"As has been pointed out, this is a total vindication of Francis Fukuyama’s The End of History. In his book, often misunderstood, he warned that among the threats facing western democracies would be a lack of meaning driving people towards zero-sum prestige competitions, especially through thymos, broadly defined as a ‘desire for recognition"
Another remarkably prophetic quote (particularly in the context of COVID-19) was that elites may turn against the ideals of liberal democracy out of simple boredom and the need to struggle against something:
"But supposing the world has become “filled up”, so to speak, with liberal democracies, such as there exist no tyranny and oppression worthy of the name against which to struggle? Experience suggests that if men cannot struggle on behalf of a just cause because that just cause was victorious in an earlier generation, then they will struggle against the just cause. They will struggle for the sake of struggle. They will struggle, in other words, out of a certain boredom: for they cannot imagine living in a world without struggle. And if the greater part of the world in which they live is characterized by peaceful and prosperous liberal democracy, then they will struggle against that peace and prosperity, and against democracy."
Fukuyama's "men seek not just material comfort, but respect or recognition, and they believe that they are worthy of respect because they possess a certain value or dignity," is pleasantly reminiscent of Adam Smith, who said nature had bequeathed mankind “not only with a desire of being approved of, but with a desire of being what ought to be approved of; or of being what he himself approves of in other men." The desire for recognition that Fukuyama spoke of becomes productive if it's turned towards something of value. "The first desire could only have made him wish to appear to be fit for society," Smith continued, "the second was necessary in order to render him anxious to be really fit.”
CA Lewis: “Where men are forbidden to honour a king they honour millionaires, athletes, or film stars instead: even famous prostitutes or gangsters. For spiritual nature, like bodily nature will be served; deny it food and it will gobble poison.”
You read up on prehistoric and even some medieval and early modern violence stuff and it's always "attack the brain."
It's funny because in fictional depictions of old times combat it's never "force someone to kneel then whack them in the back of the head", but that seems to have been the default.
I think there's a really interesting post to be done on 'history explained by traumatic brain injury'. Henry VIII and Stalin were both badly whacked on the head.
Dear author, I have given you a hard time before for being anti-Trump. This lady captures my spirit as per pertains Trump. I believe her judgement is brilliant. Only the Trump monster:
My main take on Trump is that he is fascinating, the most consequential individual of our time and also representative of so many aspects of his generation, most bad, some good, all interesting.
I agree that bundling makes sense. For those of limited means, such as myself, subscribing to a single writer costs as much as subscribing to a whole magazine in the past.
Going further, a bundled substack could divide subscription income in proportion to the popularity (clicks?) of each of its contributors. Conceivably the most popular writers would make more money than they do now.
The tragedy underlying the increasing chasm between the mainstream and the populists in Europe is that both believe that they are fighting to save ‘the West’.
Although I may proudly refer to "Western Civilization", I do not like to use the term "the West" with a definite, singular article. Definite, singular articles are used too often more broadly in my view in a manner that makes subjects appear uniform and monolithic when they shouldn't be. But "the West" is particularly improper as it appears to refer to a single, monolithic entity when in reality, a great deal of the reason for Western Civilization's success was its fragmented, non-monolithic nature (except in regards to religion) that created the conditions for dissent and innovation:
"‘While the main reason for France’s low TFR was secularization predating the revolution, inheritance laws reduced the TFR further.’ If true, this must have been one of the most consequential laws of modern times."
You have noted how the collapse of French fertility was a major reason for the turmoil of 1871-1945. The best case study for how it may have gone otherwise would be in my country, Canada. Canada has the unique experience of a large population of French-descendents who were isolated by France proper before the Revolution and subsequent upheavals. The Catholic Church used to hold a VERY potent influence on French Canada until the 1960s. Perhaps more so than Ireland as it controlled all the hospitals and schools even as late as the 1950s.
Subsequently, as late as the 1920s, it was still common in Quebec for there to be families with a dozen children.
"Michael Young warned that a system of ‘meritocracy’ would be far more psychological brutal towards the poor, and we’re still working out ways to resolve the fact that he was right"
As much as I consider myself "anti-woke", I am perhaps even more irritated by the kinds of people who say or seem to imply that the main threat of wokeness to civilization is that it threatens "meritocracy". I want to respond, "Sure, let's have a meritocratic, totalitarian feudalism rather than a victimhood-based totalitarian feudalism!"
Since "meritocracy" was originally used as the title of a... dystopian science fiction novel in 1958, I'm not sure what you are lauding. The term literally doesn't appear before the late 1950s!
Today, many "meritocracy" obsessives are kind of people who, IMO, would gladly suffer torture in the Ministry of Love from 1984...so long as they knew the torturer had been evaluated under the right metrics!
I don't give a flying f*** about the threat to "meritocracy" to the extent that I care about freedom and democracy!!!
If I am living under a tyranny, I want it to be as non-meritocratic as possible so it will collapse sooner or at least not be effective in social control measures. The head of the secret police in particular, I want to be the kind of person who can't fart and chew gum at the same time!
"As has been pointed out, this is a total vindication of Francis Fukuyama’s The End of History. In his book, often misunderstood, he warned that among the threats facing western democracies would be a lack of meaning driving people towards zero-sum prestige competitions, especially through thymos, broadly defined as a ‘desire for recognition"
Another remarkably prophetic quote (particularly in the context of COVID-19) was that elites may turn against the ideals of liberal democracy out of simple boredom and the need to struggle against something:
"But supposing the world has become “filled up”, so to speak, with liberal democracies, such as there exist no tyranny and oppression worthy of the name against which to struggle? Experience suggests that if men cannot struggle on behalf of a just cause because that just cause was victorious in an earlier generation, then they will struggle against the just cause. They will struggle for the sake of struggle. They will struggle, in other words, out of a certain boredom: for they cannot imagine living in a world without struggle. And if the greater part of the world in which they live is characterized by peaceful and prosperous liberal democracy, then they will struggle against that peace and prosperity, and against democracy."
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/10161514-but-supposing-the-world-has-become-filled-up-so-tou
very true. that would have been a better quote to put in the post.
Fukuyama's "men seek not just material comfort, but respect or recognition, and they believe that they are worthy of respect because they possess a certain value or dignity," is pleasantly reminiscent of Adam Smith, who said nature had bequeathed mankind “not only with a desire of being approved of, but with a desire of being what ought to be approved of; or of being what he himself approves of in other men." The desire for recognition that Fukuyama spoke of becomes productive if it's turned towards something of value. "The first desire could only have made him wish to appear to be fit for society," Smith continued, "the second was necessary in order to render him anxious to be really fit.”
CA Lewis: “Where men are forbidden to honour a king they honour millionaires, athletes, or film stars instead: even famous prostitutes or gangsters. For spiritual nature, like bodily nature will be served; deny it food and it will gobble poison.”
Cranial trauma, cranial trauma, cranial trauma.
You read up on prehistoric and even some medieval and early modern violence stuff and it's always "attack the brain."
It's funny because in fictional depictions of old times combat it's never "force someone to kneel then whack them in the back of the head", but that seems to have been the default.
I think there's a really interesting post to be done on 'history explained by traumatic brain injury'. Henry VIII and Stalin were both badly whacked on the head.
https://sjquillen.medium.com/spotify-wrapped-lists-and-todays-global-language-trends-7f621cc1f010
Here's another article on the subject you referenced regarding how Anglophones are no longer as dominant in top music lists.
re the search for meaning, see here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00U0C9HKW
I only wish I were a better writer.
Dear author, I have given you a hard time before for being anti-Trump. This lady captures my spirit as per pertains Trump. I believe her judgement is brilliant. Only the Trump monster:
https://www.peachykeenan.com/p/the-last-boomer-drops-the-bombs?r=j0s6f&utm_medium=ios
very interesting.
My main take on Trump is that he is fascinating, the most consequential individual of our time and also representative of so many aspects of his generation, most bad, some good, all interesting.
I agree that bundling makes sense. For those of limited means, such as myself, subscribing to a single writer costs as much as subscribing to a whole magazine in the past.
Going further, a bundled substack could divide subscription income in proportion to the popularity (clicks?) of each of its contributors. Conceivably the most popular writers would make more money than they do now.
The tragedy underlying the increasing chasm between the mainstream and the populists in Europe is that both believe that they are fighting to save ‘the West’.
Although I may proudly refer to "Western Civilization", I do not like to use the term "the West" with a definite, singular article. Definite, singular articles are used too often more broadly in my view in a manner that makes subjects appear uniform and monolithic when they shouldn't be. But "the West" is particularly improper as it appears to refer to a single, monolithic entity when in reality, a great deal of the reason for Western Civilization's success was its fragmented, non-monolithic nature (except in regards to religion) that created the conditions for dissent and innovation:
https://books.google.ca/books/about/Escape_from_Rome.html?id=bs_9DwAAQBAJ&source=kp_book_description&redir_esc=y
I quite like 'the West', but there's probably a psychological reason for that
It is your name for starters I imagine. You could announce it to villains in a way.
"Who is it?"
"It is the West!"
"‘While the main reason for France’s low TFR was secularization predating the revolution, inheritance laws reduced the TFR further.’ If true, this must have been one of the most consequential laws of modern times."
You have noted how the collapse of French fertility was a major reason for the turmoil of 1871-1945. The best case study for how it may have gone otherwise would be in my country, Canada. Canada has the unique experience of a large population of French-descendents who were isolated by France proper before the Revolution and subsequent upheavals. The Catholic Church used to hold a VERY potent influence on French Canada until the 1960s. Perhaps more so than Ireland as it controlled all the hospitals and schools even as late as the 1950s.
Subsequently, as late as the 1920s, it was still common in Quebec for there to be families with a dozen children.
"Michael Young warned that a system of ‘meritocracy’ would be far more psychological brutal towards the poor, and we’re still working out ways to resolve the fact that he was right"
As much as I consider myself "anti-woke", I am perhaps even more irritated by the kinds of people who say or seem to imply that the main threat of wokeness to civilization is that it threatens "meritocracy". I want to respond, "Sure, let's have a meritocratic, totalitarian feudalism rather than a victimhood-based totalitarian feudalism!"
Since "meritocracy" was originally used as the title of a... dystopian science fiction novel in 1958, I'm not sure what you are lauding. The term literally doesn't appear before the late 1950s!
https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=meritocracy&year_start=1800&year_end=2022&corpus=en&smoothing=3
Today, many "meritocracy" obsessives are kind of people who, IMO, would gladly suffer torture in the Ministry of Love from 1984...so long as they knew the torturer had been evaluated under the right metrics!
I don't give a flying f*** about the threat to "meritocracy" to the extent that I care about freedom and democracy!!!
If I am living under a tyranny, I want it to be as non-meritocratic as possible so it will collapse sooner or at least not be effective in social control measures. The head of the secret police in particular, I want to be the kind of person who can't fart and chew gum at the same time!