we are because, according to the general experience of the human species, we shouldn't have lived this long. The article is paywalled, so I'll never know Jennifer Senior's (snicker) opinion, but who cares what she thinks?
I was surprised the other day when the grocery clerk took the 5% "senior discount" off my purchases without asking, but oh, well. I sure didn't pull out my driver's license to prove I'm not 60 yet.
As I look out of a train window across the rolling empty expanses of France, in this moment, I'm grateful for those bourgeois ideals that prevented another 200 million people appearing here. Hideously selfish of me, of course.
The Conservative icon we in the US need, the antidote to “Wokism,” “doomerism,” adolescent depression, climate change, fertility decline, Bernie Sanders, Chinese-Russian expansionism, is … JFK: “Ask not …” “Not because it is easy but because it is hard”. Brink Linsey’s advocacy of Prometheansm gets the spirit right.
That this temporarily misplaced Golden Age coincided with when I was 21 “serving” (ha!) in the Peace Corps is pure coincidental. 😊
I mentioned this on Connor's substack but I think the level of consensus in post independence Ireland is over stated.
"Blame the French" sounds like a solid historical thesis TBF
Good joke about Bari Weiss, but to be fair to her, the hatred came first and the subscriptions are, at least partly, a response to that. Both sides can play the "hatred will not win" card, although her substack does cover a broad range of topics and is admirably open to.
I think I agree with Bernie Sanders about CEO pay and billionaires, although he doesn't suggest a solution (and I fear that higher taxes will mean they only pay themselves MORE). Whenever I see the sentiment "billionaires shouldn't exist" on Twitter, though, it always seems to mean "if we put Bezos, Gates, Musk, Trump, and JK Rowling against a wall, things will go back to how they should be" and I'm instinctively against that. (Rowling being so rich shows that this is partly a matter of scale; she just massively outsells other writers.)
A modern phenomena is older people living as if they are younger. My grandparents' generation seemed to accept turning 65 or 70 as becoming old and behaved accordingly. My parents' generation is now in their mid to late 70s and are vigorous and active. My 80 year old godparents still sail from the US to the Bahamas every year, wintering there and then returning back to the US. At 80!
I am in my early (ahem, increasingly mid) 40s and you do notice people starting to age at different paces. Health, fitness, appearances all go in different directions, making those school reunions awkward, to say the least!
Re Bernie Sanders, America is certainly in a flux. The white working classes and growing share of the Latino working classes have swung decisively Republican. The professional upper middle and upper classes have swung decisively Democratic. Weird times. His failure is that America doesn't hate billionaires and class war has rarely played out well in the United States, being a pet project of Brooklyn hipsters, usually from affluent backgrounds. And particularly problematic for Sanders is that the billionaires, particularly in big tech, founded companies that employ hundreds of thousands of highly paid professionals and are faces of modern liberal progressive wealth and the modern upper middle classes. Based on these factors, if class revolution was to come, it'd have to come from a now staunchly Republican voting bloc.... can one see that happening? Actually, perhaps, yes, one can.
Maybe we feel younger than we are because, according to the general experience of the human species, we shouldn't have lived this long. The article is paywalled, so I'll never know Jennifer Senior's (snicker) opinion, but who cares what she thinks?
I was surprised the other day when the grocery clerk took the 5% "senior discount" off my purchases without asking, but oh, well. I sure didn't pull out my driver's license to prove I'm not 60 yet.
"Ireland also adopted Christianity very quickly, and with very little in the way of internal conflict."
It gets weirder when you consider that Ireland was never part of the Greco-Roman world either.
Good interview with William Clouston by the way.
As I look out of a train window across the rolling empty expanses of France, in this moment, I'm grateful for those bourgeois ideals that prevented another 200 million people appearing here. Hideously selfish of me, of course.
You look younger than me Ed.