"Western values and the world" DK post:
Bruce Wilder:
"Could even the eloquent Obama make a convincing case for liberal hypocrisy? Seeing the flawed movie, Selma, reminded me that I grew up in the era of peak egalitarianism, when people actually expected leaders and law to enact ideals. Enlightenment liberalism was claiming that its truths were self-evident in the 18th century, when Thomas Jefferson, slaveholder, wrote that all men are created equal. It's part of the schtick, not an indicator of some new weakness of character in the 21st century. Your proposed remedy -- a renewal of national solidarity and purpose -- indicates that instinctively you understand that the political problem of our time is not philosophic ideology per se, but authority and authoritarianism.
"The common, shared experience of national service, national purpose, and national identity, which has been a foundational component of liberal nationalism -- the ideal of a people responsibly governing itself through constitutional institutions according to democratic, egalitarian principles of fairness -- is at a low ebb. Americans, in particular, exhibit an extreme of social disaffiliation and atomistic individualism, reflected in libertarian ideological attitudes.
Being frightened by seemingly senseless, random acts of violence, and the expedient use of authority in militarized police state responses, just pushes the society further and further in the direction of authoritarianism. I can scarcely imagine the effect on Boston of effective imposition of martial law following the Boston Marathon bombing, or the more recent national manhunts in France and Belgium. The number of deaths cannot account for how terror and the response to terror is re-shaping attitudes and institutions.
Liberalism has always had a love-hate relationship with the lower classes, with the poor. That historical ambivalence was evident in the dynamics of the French Revolution, in the tension over the demands of the common people for bread over and against the bourgeois demand for laissez-faire. It was evident when capital-L Liberals presided over Irish potato famine that killed a million people. It was evident in the callous indifference and inattention that allowed the worst impulses to drive colonial and foreign policy in far-away places (and still drives so many to overlook the rank incompetence and corruption of the American foreign policy establishment).
At its best, enlightenment liberalism embraced and legitimated conflict, and the check that an educated mass opinion might provide against irresponsible exercise of authority. The concepts of a loyal opposition, of a Country Party, of labor unions and mass movements, of a separation of powers forcing rational deliberation and blocking the formation of fixed and tyrannical factions, within the framework of a shared national identity and loyalty -- this was enlightenment liberalism at its best and most practical.
We have dissent in the purely symbolic sense of rude or noisy caricature -- in the U.S., the right parodies itself in its strident albeit impotent expression of resentments. Rush Limbaugh is Charlie Hebdo every day on the radio."
"What we do not have is either a genuine national solidarity -- the intellectual left largely rejects national identity as a species of racism in the genus of unalloyed evil -- or a check by the masses on authority. Obama prosecutes only whistleblowers, not banksters. No one is held at fault for more than a decade of military and foreign policy failure on an epic scale; we will be training an effective local force real soon now.
In Europe, democratic institutions have ceded their power to unaccountable supra-national authorities, and the consequence is the Euro and an economic catastrophe of a magnitude for some countries comparable with the Great Depression. The violence of Islamists serves as a distraction, justifying the building up of a security state to defend this betrayal of mass interests, while liberals look on uncomprehending.
I'm deeply troubled by the notion that Islam embodies any philosophic ideas that might compete with Western Enlightenment liberalism. I think that simply mistakes the case. The clash of civilizations notion is profoundly silly, not profound. Population and resource pressures are the driving forces, and institutional failures are handicapping the response. The institutions that failed were Western institutions. Saddam Hussein and Bashad al-Assad were friggin' socialists! Islam can hardly explain the upheavals in places as disparate as Ukraine, Thailand, Argentina, Mexico, nor the palsied response to the economic crises created by the Euro in Greece, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Italy and France.
Islam and Terror are convenient distractions for an elite that does not care to be held responsible."
RE his remark about 'The Clash', I would just say that the last time that the West had a real chance, physically, to prevent the USSR, a very large Slavic nation, from winning WWII, against the West, and then threatening Western Europe, and then from obtaining and proliferating weapons of mass destruction, was in roughly 1944, 1945.
One has only to review something like The Haunted Wood to see how urgent this problem had become by then.
Those were good reasons why I have said that the best solution was 'the Patton solution' at that time.
The Baltic States, and even more so, Ukraine are traditional Russian territories in my judgment. Some may quibble....
Of course, going farther back, to USA WWI blunders, we only entered WWI because of the Bolshevik Revolution.....
Don't get me started on this.....
BOOMERBUSTER
OLD CELLO
Monday, February 9, 2015
RE THE ANGLO AMERICAN ESTABLISHMENT
Reading Quigley's book, one has to, then, call back into question Sir Michael's comment below.
"...The citizens of the United States had not joined in the Second World War to prop up a system of imperial domination against which they had been the first people to revolt...." Sir Michael Howard
In a wider context, the imperial domination of the Western Imperial Powers, and especially of the British hegemony of that domination, fell apart from within, and specifically from within Britain, rather than later at the instance of the United States, although, certainly, he was right that, by the end of WWII, we were the only power, then, which could have combined with the Imperial Powers to salvage their dominion (and ours).
"...The citizens of the United States had not joined in the Second World War to prop up a system of imperial domination against which they had been the first people to revolt...." Sir Michael Howard
In a wider context, the imperial domination of the Western Imperial Powers, and especially of the British hegemony of that domination, fell apart from within, and specifically from within Britain, rather than later at the instance of the United States, although, certainly, he was right that, by the end of WWII, we were the only power, then, which could have combined with the Imperial Powers to salvage their dominion (and ours).
Sunday, February 1, 2015
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
RE THE PARTY OF DAVOS
Huntington had had a great passage, in The Clash, on this, way back then....Geoff Faux only a much later footnote, really.
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
RE THE GREAT STRUGGLE
"The great struggles of the twentieth century between liberty and totalitarianism ended with a decisive victory for the forces of freedom—and a single sustainable model for national success: freedom, democracy, and free enterprise. In the twenty-first century, only nations that share a commitment to protecting basic human rights and guaranteeing political and economic freedom will be able to unleash the potential of their people and assure their future prosperity. People everywhere want to be able to speak freely; choose who will govern them; worship as they please; educate their children—male and female; own property; and enjoy the benefits of their labor. These values of freedom are right and true for every person, in every society—and the duty of protecting these values against their enemies is the common calling of freedom-loving people across the globe and across the ages."
Wednesday, January 7, 2015
THEY LIKE THIS NOW RAPE OF THE SIREN SERVERS
http://bozonbloggon.blogspot.com/2013/05/mise-en-scene-rape-of-siren-servers.html
RE SHOOTINGS IN PARIS
Maybe it's time for the West to hit back, in its sick way, say Madonna and Gaga do a tour, call it
ESCAPE FROM THE SERAGLIO,
something like that, to really stir the pop music culture pot.
Tour the Middle East with that.
ESCAPE FROM THE SERAGLIO,
something like that, to really stir the pop music culture pot.
Tour the Middle East with that.
Friday, January 2, 2015
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
SEE DK'S CURRENT POST AND COMMENTS
I may have made myself misunderstood by Mr Glover and others.
See this article and especially the quote below:
www.nps.gov/resources/story.htm?id=251
The Southern lag in industrial development did not result from any inherent economic disadvantages. There was great wealth in the South, but it was primarily tied up in the slave economy. In 1860, the economic value of slaves in the United States exceeded the invested value of all of the nation's railroads, factories, and banks combined. On the eve of the Civil War, cotton prices were at an all-time high. The Confederate leaders were confident that the importance of cotton on the world market, particularly in England and France, would provide the South with the diplomatic and military assistance they needed for victory.
See this article and especially the quote below:
www.nps.gov/resources/story.htm?id=251
The Southern lag in industrial development did not result from any inherent economic disadvantages. There was great wealth in the South, but it was primarily tied up in the slave economy. In 1860, the economic value of slaves in the United States exceeded the invested value of all of the nation's railroads, factories, and banks combined. On the eve of the Civil War, cotton prices were at an all-time high. The Confederate leaders were confident that the importance of cotton on the world market, particularly in England and France, would provide the South with the diplomatic and military assistance they needed for victory.
Tuesday, December 30, 2014
Sunday, December 28, 2014
Saturday, December 27, 2014
Thursday, December 25, 2014
MAC AMORE
For Gigi:
Happy holidays
“(In Napoli where love
is king
When boy meets girl
here's what they say)
Five'll get you ten Old Macky's back in town
D'ja hear 'bout Louie Miller? He disappeared, babe …
When the moon hits your
eye like a big pizza pie
Just a jackknife has MacHeath, that’s amore!
Oh, the shark, babe, has such teeth, dear
And it shows them pearly white,"Vita bella".
You know when that shark bites with his teeth, babe
And he keeps it out of sight, that’s amore!
Hearts will play
tippy-tippy-tay, tippy-tippy-tay
Scarlet billows start to spread, like a gay tarantella.
Fancy gloves, though wears MacHeath, babe
When the stars make you
drool just like a pasta fool.
When the world seems to
shine like you've had too much wine
there's never, never a trace of red, that’s amore.
When you dance down the
street with a cloud at your feet
Oh, that cement is just its there for the weight, you're in love
When you walk in a dream
but you know you're not
Dreaming senior, someone's
sneakin' 'round a corner.
When the world seems to shine like you've had too much wine
D'ja hear 'bout Louie Miller? He disappeared, babe.
Bells will ring
ting-a-ling-a-ling, ting-a-ling-a-ling
Old Macky's back in town,
"Vita bella".
Scuzza me, but you see,
back in old Napoli
That's amore (amore)
Tuesday, December 23, 2014
Monday, December 22, 2014
Sunday, December 21, 2014
RAWHIDE ON THE RANGE
For Scarlett:
Happy Holidays?
"Oh give me a home,
Where the buffalo roam
Don't try to understand em
Just rope throw an brand em
Where the deer and the antelope play
Soon we'll be living high and wide.
Boy my heart's calculatin', my true love will be waitin',
Home, home on the range,
Keep them doggies movin'
Don't try to understand 'em,
Where seldom is heard, keep movin', movin', movin',
A discouraging word, though they're disapprovin',
Move 'em on, head 'em up,
And the skies are not cloudy all day.
Just rope throw and brand' em,
Soon we'll be living high and wide.
be waiting at the end of my ride.
Move 'em on, head 'em out Rawhide!"
Happy Holidays?
"Oh give me a home,
Where the buffalo roam
Don't try to understand em
Just rope throw an brand em
Where the deer and the antelope play
Soon we'll be living high and wide.
Boy my heart's calculatin', my true love will be waitin',
Home, home on the range,
Keep them doggies movin'
Don't try to understand 'em,
Where seldom is heard, keep movin', movin', movin',
A discouraging word, though they're disapprovin',
Move 'em on, head 'em up,
And the skies are not cloudy all day.
Just rope throw and brand' em,
Soon we'll be living high and wide.
be waiting at the end of my ride.
Move 'em on, head 'em out Rawhide!"
Sunday, December 14, 2014
BEAT IT MEAN FIRST VERSION
For Betty Boop:
Happy Burp Day
'She was more like a wolverine
from a sit com scene,
(chorus) do do do do do, doooo do do, do
do do do do do, doooo do do
She said her name was Billy Mean,
And she ripped my jeans.
(chorus) do do do do do, doooo do do, do
do do do do do, doooo do do
I said you better sew these right now,
or I'll fake a scene
(chorus) do do do do do, doooo do do, do
do do do do do, doooo do do
She said I am the one
who will dance on the ground in the round now,
(chorus) do do do do do, doooo do do, do
do do do do do, doooo do do
Billy Mean's not my lover, she's just a girl claims I am the one
It doesn't matter who's right or wrong
And who wants to beware,
(chorus) Just beat it beat it beat it, do do do ,do
Just beat it beat it beat it, do do do ,do
Then showed a selfie (paint bot) of me, says I am the one,
but the kid's not my one, eyes just like mine.
(chorus) do do do do do, doooo do do, do
do do do do do, doooo do do
Billy Mean's not my lover, she just claims I am one,
I say yes, that's my selfie, it doesn't matter which side I'm on,
I don't want to be square,
so beat it beat it beat it, do do do ,do
Just beat it beat it beat it, do do do ,do
ps I wouldn't use Quincy Jones' stuff for this.
use say let It Bleed, or country Honk, or meld them.
Happy Burp Day
'She was more like a wolverine
from a sit com scene,
(chorus) do do do do do, doooo do do, do
do do do do do, doooo do do
She said her name was Billy Mean,
And she ripped my jeans.
(chorus) do do do do do, doooo do do, do
do do do do do, doooo do do
I said you better sew these right now,
or I'll fake a scene
(chorus) do do do do do, doooo do do, do
do do do do do, doooo do do
She said I am the one
who will dance on the ground in the round now,
(chorus) do do do do do, doooo do do, do
do do do do do, doooo do do
Billy Mean's not my lover, she's just a girl claims I am the one
It doesn't matter who's right or wrong
And who wants to beware,
(chorus) Just beat it beat it beat it, do do do ,do
Just beat it beat it beat it, do do do ,do
Then showed a selfie (paint bot) of me, says I am the one,
but the kid's not my one, eyes just like mine.
(chorus) do do do do do, doooo do do, do
do do do do do, doooo do do
Billy Mean's not my lover, she just claims I am one,
I say yes, that's my selfie, it doesn't matter which side I'm on,
I don't want to be square,
so beat it beat it beat it, do do do ,do
Just beat it beat it beat it, do do do ,do
ps I wouldn't use Quincy Jones' stuff for this.
use say let It Bleed, or country Honk, or meld them.
Saturday, November 22, 2014
Thursday, November 20, 2014
RE REVOLUTIONS
Quigley talked about revolutions 'out of order', in the so called developing world.
That was a key insight for its time in the 60s.
What we have seen since the 60s however is a leap frogging over stages of development in various sectors, such that my oft cited lament,
'never in the history of human conflict has so much been given away, to so many, by so few, so quickly, for so little,'
sums up the history since the 60s nicely.
That was a key insight for its time in the 60s.
What we have seen since the 60s however is a leap frogging over stages of development in various sectors, such that my oft cited lament,
'never in the history of human conflict has so much been given away, to so many, by so few, so quickly, for so little,'
sums up the history since the 60s nicely.
SIR MICHAEL HOWARD THE BEGINNING OF THE END FOR WESTERN CIVILIZATION WAS REALLY AROUND 1776
The coup de grace was 1945:
"...The citizens of the United States had not joined in the Second World War to prop up a system of imperial domination against which they had been the first people to revolt...." Sir Michael Howard
The universal empire of Western Civilization, in Quigley's terminology, was the British Empire, after 1763, not the Napoleonic, briefly, thereafter.
"...The citizens of the United States had not joined in the Second World War to prop up a system of imperial domination against which they had been the first people to revolt...." Sir Michael Howard
The universal empire of Western Civilization, in Quigley's terminology, was the British Empire, after 1763, not the Napoleonic, briefly, thereafter.
Wednesday, November 19, 2014
RE P PUTIN HOW THE WEST WAS LOST TAKE A LOOK IN THE MIRROR
This is the take away, for retards:
We, the United States, by our policies and decisions, almost single handed, through the first half of the century, both forced the dismantling of the Western Imperial system,
while also,
at the same time, almost single handed, at the end of World War II, leaving Russia not only fully intact, Eisenhower foregoing what I call the Patton solution for Russia,
and allowing them to develop nuclear weapons they should never have been able to obtain,
but also in control, not only of all of Eastern,
and even Central Europe,
but also of much of the rest of the truly enormous Eurasian land mass.
In order to try to remedy this incalculable series of blunders, we then boomed, and forced Western Europe to help us boom, all the peripheral areas of the globe not under direct Soviet domination.
This Western booming of the rest has been another incalculable series of blunders for the West, as I have pointed out on this blog many times,
and did not, and will not, in the long run, primarily benefit the West as P Putin (who well knows otherwise) has asserted.
We, the United States, by our policies and decisions, almost single handed, through the first half of the century, both forced the dismantling of the Western Imperial system,
while also,
at the same time, almost single handed, at the end of World War II, leaving Russia not only fully intact, Eisenhower foregoing what I call the Patton solution for Russia,
and allowing them to develop nuclear weapons they should never have been able to obtain,
but also in control, not only of all of Eastern,
and even Central Europe,
but also of much of the rest of the truly enormous Eurasian land mass.
In order to try to remedy this incalculable series of blunders, we then boomed, and forced Western Europe to help us boom, all the peripheral areas of the globe not under direct Soviet domination.
This Western booming of the rest has been another incalculable series of blunders for the West, as I have pointed out on this blog many times,
and did not, and will not, in the long run, primarily benefit the West as P Putin (who well knows otherwise) has asserted.
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