Links to Consider
Fr. Benedict Kiely on anti-semitism; John McWhorter on policemen cursing; Tove K on reduced incentives for war; Moses Sternstein on the future of TV
Victor Davis Hanson has written about the causes of this leftist prejudice; victim culture, ‘anti-colonialism,’ anti-capitalism, and the profound hatred of Western culture. This all finds a perfect outlet in the hatred of Israel, reviving the ancient hatred of the Jew.
We can add to this factor something as ephemeral and useless, but nevertheless important in our vapid culture: fashion. It is quite simple fashionable to be anti-Israel, and even antisemitic. For a Western culture that abhors history, that does not even teach history, fashion becomes the leitmotif of what is ‘really real’ and what is important. TikTok wisdom is more valuable than a doctorate. This is one of the reasons, I believe, that we have seen the explosion of antisemitism on college campuses, disguised as anti-Zionism. Never underestimate the power of higher education to produce imbecility.
I know that we do not necessarily need one more screed against the progressive left. But I think that Fr. Kiely makes a point that I think is worthy of emphasis—the extent to which beliefs become fashionable in certain crowds. I have said before that I think affluent teenagers in the United States find it fashionable to claim LGBTQ+ sexual identities. And it has become fashionable to be anti-capitalist and anti-Israel.
The good news is that these beliefs are quite shallow (the Israel-haters do not know which river and which sea their chants refer to). The bad news is that I do not know enough about the dynamics of these fashions to have a good idea for how to get them to change.
Officer Thomas Lane, who approached Floyd sitting in his car, addressed him with profanity (specifically, the word “fuck”) very freely. This is a problem endemic to the way cops in the United States speak to people they detain—it goes some way towards explaining what happened with Floyd, as well as countless other incidents—and it needs to be penalized.
One of my more unusual beliefs is that eroding the taboo against four-letter words had harmful consequences. I think that if you refrain from using profanity, you are showing respect for other people. Using profanity around other people shows that you do not care enough about them to try to be more restrained. Dealing with people respectfully would seem to be particularly important for the police. So I wanted to amplify McWhorter’s essay.
Tove K writes that before the Industrial Revolution,
had a clear upside: More land for an ever-expanding population, more subjects for the warrior class.
…With that kind of mindset, the peoples of Europe entered World War 1 with enthusiasm. The mass destruction that followed showed that the enthusiasm was misplaced. The first big war of the 20th century revealed that in a high-tech society, all sides lose from unbridled war. Even the winner. For that reason, the norms shifted to completely avoiding wars between high-tech societies.
…Before capitalism, land was the most valuable and scarce resource. Land is difficult to destroy but not that difficult to conquer. Under capitalism, the main resources are machinery and equipment and, above all, human labour. Both are easy to destroy and hard to catch. The result is war with great destructive power and slim chances of any profit at the end of the day.
That reduces the material incentive to engage in war. But there are still psychological reasons.
What happens when the old people stop watching TV, because, y’know, eventually old people will stop watching anything (or breathing, or taking meds, or driving, etc.)?
The ad revenue goes away, and so too does TV.
Twenty years ago, the demographics of newspapers looked similar. Young people were not reading them. I predicted, correctly, that newspapers would die. I think that the case for TV dying is even stronger. Some people are nostalgic about newspapers. I don’t think that anyone will be nostalgic for Cable TV.
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I generally agree with McWhorter too, but just want to point out that we do still have rules against profanity that are rigorously enforced, that can cost you your job and career, etc. It's just that the specific words that are considered taboo have changed.
War is the result of miscalculation.
There was an old Star Trek episode where they find two planets at war. But instead of actually fighting a computer calculates how many people would have died in the war and the citizens of each society go to suicide booths dutifully and avoid all the destruction. The Enterprise is appalled and destroys the computer, saying that if they are forced to face the hellish reality of war they might forge true peace.
But I wonder, what if the computer decided that one side won the war, would the other side commit true mass suicide. What if it said that some people were killed but the rest were conquered, would they change their government and be ruled by the foreign power? What if one side felt the computer simulation was wrong, would it dispute the results? How would it do so, by starting a real war?
Even if war is very destructive, that just raises the issue of "war is so destructive you should give into our demands rather then risk war."
Lookin at say the Ukraine war, it's clear that Putin overestimated how easy it would be to depose the Ukranian government. It's also clear that the Ukranians underestimated Russian strength and overestimated western assistance. If people could have seen how this would end up, they probably would have either avoided war altogether or signed a peace a month in, but they disagreed on what the facts of the conflict were.
There is one aspect of warfare that I think is hard to replicate outside of it. The TRUTH factor. Who is your friend and who is your enemy? Who is competent and who is not? What organizing principles and weapons work and which ones do not?
Just as capitalism answers those questions for market goods, war answers those questions for martial strength. Some have said that this war weakens Russia, and it does in some way. But in another way its going to burn off a lot of the beuracratic rot and leave a veteran experience army.