What a great round up! Just returned from a delightful European trip. I heard a lot about “collective guilt”(visited Cologne, Munich, Vienna) which I find a troubling concept. My tour guide in Vienna extolled the high taxes and gently mocked concerns about immigration. I am gathering a collection of prints of the remarkable Cathedrals.
I don't – despite the barracking of a few friends – consider myself to be on the right, but for someone of even moderate intellectual curiosity the left is often an uncomfortable place to be.
Certainly when a sizable percentage of people left over centre regard the "Age of Reason" as inherently the problem and believe their should be no personal freedom, associational variety or truth outside hierarchies of victimhood. See 2:40-2:50 of this clip from Star Trek:TNG.
Thanks for the roundup. Louise Perry often mentions the changes to eligibility for social housing in the 1970s. Sounded very caring to prioritise need, but the respectable poor who worked hard and kept to the rules would lose out. Social housing especially in London is an expensive asset and was meant to be deployed carefully, for the working end of the working classes, which would also allow the need for low paid jobs to be met locally.
"I wonder if the left feels intellectually exhausted because they’ve become comfortable with the idea that their opponents are morally wrong, which means that they don’t need to stress test their own arguments. Immigration is an obvious example of this, with so many arguments designed to outwit a dim racist uncle but which prove to be quite inadequate when faced with actual data about historical inflows, relative economic contribution by nationality, per capita crime rates and the literature about social capital and state vulnerability. In contrast, if your side is handicapped by moral distaste, much of it well-earned, you need to think harder to justify your argument."
Well, Nietzsche once stated (with reference to disdaining Socrates) that arguing is for weak people. Those who lack the will or (especially) power to simply command others what to do.
Since in the 1960s, many leftists were openly and widely regarded as degenerates, freaks, and potential communist subversives, they had to be more Socratic I think. Now, those who at least cite their ideas simply "don't argue, command ".
To be fair to those town planners in Birmingham, I think a certain notorious group of other 20th-century figures played a part in reshaping the look of the city centre quite drastically...
"I was also very surprised to learn, from writing this piece, that while Sikhs have quite average crime levels, Hindus are imprisoned at about one-sixth their rate, something I wouldn’t have guessed. Hindus really are god(s) tier immigrants"
They are also one of the last loyal demographics for the Tories according to this post:
"The system also encourages people to use local elections to express their frustration with national government by voting for a local council which can do nothing about immigration, the national economy, the NHS and certainly not Gaza."
That's what we have to deal with nowadays in Harris County, Texas, where Houston is located. Local elections can have international consequences, however. I hope the mismanagment of public infrastructure in "The Energy Capital of the World" doesn't go so far as to affect global energy prices, but it's easy to see how it could.
So much good stuff here, but the observation about the mental health crisis is 🎯 (Well I think therapy culture, which is clearly downstream of the cult of Freud, and people wanting to have the status symbol of affording therapy and understanding it, is also to blame. By "understanding it I mean that Freud was clearly incredibly bright, and even when he's writing nonsense (as he was a lot of the time), it was interesting nonsense and the sort that only intelligent people could find interesting. I've thought this before, but was reminded of it by a case on Twitter where someone's child killed themselves after therapy by a therapist who, from the evidence presented, couldn't grok what "trauma" actually means. Sorry, as always for the tangent.)
I liked your tongue-in-cheek cyclist’s annoyance with slow-moving pedestrians who selfishly block the pavement/sidewalk/footway and huff and puff when you nip through a crossing’s red light. I would add the motorists who object to crawling along behind a biker going up a hilly and narrow country lane, only to watch them fly down the other side before slowing to a crawl on the next hill. It’s even worse when we ride two-abreast!
"I also wrote about the surge in British anti-Americanism, ‘the socialism of midwits’; afterwards I appeared on the Spectator Americano podcast talking about it. On a vaguely related subject, I finally published my piece about San Francisco (with one error)."
In the aftermath of the Vietnam War, there was one prominent Canadian commentator who addressed anti-Americanism:
Regarding your bit on the dearth of births in London, according to this forecast, Britain will be the second-most populated country in Europe after Russia by the end of the century:
"Neil O’Brien wrote about political indoctrination in schools. Back in the days of New Atheism it used to be a running conversation that the churches were using schools to indoctrinate children, admittedly an old debate; having been to a Catholic state school in the 90s and seen my children at secular state schools in the 2020s, the degree of indoctrination seems far more extreme in the latter. At least in church schools, religion is largely kept to RE and assemblies, and many of the teachers weren’t believers. The teaching profession is incredibly skewed politically and it shows."
A big part of the reason I think as to why the more, shall-we-say, controversial ideas in education schools didn't really leak out en masse until the George Floyd riots in spite of being there for almost half a century (though there was also the "loony left" of many British cities in the 1980s) is that very ultra-progressive nature of those ideas makes them anti-enforcement.
My little sister is currently an on-call high school teacher for our local school board. She usually manages to find a position somewhere once every weekday. According to her, they regularly hammer home the message at university about the need for an "equalization" of power between teachers and students. This ultimately goes back to Paulo Freire's disparaging of the "banking theory of education " and the notion that a teacher should be a "guide on the side, not a sage on the stage". They also rail against "punitive" discipline.
Subsequently, many classrooms have more that atmosphere of To Sir With Love (1967) with tablets than a Maoist Laogai camp. I have generally found this to be true on occasion as a supply librarian for the elementary grades as well.
"I suspect that the new moral certainty of the 21st century has made these feelings more intense. One of the great strengths of Christian teaching was the importance it placed on wrestling with one’s conscience. The good Christian did not bask in his own moral certainty, seeing himself as the lone man who refused to salute Hitler, confident of being on the right side of history; there is more moral certainty among today’s believers. I don’t claim to be a great intellectual or a very moral person, but I do struggle with my beliefs, and I don’t feel good believing what I do. But it’s probably good to feel torn about a subject."
Speaking of refusing to salute Hitler, it was largely (and especially Catholic) theologians who protested Aktion T-4, the infamous decree by the Third Reich to liquidate the disabled):
What a great round up! Just returned from a delightful European trip. I heard a lot about “collective guilt”(visited Cologne, Munich, Vienna) which I find a troubling concept. My tour guide in Vienna extolled the high taxes and gently mocked concerns about immigration. I am gathering a collection of prints of the remarkable Cathedrals.
Vienna is beautiful
It's not a new concept as Steve Sailer noted a while back:
https://www.takimag.com/article/corruption_of_blood_steve_sailer/
I don't – despite the barracking of a few friends – consider myself to be on the right, but for someone of even moderate intellectual curiosity the left is often an uncomfortable place to be.
Certainly when a sizable percentage of people left over centre regard the "Age of Reason" as inherently the problem and believe their should be no personal freedom, associational variety or truth outside hierarchies of victimhood. See 2:40-2:50 of this clip from Star Trek:TNG.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CRDlEBM99yU&pp=0gcJCT4LAYcqIYzv
Thanks for the roundup. Louise Perry often mentions the changes to eligibility for social housing in the 1970s. Sounded very caring to prioritise need, but the respectable poor who worked hard and kept to the rules would lose out. Social housing especially in London is an expensive asset and was meant to be deployed carefully, for the working end of the working classes, which would also allow the need for low paid jobs to be met locally.
"I wonder if the left feels intellectually exhausted because they’ve become comfortable with the idea that their opponents are morally wrong, which means that they don’t need to stress test their own arguments. Immigration is an obvious example of this, with so many arguments designed to outwit a dim racist uncle but which prove to be quite inadequate when faced with actual data about historical inflows, relative economic contribution by nationality, per capita crime rates and the literature about social capital and state vulnerability. In contrast, if your side is handicapped by moral distaste, much of it well-earned, you need to think harder to justify your argument."
Well, Nietzsche once stated (with reference to disdaining Socrates) that arguing is for weak people. Those who lack the will or (especially) power to simply command others what to do.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WC732I5len8
https://medium.com/write-a-catalyst/why-i-stopped-arguing-788383fee27d
He was kind of proto-DiAngeloan in that regard!!!
Since in the 1960s, many leftists were openly and widely regarded as degenerates, freaks, and potential communist subversives, they had to be more Socratic I think. Now, those who at least cite their ideas simply "don't argue, command ".
To be fair to those town planners in Birmingham, I think a certain notorious group of other 20th-century figures played a part in reshaping the look of the city centre quite drastically...
"I was also very surprised to learn, from writing this piece, that while Sikhs have quite average crime levels, Hindus are imprisoned at about one-sixth their rate, something I wouldn’t have guessed. Hindus really are god(s) tier immigrants"
They are also one of the last loyal demographics for the Tories according to this post:
"People who still vote Conservative:
1) Orthodox Jews
2) Hindutva
3) Very right wing members of the CofE
4) Farmers
These are some of the best people."
https://x.com/ToryRebuttal/status/1936463919167488264
True
I don't get this eclectic mix from any other substack!
"The system also encourages people to use local elections to express their frustration with national government by voting for a local council which can do nothing about immigration, the national economy, the NHS and certainly not Gaza."
That's what we have to deal with nowadays in Harris County, Texas, where Houston is located. Local elections can have international consequences, however. I hope the mismanagment of public infrastructure in "The Energy Capital of the World" doesn't go so far as to affect global energy prices, but it's easy to see how it could.
So much good stuff here, but the observation about the mental health crisis is 🎯 (Well I think therapy culture, which is clearly downstream of the cult of Freud, and people wanting to have the status symbol of affording therapy and understanding it, is also to blame. By "understanding it I mean that Freud was clearly incredibly bright, and even when he's writing nonsense (as he was a lot of the time), it was interesting nonsense and the sort that only intelligent people could find interesting. I've thought this before, but was reminded of it by a case on Twitter where someone's child killed themselves after therapy by a therapist who, from the evidence presented, couldn't grok what "trauma" actually means. Sorry, as always for the tangent.)
I liked your tongue-in-cheek cyclist’s annoyance with slow-moving pedestrians who selfishly block the pavement/sidewalk/footway and huff and puff when you nip through a crossing’s red light. I would add the motorists who object to crawling along behind a biker going up a hilly and narrow country lane, only to watch them fly down the other side before slowing to a crawl on the next hill. It’s even worse when we ride two-abreast!
"I also wrote about the surge in British anti-Americanism, ‘the socialism of midwits’; afterwards I appeared on the Spectator Americano podcast talking about it. On a vaguely related subject, I finally published my piece about San Francisco (with one error)."
In the aftermath of the Vietnam War, there was one prominent Canadian commentator who addressed anti-Americanism:
https://www.tysknews.com/Depts/Our_Culture/americans.htm
Does the number of Hindus in the armed forces exclude Gurkhas?
Yes good point. Thats kind of obvious now I think about it
Regarding your bit on the dearth of births in London, according to this forecast, Britain will be the second-most populated country in Europe after Russia by the end of the century:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kPlJIpIzg7o
"Neil O’Brien wrote about political indoctrination in schools. Back in the days of New Atheism it used to be a running conversation that the churches were using schools to indoctrinate children, admittedly an old debate; having been to a Catholic state school in the 90s and seen my children at secular state schools in the 2020s, the degree of indoctrination seems far more extreme in the latter. At least in church schools, religion is largely kept to RE and assemblies, and many of the teachers weren’t believers. The teaching profession is incredibly skewed politically and it shows."
A big part of the reason I think as to why the more, shall-we-say, controversial ideas in education schools didn't really leak out en masse until the George Floyd riots in spite of being there for almost half a century (though there was also the "loony left" of many British cities in the 1980s) is that very ultra-progressive nature of those ideas makes them anti-enforcement.
My little sister is currently an on-call high school teacher for our local school board. She usually manages to find a position somewhere once every weekday. According to her, they regularly hammer home the message at university about the need for an "equalization" of power between teachers and students. This ultimately goes back to Paulo Freire's disparaging of the "banking theory of education " and the notion that a teacher should be a "guide on the side, not a sage on the stage". They also rail against "punitive" discipline.
Subsequently, many classrooms have more that atmosphere of To Sir With Love (1967) with tablets than a Maoist Laogai camp. I have generally found this to be true on occasion as a supply librarian for the elementary grades as well.
"I suspect that the new moral certainty of the 21st century has made these feelings more intense. One of the great strengths of Christian teaching was the importance it placed on wrestling with one’s conscience. The good Christian did not bask in his own moral certainty, seeing himself as the lone man who refused to salute Hitler, confident of being on the right side of history; there is more moral certainty among today’s believers. I don’t claim to be a great intellectual or a very moral person, but I do struggle with my beliefs, and I don’t feel good believing what I do. But it’s probably good to feel torn about a subject."
Speaking of refusing to salute Hitler, it was largely (and especially Catholic) theologians who protested Aktion T-4, the infamous decree by the Third Reich to liquidate the disabled):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aktion_T4
The Reich surprisingly did not just arrest the bishops, et al., and officially cancelled the program though continued more elements of it covertly.
intellectual incuriosity 🫶🏼