No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty of patriots. -Barbara Ehrenreich, journalist and author (b. 26 Aug 1941)
Mom is in Wheeling with a big dinner last night. I'm going today.
Liz in Ottawa with a canal cruise last night.
A law passed in February 2019 allows the French police to arrest any person suspected of going to a demonstration; no authorization from a judge is necessary and no appeal possible.
There is an argument out that nationalism is the logical and good outgrowth of tribalism. ( Israeli political theorist Yoram Hazony, via his book The Virtue of Nationalism.) This allows for little variety within a culture. It might be fine for Israel or Japan but virtually excludes America. Of course a political theorist from Israel might have a pretty narrow idea about how a state should be organized but....
Adam Smith pointed out in The Theory of Moral Sentiments, our ability to extend our sympathy and empathize with one another is a central part of human moral psychology and serves as grounding for a wide range of obligations. We can and should recognize others for who they are, not simply for what group they originate from.
Any nationalistic movement in the U.S. is not based upon soil or blood, it is based upon founding concepts. So it is welcoming, contained and not jealous or expansive.
For this reason, identity politics--which is a mini-nationalism--should be shunned as it is inherently un-American.
In 1981, a British Submarine Crashed into a Nuclear Russian Sub, the Soviet submarine K-211 Petropavlovsk. K-211’s mission was straightforward: to cruise undetected for weeks or months at a time, awaiting only the signal that a nuclear war had broken out to unleash its apocalyptic payload from underwater on Western cities and military bases up to four thousand miles away.
Good thought content.
On August 28, 1941, more than 23,000 Hungarian Jews were murdered by the Gestapo in occupied Ukraine.
According to Will
Kyle Smith has a review of Will's new book and in it lists some of his old aphorisms,
"The nice part about being a pessimist is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised.”
Adlai Stevenson “was considered by advanced thinkers to be an advanced thinker.”
Mom is in Wheeling with a big dinner last night. I'm going today.
Liz in Ottawa with a canal cruise last night.
A law passed in February 2019 allows the French police to arrest any person suspected of going to a demonstration; no authorization from a judge is necessary and no appeal possible.
There is an argument out that nationalism is the logical and good outgrowth of tribalism. ( Israeli political theorist Yoram Hazony, via his book The Virtue of Nationalism.) This allows for little variety within a culture. It might be fine for Israel or Japan but virtually excludes America. Of course a political theorist from Israel might have a pretty narrow idea about how a state should be organized but....
Adam Smith pointed out in The Theory of Moral Sentiments, our ability to extend our sympathy and empathize with one another is a central part of human moral psychology and serves as grounding for a wide range of obligations. We can and should recognize others for who they are, not simply for what group they originate from.
Any nationalistic movement in the U.S. is not based upon soil or blood, it is based upon founding concepts. So it is welcoming, contained and not jealous or expansive.
For this reason, identity politics--which is a mini-nationalism--should be shunned as it is inherently un-American.
"Mr. Trump rarely uses racial categories in his speech or his tweets. It is the media and Democratic leaders who routinely characterize individuals and groups by race and issue race-based denunciations of large parts of the American polity.
…..
America’s universities deserve credit for this double standard. Identity politics dominate higher education: Administrators, students and faculty obsessively categorize themselves and each other by race. “White privilege,” often coupled with “toxic masculinity,” is the focus of freshmen orientations and an ever-growing array of courses. Any institutional action that affects a “person of color” is “about race.” If a black professor doesn’t get tenure, he’s a victim of discrimination; a white professor is presumed to be unqualified.
…..
Identity politics, now a driving force in the Democratic Party, celebrates the racial and ethnic identities of designated victim groups while consigning whites—especially heterosexual white men—to scapegoat status."--MacDonald
In 1981, a British Submarine Crashed into a Nuclear Russian Sub, the Soviet submarine K-211 Petropavlovsk. K-211’s mission was straightforward: to cruise undetected for weeks or months at a time, awaiting only the signal that a nuclear war had broken out to unleash its apocalyptic payload from underwater on Western cities and military bases up to four thousand miles away.
Good thought content.
On August 28, 1941, more than 23,000 Hungarian Jews were murdered by the Gestapo in occupied Ukraine.
According to Will
Kyle Smith has a review of Will's new book and in it lists some of his old aphorisms,
"The nice part about being a pessimist is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised.”
“Being elected to Congress is regarded as being sent on a looting raid for one’s friends.”
“Freedom means the freedom to behave coarsely, basely, foolishly.”
“A politician’s words reveal less about what he thinks about his subject than what he thinks about his audience.”
“The future has a way of arriving unannounced.”
And some new ones:
What do conservatives seek to conserve? “We seek to conserve the American Founding.”
“William James spoke of a ‘moral equivalent of war.’ TR’s idea was: Accept no substitutes. TR wanted the body politic to really be one body, with the president as the head.”
“The words ‘leader’ or ‘leaders’ appear thirteen times in The Federalist, once with reference to those who led the Revolution and twelve times in a context of disparagement.”
“In the 1960s, progressivism became a stance of disdain, describing Americans not only as [John Kenneth] Galbraith had, as vulgar, but also as sick, racist, sexist, imperialist, etc.”
“The mind of the true believer [is] a mind stocked with unfalsifiable propositions.”
“Humanity . . . was supposed to be pretty much extinct by now, or at least miserable. It is neither. So what went wrong?”
“Time was, the upper crust rode in carriages, the lower orders walked. No such dramatic difference distinguishes the driver of a Mercedes from the driver of a Chevrolet.”
“The government is good at delivering transfer payments. It is not so adept at delivering services, still less at delivering planned changes in attitudes and behaviors.”
Adlai Stevenson “was considered by advanced thinkers to be an advanced thinker.”
“In 1964, 76 percent of Americans trusted government to do the right thing ‘just about always or most of the time.’ Today, fewer than 20 percent do. The former number is one reason [Lyndon] Johnson did so much; the latter is one consequence of his doing so.”
“America might be entering what will be called the Great Flinch, a reaction against the uncertainties and other stresses inherent in dynamism.”
“The egalitarian’s work is never done.”
And one-liner from other thinkers:
“Doing worse than others does not entail doing badly.” (Harry Frankfurt)
“No man who owns a house and lot can be a Communist. He has too much to do.” (Bill Levitt)
“Liberty is the goal at which democracy aims, not the other way around.” (Timothy Sandefur)
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“Men may chuse different things, and yet all chuse right.” (John Locke)
