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We are all living in private caves (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
“Every nation gets the government it deserves,” wrote the philosopher Joseph de Maistre, and some are getting it good and hard right now. De Maistre’s moral interpretation of politics admits of exceptions, but the United States in 2023 is not one of them. A wasting tide of bad education and corruption is rotting the cultural and constitutional piers that, since the Civil War, have kept the US above the waters of chaos.
The American regime has become a tawdry theatrocracy in which political actors, hypokritai in Greek, play stock characters in a loathsome farce. In the run-up to the 2024 elections, Donald Trump stars as the persecuted saviour, and Joe Biden the righteous defender, of the American republic. Never mind that Trump is self-absorbed and impulsive to the point of criminal stupidity, that Biden is senile and evidently corrupt, and that both of these braying, boorish old men are fraudsters and fabulists. These vices do not matter to their furious followers, who love their man precisely because he is not the hated other. Trump and Biden cannot, and will not, be separated; each needs his opponent as the hammer needs the nail. And above the wretched spectacle sit a click-hungry media, feeding on riot and picking favourites like vulturous pagan gods.
This drama of political decadence defies easy categorisation. Aristotle wrote that tragedy depicts people who are better, and comedy worse, than us spectators. Biden and Trump are certainly worse than those who voted them into office, but they are not remotely funny. Their antics are repellent and their goofiness unlovable. Observing them and the choral leaders that follow in their train — jerky puppets like Rudy Giuliani sweating hair-dye, or Anthony Fauci claiming to be science itself — Americans feel only shame and dread, without the cathartic release of laughter or tears.
These trapped emotions spring from the same source. They are visceral responses to the approaching death by senescence of the American experiment in ordered liberty. The problem goes well beyond presidential dementia. The US Senate (from the Latin senex, “old”) looks more like the waiting room of a geriatric neurologist than a council of wise elders. There’s Mitch McConnell, prone to falls and freeze-ups; wheelchair-bound and confused Dianne Feinstein; and John Fetterman, who at only 53 is less fit for public service than any other member of that formerly august body. It’s as if C-SPAN, a network that televises congressional hearings, decided instead to air absurdist, post-apocalyptic horror films.
The zombification of the Capitol — not to mention our city streets, which have become permanent encampments of the dazed and disturbed — is merely a symptom of the underlying disease. Like all institutions, politics falls apart without regular infusions of constructive energy. A modern democracy is healthy only if its major parties grow organically from their voters, representing their interests by habit and inclination even more than conscious effort.
But the grassroots politics Tocqueville admired when he visited the US in the 1830s gave way long ago to the top-down astroturfing of technocratic managerialism. Our governing elites represent no one but themselves and their cronies, and they don’t welcome shocks to the system. Insurgent candidates such as Robert Kennedy Jr. and Vivek Ramaswamy, whose public elevation of the concerns of many Americans aims to revitalise national politics, are censored and met with active resistance, even by their own parties.
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SubscribeI think that feeling of wanting to destroy goes deeper than that. Institutions and systems not just in America, but throughout the Western world are fundamentally broken. You name it, dishonest media organizations, fracturing political parties, government bureaucracies considering themselves above the law, massive monopolized corporations etc. they all deserve the hate they get. The reason that so many rational people are at the point where they would not mind watching it burn is simply every single one of these systems or institutions have flat out refused to make the most basic of reforms. When large media conglomerates get caught telling lies on national television, do they change their behavior or blame all the people who noticed? When the working or middle class complain about losing their livelihoods to globalization while the wealthiest get richer, does economic policy change? Do Western governments ever keep their promises to learn from foreign policy failures or stop illegal surveillance programs? Given that most of you have come to places like UnHerd for a reason, I bet you can already guess the answers to those questions. I don’t think it is nihilism. I think it is the realization that those who run things see these broken systems as running just like they are supposed to.
Very good. Is not our problem the fact that we now inhabit a political universe in which politicians are unmoored from us and democratic consent (see 2nd Referendum; lockdown tyranny, small boats) and they in turn are unmoored from genuine rational thinking and in the grip of derwnged groupthink? Why do they not know what a woman is? Who voted for the myriad bans and a4bitrary untested controls of the Net Zero Regime? When was it aired and debated with the public? This is religion – not politics. It has more in common ideolgically with the irrational utopianism of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. Who voted for the convulsive revolution of non stop 1m p.a incoming population growth? With globalism tech and AI all spinning heads with revolutionary change from above, people expected the State and our political class to respond with cool pragmatic reason. But it is impossible to avoid the feeling that they have deserted the trenches. Irrational credos and some form of nihilistic hysteria is gripping the political legal and media elite here.
One might also say, its oligarchy and not democracy. We need to recognise that we live in societies where power is spread across numerous large groups – ‘barons’ if you will. Democratic elections are a sham to stop the masses seeing that. The way out of our troubles is to make the masses see it. Lets bring the pantomime to an end.
And unmoored from any semblance of truth. I know politics is ugly, but it is now pure evil. After reading this article, I’m convinced the left is evil. https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://tabletmag.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10ba00461a63ee91d9ba58b70&id=157ed74961&e=d72af688f5__;!!BeRq2ZU5pg!qaAz6Tup3nFFQCn0Mp2oJSgwzqOB-oXsLZB6FzXGWhVnimJlzCjwUdY1_n31Dl5nUsv4hSAVEbqBd_8D1EHRmjPr$
One might also say, its oligarchy and not democracy. We need to recognise that we live in societies where power is spread across numerous large groups – ‘barons’ if you will. Democratic elections are a sham to stop the masses seeing that. The way out of our troubles is to make the masses see it. Lets bring the pantomime to an end.
And unmoored from any semblance of truth. I know politics is ugly, but it is now pure evil. After reading this article, I’m convinced the left is evil. https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://tabletmag.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10ba00461a63ee91d9ba58b70&id=157ed74961&e=d72af688f5__;!!BeRq2ZU5pg!qaAz6Tup3nFFQCn0Mp2oJSgwzqOB-oXsLZB6FzXGWhVnimJlzCjwUdY1_n31Dl5nUsv4hSAVEbqBd_8D1EHRmjPr$
Direct democracy or the Swiss system of binding citizens initiated referenda is what is needed to break the impasse over all the problems the West faces. The people need to be able to ring the changes through an organic system of real democracy.
The Swiss referendums of the 18th June last threw up some rather bizarre results!
59% voted for some Climate change nonsense whilst some 62%. voted for the continuation of C-19 restrictions (this for the third time!)
Only the three old ‘Forest Cantons’ of the original 1291 Swiss alliance seem to have been sensible enough to reject this nonsense!
….and only 42% went to the polls!
Great!
And thank you for that nugget!
Is there no minimum quorum …….say at least 50% must vote?
Great!
And thank you for that nugget!
Is there no minimum quorum …….say at least 50% must vote?
If I lived in a wood chalet on a picturesque hillside in the Alps, with only the sounds of cow bells to disturb my thoughts and vistas of snow covered peaks to calm my mind, I might not be thinking much about politics at all, and hence might not bother to vote. But I think Americans are desperate enough, for all the reasons cited in the essay, to engage with our politics in a robust way, given some intelligent, energetic options, an uncorrupted voting system, and a vision for a way of restoring the country we used to love. Maybe direct voting is part of that picture. But why limit that to voting for president? Why shouldn’t the people vote directly for all parts of the federal budget? If our congress and federal bureaucracy can’t do the job the people want, why not neuter them and let the people make these decisions directly? We do need to beware, of course, of the tyranny of the majority…
I used to think as you do and HAD great faith in the British Public.
However that all changed with their simply appalling reaction to the great COVID panic.
On reflection the ‘runes’ were clear enough to read back in 1997 during the national emotional meltdown occasioned by the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, but I stupidly ignored the warnings signs.
Charles the decline started in WW2.There were vast swathes who evaded combat: civil servants, BBC, employees) orwell is very clear on this matter ), trade union officials, those in reserved occupations, etc . Those who volunteered for combat such as aircrew( 50 % death rate, higher for pathfinders ), Merchant Navy, Commandos, submariners,were few in numbers: many were killed and emigrated or worked overseas for companies such as Shell, BP, Anglo American, etc. From the 1950s as the shop stewards of the un and semi skilled unions ( TGWU ) took control: those craftsmen, technicians, engineers and scientists with get up and go did that and went overseas.
Britain may have won the war but Kenneth Widmerpool
Kenneth Widmerpool – Wikipedia
and Jack Jones of the TGWU won the peace. Engineers such as Sir Barnes Wallis and Sir Stanley Hooker were sidelined.
The people who enable a civilisation to rise are like the yeast, one does not need much of a reduction in their numbers and the bread does not rise.
The grief over Diana, Princess of Wales was just a manifestation in the decline of the spirit of the British People.
Surely it was in 1926, when a lilly-livered Baldwin refused to let Churchill turn his Maxim guns on the leaders of the general strike
No, wait, perhaps it was when an elitist and out of touch Government failed to recognise the Luddite revolt’s expression of direct and popular sovereignty, thus sealing the fate of the industrial revolution as an instrument of metropolitan domination.
Hang on, no. The dissolution of the monasteries… something, something… collapse of moral character
Hang on, no. The dissolution of the monasteries… something, something… collapse of moral character
Ha ha. I said quite truthfully that if they machine gunned a couple of the leaky boats that would put a stop to it. I was NOT advocating this course of action. I was stating an indubitable fact. But one of my Facebook friends took deep offence and posted that she hated me. So why was she on my group then? To spy I think. Well good riddance. She’s east European and all she ever does or all she ever posts is her and her mates out clubbing and drinking anyway.
No, wait, perhaps it was when an elitist and out of touch Government failed to recognise the Luddite revolt’s expression of direct and popular sovereignty, thus sealing the fate of the industrial revolution as an instrument of metropolitan domination.
Ha ha. I said quite truthfully that if they machine gunned a couple of the leaky boats that would put a stop to it. I was NOT advocating this course of action. I was stating an indubitable fact. But one of my Facebook friends took deep offence and posted that she hated me. So why was she on my group then? To spy I think. Well good riddance. She’s east European and all she ever does or all she ever posts is her and her mates out clubbing and drinking anyway.
I watch a you tube channel in which Pavlo from Ukraine shows us how he and his pals and his cousin live. All of them are fit young men of fighting age and none of them are in uniform or caught in the draft and show no sign of being so or interested in death or glory for the Motherland. So they’re not all thick.
I’ve long thought Pavlo must be paying someone somewhere or know somebody. Good for him,the sly b*****d. Now I read this morning that old Zee the corruption King has realised that most of the Ukraine men with any brains are not in his karnos army and the world knows it,thanks to the likes of Pavlo. He has declared that he is instituting changes in the call up system. He’s going to put wounded veterans particularly those who have lost limbs in charge of panels to see all the men who have so far avoided army service. I trust Pavlo to have the wits to get round that one. But you can see how vicious and nasty this plan is as it relies on the bitter sadness and pain of people. Nasty man.
Surely it was in 1926, when a lilly-livered Baldwin refused to let Churchill turn his Maxim guns on the leaders of the general strike
I watch a you tube channel in which Pavlo from Ukraine shows us how he and his pals and his cousin live. All of them are fit young men of fighting age and none of them are in uniform or caught in the draft and show no sign of being so or interested in death or glory for the Motherland. So they’re not all thick.
I’ve long thought Pavlo must be paying someone somewhere or know somebody. Good for him,the sly b*****d. Now I read this morning that old Zee the corruption King has realised that most of the Ukraine men with any brains are not in his karnos army and the world knows it,thanks to the likes of Pavlo. He has declared that he is instituting changes in the call up system. He’s going to put wounded veterans particularly those who have lost limbs in charge of panels to see all the men who have so far avoided army service. I trust Pavlo to have the wits to get round that one. But you can see how vicious and nasty this plan is as it relies on the bitter sadness and pain of people. Nasty man.
Took me by surprise too.
Charles the decline started in WW2.There were vast swathes who evaded combat: civil servants, BBC, employees) orwell is very clear on this matter ), trade union officials, those in reserved occupations, etc . Those who volunteered for combat such as aircrew( 50 % death rate, higher for pathfinders ), Merchant Navy, Commandos, submariners,were few in numbers: many were killed and emigrated or worked overseas for companies such as Shell, BP, Anglo American, etc. From the 1950s as the shop stewards of the un and semi skilled unions ( TGWU ) took control: those craftsmen, technicians, engineers and scientists with get up and go did that and went overseas.
Britain may have won the war but Kenneth Widmerpool
Kenneth Widmerpool – Wikipedia
and Jack Jones of the TGWU won the peace. Engineers such as Sir Barnes Wallis and Sir Stanley Hooker were sidelined.
The people who enable a civilisation to rise are like the yeast, one does not need much of a reduction in their numbers and the bread does not rise.
The grief over Diana, Princess of Wales was just a manifestation in the decline of the spirit of the British People.
Took me by surprise too.
I used to think as you do and HAD great faith in the British Public.
However that all changed with their simply appalling reaction to the great COVID panic.
On reflection the ‘runes’ were clear enough to read back in 1997 during the national emotional meltdown occasioned by the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, but I stupidly ignored the warnings signs.
At least with referenda the public are forced to consider the issues and then take responsibility for the outcomes. Along with mandatory recall of elected and senior appointed officials, it does not take many cases for the occupants of the system to realise they need to change.
If the voters realise they have some power they will engage more meaningfully and perhaps that would mean we get better candidates.
While the particular examples of senility the author mentioned are surely indisutable, it should not be thought that “yoof” is a good thing in politics or any other activity, in and of itself. Once in a generation there may be an early learner who can contribute to serious issues of loing term consequences but generally some experience of life and personal responsibility in almost any role is a good preparation for elected office.
I agree that the electorate need to have the incentive to engage more with decision taking that affects their futures and this would be an outcome of more referenda.
The project I’m working on at the moment takes this position. Tentatively named panocracy, it’s earliest incarnations are at panocracy.net
I agree that the electorate need to have the incentive to engage more with decision taking that affects their futures and this would be an outcome of more referenda.
The project I’m working on at the moment takes this position. Tentatively named panocracy, it’s earliest incarnations are at panocracy.net
Switzerland was the only modern country to put covid restrictions to a popular vote. It’s a better federal system than in the US; the Swiss have a council of 7 who “take turns” being president. They also were a lot more sensible and measured about the ‘vax’ and the pandemic in general; for example, with children age 0-9, about 96.3% weren’t given a single jab of mRNA. No wonder they have one of the highest healthy-longevity rates in the world!
….and only 42% went to the polls!
If I lived in a wood chalet on a picturesque hillside in the Alps, with only the sounds of cow bells to disturb my thoughts and vistas of snow covered peaks to calm my mind, I might not be thinking much about politics at all, and hence might not bother to vote. But I think Americans are desperate enough, for all the reasons cited in the essay, to engage with our politics in a robust way, given some intelligent, energetic options, an uncorrupted voting system, and a vision for a way of restoring the country we used to love. Maybe direct voting is part of that picture. But why limit that to voting for president? Why shouldn’t the people vote directly for all parts of the federal budget? If our congress and federal bureaucracy can’t do the job the people want, why not neuter them and let the people make these decisions directly? We do need to beware, of course, of the tyranny of the majority…
At least with referenda the public are forced to consider the issues and then take responsibility for the outcomes. Along with mandatory recall of elected and senior appointed officials, it does not take many cases for the occupants of the system to realise they need to change.
If the voters realise they have some power they will engage more meaningfully and perhaps that would mean we get better candidates.
While the particular examples of senility the author mentioned are surely indisutable, it should not be thought that “yoof” is a good thing in politics or any other activity, in and of itself. Once in a generation there may be an early learner who can contribute to serious issues of loing term consequences but generally some experience of life and personal responsibility in almost any role is a good preparation for elected office.
Switzerland was the only modern country to put covid restrictions to a popular vote. It’s a better federal system than in the US; the Swiss have a council of 7 who “take turns” being president. They also were a lot more sensible and measured about the ‘vax’ and the pandemic in general; for example, with children age 0-9, about 96.3% weren’t given a single jab of mRNA. No wonder they have one of the highest healthy-longevity rates in the world!
It’s a nice idea, but Swiss referendums are at least taken seriously by much of their electorate. It would take a long period of errors before that could hold in the UK. One possible solution would be a high level of devolution and withdrawal of government from large areas of our lives. Neither is likely and I very much fear that the writer is correct.
Real power is not about a series of big decisions that can be formulated into referendum questions. It’s about who makes the 1000s of smaller decisions every day in government that are never asked. Did you vote for an change in detailed tax law? No – but it happens anyway, putting up your tax bill whether you like it or not because it’s some officials day job to decide that is a good thing.
On top of that reality we also need to recognise that even governments (civil servants) are merely part of an oligarchy and hold only a small slice of power – who votes to decide what gets shown in the media? Who votes what gets promoted in the twitter feed? Who votes for the decisions corporates make? Who votes what is taught at universities? Nobody votes on these things and yet they and many other things like them have enormous influence on how we have got where we are.
Neigh good sir, referendums are merely a sleight of hand to keep people asleep as to where the real power lies. Only by breaking the illusion of democratic power we will begin to see a way forward.
The only time in modern history when the British electorate was given real voting power was in the 2016 Brexit referendum! On that occasion one’s individual vote really mattered, in stark contrast to the predictable outcome of general and local elections when those voted into power immediately ignore their electoral promises and commitments – or introduce policies that never inked the pages of election manifestos.
So referendums are valid mechanisms to address and decide single issues of national importance, but not for electing governments and wider policy development.
The only time in modern history when the British electorate was given real voting power was in the 2016 Brexit referendum! On that occasion one’s individual vote really mattered, in stark contrast to the predictable outcome of general and local elections when those voted into power immediately ignore their electoral promises and commitments – or introduce policies that never inked the pages of election manifestos.
So referendums are valid mechanisms to address and decide single issues of national importance, but not for electing governments and wider policy development.
We can already do this, on the state level. Direct legislation, in combination with the ability of states to experiment legally in ways taht would be impossible on the national level, could blast us out of this funk.
And who will have the airtime, the resources, the experts (NGOs etc) to explain to the masses as to why we have to support whatever is being voted on?
The Swiss referendums of the 18th June last threw up some rather bizarre results!
59% voted for some Climate change nonsense whilst some 62%. voted for the continuation of C-19 restrictions (this for the third time!)
Only the three old ‘Forest Cantons’ of the original 1291 Swiss alliance seem to have been sensible enough to reject this nonsense!
It’s a nice idea, but Swiss referendums are at least taken seriously by much of their electorate. It would take a long period of errors before that could hold in the UK. One possible solution would be a high level of devolution and withdrawal of government from large areas of our lives. Neither is likely and I very much fear that the writer is correct.
Real power is not about a series of big decisions that can be formulated into referendum questions. It’s about who makes the 1000s of smaller decisions every day in government that are never asked. Did you vote for an change in detailed tax law? No – but it happens anyway, putting up your tax bill whether you like it or not because it’s some officials day job to decide that is a good thing.
On top of that reality we also need to recognise that even governments (civil servants) are merely part of an oligarchy and hold only a small slice of power – who votes to decide what gets shown in the media? Who votes what gets promoted in the twitter feed? Who votes for the decisions corporates make? Who votes what is taught at universities? Nobody votes on these things and yet they and many other things like them have enormous influence on how we have got where we are.
Neigh good sir, referendums are merely a sleight of hand to keep people asleep as to where the real power lies. Only by breaking the illusion of democratic power we will begin to see a way forward.
We can already do this, on the state level. Direct legislation, in combination with the ability of states to experiment legally in ways taht would be impossible on the national level, could blast us out of this funk.
And who will have the airtime, the resources, the experts (NGOs etc) to explain to the masses as to why we have to support whatever is being voted on?
” When the working or middle class complain about losing their livelihoods to globalization while the wealthiest get richer, does economic policy change?”
Well there is your whopper. The middle class have never been so upper class, yet the the complaints are legion. And the why of course is what you end with, its a control mechanism. I suggest you cut your wires.
Not sure, Bret, whether by a ‘whopper’ you mean something large (as in the Big King sense) or a barefaced lie (as I knew it in childhood). Makes a big difference to reading your post.
As with most things, I’m in the in between, its a little of both. I think globalization was a good thing for the time. On the one side, it allowed human labour, owned by free citizens, to benefit from their labour no matter where they lived. On the other side, it allowed totalitarian regimens to farm slave labour and become fabulously wealthy.
How do you keep the one without the other?
Labour in free countries saw a huge benefit, while paying with the jobs they decided they didnt want to do.
The next twenty years we will need to repatriate alot of those jobs or we will cease to exist as a society but still it was a fair go.
As with most things, I’m in the in between, its a little of both. I think globalization was a good thing for the time. On the one side, it allowed human labour, owned by free citizens, to benefit from their labour no matter where they lived. On the other side, it allowed totalitarian regimens to farm slave labour and become fabulously wealthy.
How do you keep the one without the other?
Labour in free countries saw a huge benefit, while paying with the jobs they decided they didnt want to do.
The next twenty years we will need to repatriate alot of those jobs or we will cease to exist as a society but still it was a fair go.
Perhaps “middle class” was being used in the sense it is on my side of the Pond, where it includes most of what in Britain are called “working class”, being defined in solely in terms of income level. If so, the anti-globalism complaints have a good deal of merit. (Though I agree, observing from afar, what is called the “middle class” in Britain are indeed more upper class than at any previous time).
On the other hand, I think the change from capitalism to what Burnham called managerialism (under which we definitely live now, though I regard him as having thought the shift arrived earlier than it did) should probably oblige us all to rethink not the notion of social or economic class per se, but where the boundaries between classes are, and maybe what the sensible names for the classes are. Perhaps we could even get uniform usage throughout the Anglosphere if someone did a good enough job of both describing sensible class boundaries and giving the classes pithy names.
Not sure, Bret, whether by a ‘whopper’ you mean something large (as in the Big King sense) or a barefaced lie (as I knew it in childhood). Makes a big difference to reading your post.
Perhaps “middle class” was being used in the sense it is on my side of the Pond, where it includes most of what in Britain are called “working class”, being defined in solely in terms of income level. If so, the anti-globalism complaints have a good deal of merit. (Though I agree, observing from afar, what is called the “middle class” in Britain are indeed more upper class than at any previous time).
On the other hand, I think the change from capitalism to what Burnham called managerialism (under which we definitely live now, though I regard him as having thought the shift arrived earlier than it did) should probably oblige us all to rethink not the notion of social or economic class per se, but where the boundaries between classes are, and maybe what the sensible names for the classes are. Perhaps we could even get uniform usage throughout the Anglosphere if someone did a good enough job of both describing sensible class boundaries and giving the classes pithy names.
Study the Cobra Effect of perverse incentives. They actually do learn but since the West has largely abandoned cautious Empiricism in favor of Dialectical Reasoning, each “solution” to a problem actually operates as a problem multiplier.
Take legislation. When you get a 1000 page document full of vague solutions that seeks to plug past failures, what are the odds that you’ve created 20 more problems?
Agree. Its not just America. Europe and UK are actually worse. At least Trump Biden is a choice, a horrible choice but at least a semblance of difference.
Vive la difference! I think not. It’s a choice between the devil and the deep blue sea.
Vive la difference! I think not. It’s a choice between the devil and the deep blue sea.
Indeed. As bad as it looks, civilization is fundamentally a game of resources and assets, and America still has a lot of both. Americans may be having fewer children but are not yet as bad off in terms of demographics as most of Europe or some places in Asia. Moreover there are plenty of potential Americans who are more or less compatible with our civilization available whenever we can finally agree on an immigration reform that combines strong border control and more screening of immigrants, favoring the young and productive and screening out moochers, human traffickers, drug dealers, and other riffraff. Most of America’s problems could be solved simply by removing the current ruling class who will not let go of their globalist utopian fantasies even when faced by the mounting consequences of the manifest failures of that philosophy. The solution to a bad ruling class is simple and straightforward. Revolution, in whatever form it takes, that removes the globalists and their policies through whatever means are necessary and replaces the failed ruling class with a new one.
Just like that! Don’t be silly.
Just like that! Don’t be silly.
Well said, and I for one, regret all those years that I used to financially support the Guardian – even all these years later! At least NOW it feels like it’s going to a good place!
Yes, they can all (mostly) add something valuable to the discourse from time to time (Snowden & Greenwald), I guess. But, thank f**k for Joe Rogan, JP, Maajid, Freddy and the Unherd, as well as Chris and the substack posse.
If only RFK could get a shot at these bastards…
…so a huge cowardice on the part of the proletariat then? Perhaps, or helplessness or hopelessness.. yes, a kind of nihilism. In my youth we had guts and get up and do something about it. Today’s snowflakes just look for their mums to make it alright! The current young generation have been screwed over by my generation and they know it but can’t get off their fat arses to take back what’s theirs by right! I can’t help feeling they deserve all the s**t they get!
Decline in spirit which manifests in lack of innovation and courage. The desire to attempt the impossible is a sign of spirit : to go beyond what has already been achieved . A modern example of spirit is Nimsdai Purja, Gurkha, SBS operative who climbed fourteen mountains over 8000m in under 7 months.
Sir Barnes Wallis and Sir Stanley Hooker are examples of innovation. Hooker designed the two stage supercharger for the Merlin Engine , increased speed by 70mph and 10,000 ft of altitude.
Michelangelo was called the Divine One because what he achived appeared Divine whether creating The Pieta or St Peters.
Modern day life is is good at the mass production of mediocrity. Genius recognises talent, mediocrity sees itself. People do not want genius because they do not want to be shown up as mediocrities.
Decline in spirit which manifests in lack of innovation and courage. The desire to attempt the impossible is a sign of spirit : to go beyond what has already been achieved . A modern example of spirit is Nimsdai Purja, Gurkha, SBS operative who climbed fourteen mountains over 8000m in under 7 months.
Sir Barnes Wallis and Sir Stanley Hooker are examples of innovation. Hooker designed the two stage supercharger for the Merlin Engine , increased speed by 70mph and 10,000 ft of altitude.
Michelangelo was called the Divine One because what he achived appeared Divine whether creating The Pieta or St Peters.
Modern day life is is good at the mass production of mediocrity. Genius recognises talent, mediocrity sees itself. People do not want genius because they do not want to be shown up as mediocrities.
There’s a feeling of staleness in America, same old same old, business as usual.The rich get richer the poor get poorer. It’s actually quite depressing living here. There’s a desperate need for an infusion of new ideas, vision and vitality, but we all know it’s never going to happen because most politicians are self-serving, it’s the name of the game.
I mean, the Nazi Party and the fascists in Italy tried to fight against the moral decay, but then were bombed out of existence. Yet Americans still believe that the Allies were the “good guys” in World War II. Newsflash: it’s the opposite.
You raise a good point. Everything decays, morals included or maybe especially. We must fight that. Why does that fight turn us into losers?
You raise a good point. Everything decays, morals included or maybe especially. We must fight that. Why does that fight turn us into losers?
It’s called ‘a failure in leadership’. Ironically, feminism calls young women to be leaders; ditto universities recruit by telling young women, ‘come to our school and become a leader’ while at the same time putting men down by telling them they’re toxic. Very few of these millions of women have risen to lead us forward. And the men are just told to move out of the way. We’ve got it all wrong. It’s a cultural problem even more than economics.
Very good. Is not our problem the fact that we now inhabit a political universe in which politicians are unmoored from us and democratic consent (see 2nd Referendum; lockdown tyranny, small boats) and they in turn are unmoored from genuine rational thinking and in the grip of derwnged groupthink? Why do they not know what a woman is? Who voted for the myriad bans and a4bitrary untested controls of the Net Zero Regime? When was it aired and debated with the public? This is religion – not politics. It has more in common ideolgically with the irrational utopianism of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. Who voted for the convulsive revolution of non stop 1m p.a incoming population growth? With globalism tech and AI all spinning heads with revolutionary change from above, people expected the State and our political class to respond with cool pragmatic reason. But it is impossible to avoid the feeling that they have deserted the trenches. Irrational credos and some form of nihilistic hysteria is gripping the political legal and media elite here.
Direct democracy or the Swiss system of binding citizens initiated referenda is what is needed to break the impasse over all the problems the West faces. The people need to be able to ring the changes through an organic system of real democracy.
” When the working or middle class complain about losing their livelihoods to globalization while the wealthiest get richer, does economic policy change?”
Well there is your whopper. The middle class have never been so upper class, yet the the complaints are legion. And the why of course is what you end with, its a control mechanism. I suggest you cut your wires.
Study the Cobra Effect of perverse incentives. They actually do learn but since the West has largely abandoned cautious Empiricism in favor of Dialectical Reasoning, each “solution” to a problem actually operates as a problem multiplier.
Take legislation. When you get a 1000 page document full of vague solutions that seeks to plug past failures, what are the odds that you’ve created 20 more problems?
Agree. Its not just America. Europe and UK are actually worse. At least Trump Biden is a choice, a horrible choice but at least a semblance of difference.
Indeed. As bad as it looks, civilization is fundamentally a game of resources and assets, and America still has a lot of both. Americans may be having fewer children but are not yet as bad off in terms of demographics as most of Europe or some places in Asia. Moreover there are plenty of potential Americans who are more or less compatible with our civilization available whenever we can finally agree on an immigration reform that combines strong border control and more screening of immigrants, favoring the young and productive and screening out moochers, human traffickers, drug dealers, and other riffraff. Most of America’s problems could be solved simply by removing the current ruling class who will not let go of their globalist utopian fantasies even when faced by the mounting consequences of the manifest failures of that philosophy. The solution to a bad ruling class is simple and straightforward. Revolution, in whatever form it takes, that removes the globalists and their policies through whatever means are necessary and replaces the failed ruling class with a new one.
Well said, and I for one, regret all those years that I used to financially support the Guardian – even all these years later! At least NOW it feels like it’s going to a good place!
Yes, they can all (mostly) add something valuable to the discourse from time to time (Snowden & Greenwald), I guess. But, thank f**k for Joe Rogan, JP, Maajid, Freddy and the Unherd, as well as Chris and the substack posse.
If only RFK could get a shot at these bastards…
…so a huge cowardice on the part of the proletariat then? Perhaps, or helplessness or hopelessness.. yes, a kind of nihilism. In my youth we had guts and get up and do something about it. Today’s snowflakes just look for their mums to make it alright! The current young generation have been screwed over by my generation and they know it but can’t get off their fat arses to take back what’s theirs by right! I can’t help feeling they deserve all the s**t they get!
There’s a feeling of staleness in America, same old same old, business as usual.The rich get richer the poor get poorer. It’s actually quite depressing living here. There’s a desperate need for an infusion of new ideas, vision and vitality, but we all know it’s never going to happen because most politicians are self-serving, it’s the name of the game.
I mean, the Nazi Party and the fascists in Italy tried to fight against the moral decay, but then were bombed out of existence. Yet Americans still believe that the Allies were the “good guys” in World War II. Newsflash: it’s the opposite.
It’s called ‘a failure in leadership’. Ironically, feminism calls young women to be leaders; ditto universities recruit by telling young women, ‘come to our school and become a leader’ while at the same time putting men down by telling them they’re toxic. Very few of these millions of women have risen to lead us forward. And the men are just told to move out of the way. We’ve got it all wrong. It’s a cultural problem even more than economics.
I think that feeling of wanting to destroy goes deeper than that. Institutions and systems not just in America, but throughout the Western world are fundamentally broken. You name it, dishonest media organizations, fracturing political parties, government bureaucracies considering themselves above the law, massive monopolized corporations etc. they all deserve the hate they get. The reason that so many rational people are at the point where they would not mind watching it burn is simply every single one of these systems or institutions have flat out refused to make the most basic of reforms. When large media conglomerates get caught telling lies on national television, do they change their behavior or blame all the people who noticed? When the working or middle class complain about losing their livelihoods to globalization while the wealthiest get richer, does economic policy change? Do Western governments ever keep their promises to learn from foreign policy failures or stop illegal surveillance programs? Given that most of you have come to places like UnHerd for a reason, I bet you can already guess the answers to those questions. I don’t think it is nihilism. I think it is the realization that those who run things see these broken systems as running just like they are supposed to.
The author certainly provided a scathing appraisal of current American society, and much that he says is true. But I’m not quite as pessimistic as he appears to be (although I certainly do an excellent Chicken Little impersonation when I want to).
My sense is we’re at a moment of profound change. Radical individualism, coupled with a radical form of neoliberal economics, has brought America to a dead end. A new direction is needed and it’s my hope we will find that new way forward soon. The author is certainly correct that the US congress is now a gerontocracy; it is the barely-living, barely-breathing metaphor for the exhausted ideas of the past. Our hope now is we find a new way forward. I will admit, at this moment I don’t see that path or who will lead us.
Term limits for members of Congress would go a long way toward reversing much of what the author describes in this essay. It will never happen of course. Politicians will not vote for anything that reduces their ability to hold onto power.
Congress are just servants of the bankers and industrialists who have ran the United States since at least WW1. Having younger puppets won’t change anything.
Are these “bankers and industrialists” the usual suspects by any chance?
Quite a large proportion of them (i.e. c.60% – though more than that in banking) do seem to fit the stereotype.
Quite a large proportion of them (i.e. c.60% – though more than that in banking) do seem to fit the stereotype.
Are these “bankers and industrialists” the usual suspects by any chance?
Exactly. Nothing is going to change, it’s a stalemate.
Congress are just servants of the bankers and industrialists who have ran the United States since at least WW1. Having younger puppets won’t change anything.
Exactly. Nothing is going to change, it’s a stalemate.
Patrick Deneen just wrote a book called Regime Change as an attempt to chart this new direction. I really liked Deneen’s first book (Why Liberalism failed) so I expected some optimistic things from this one. Unfortunately, his prescription appear to be very pie-in-the-sky to me. However, since you’re interested in potential solutions, I would recommend it.
Currently reading Why Liberalism Failed. Disappointed to hear that his next book is not as good. What kind of solutions does he propose?
His big thing is creating a “mixed constitution” in which the interests of both the masses and the elites are represented. He (rightly) rejects the straight populist “we don’t need no elites” idea, since every society needs some kind of hierarchy. And done well, elites serve like the old aristocracy was supposed to (and often actually did), as carriers or high culture and moral exemplars, essentially vehicles for the ennoblement of society.
This is a great vision, and fairly historically accurate. However, his roadmap to get there includes a lot of “we ought to have elites that…” and very little of how to actually get there. When he does make specific recommendations, they’re pie-in-the-sky wishes. For example: giving more votes to poorer and rural people since they have less influence in other centers of power. There’s a lot of things like that which may make sense, but are so far away from being politically tenable that it’s laughable.
All that said, the first 2/3rds of the book is great, and I highly recommend people read it. The last third is just depressing though since he provides no path to achieve the “regime change” he posits in his title.
In the United States, we had a mixed constitution, but it was subverted in the interest of “progress”, with first, the direct election of Senators, which had the effect of concentrating power in the Federal government, since there was no longer anyone representing the interests of the state governments in Washington; second, the institution of the income tax, which allowed the Federal government to grow; and finally, a series of bad Supreme Court decisions, including Wicker v. Filburn, that turned the Commerce Clause into a carte blanche for the Federal regulation of everything, and Reynold v. Sims that destroyed the constitutions of all the states that had an upper house elected by county (very much in line with the ‘more votes for the rural’ proposal).
Today our elites enjoy nothing more than a trip to Epstein Island.
In the United States, we had a mixed constitution, but it was subverted in the interest of “progress”, with first, the direct election of Senators, which had the effect of concentrating power in the Federal government, since there was no longer anyone representing the interests of the state governments in Washington; second, the institution of the income tax, which allowed the Federal government to grow; and finally, a series of bad Supreme Court decisions, including Wicker v. Filburn, that turned the Commerce Clause into a carte blanche for the Federal regulation of everything, and Reynold v. Sims that destroyed the constitutions of all the states that had an upper house elected by county (very much in line with the ‘more votes for the rural’ proposal).
Today our elites enjoy nothing more than a trip to Epstein Island.
His big thing is creating a “mixed constitution” in which the interests of both the masses and the elites are represented. He (rightly) rejects the straight populist “we don’t need no elites” idea, since every society needs some kind of hierarchy. And done well, elites serve like the old aristocracy was supposed to (and often actually did), as carriers or high culture and moral exemplars, essentially vehicles for the ennoblement of society.
This is a great vision, and fairly historically accurate. However, his roadmap to get there includes a lot of “we ought to have elites that…” and very little of how to actually get there. When he does make specific recommendations, they’re pie-in-the-sky wishes. For example: giving more votes to poorer and rural people since they have less influence in other centers of power. There’s a lot of things like that which may make sense, but are so far away from being politically tenable that it’s laughable.
All that said, the first 2/3rds of the book is great, and I highly recommend people read it. The last third is just depressing though since he provides no path to achieve the “regime change” he posits in his title.
Thanks for the recommendation. I don’t think anyone really sees a new way. Even social commenters I greatly respect, notably Victor Davis Hansen, are long on diagnosis and short on cure.
Spot on. I recently got quite tired of listening to VD Hansen’s doom and gloom. There is much to be optimistic about (DEI has stalled, push-back on trans athletes, rethinking net-zero, etc,). We need ideas and positivity from pundits, not mere recitation of obvious problems – such as this rather banale example in Unherd,
Spot on. I recently got quite tired of listening to VD Hansen’s doom and gloom. There is much to be optimistic about (DEI has stalled, push-back on trans athletes, rethinking net-zero, etc,). We need ideas and positivity from pundits, not mere recitation of obvious problems – such as this rather banale example in Unherd,
I had no idea Deneen had written another book. A cursory search shows angry reviews by Vox, WaPo, the New York Times and the FT, which means I am essentially obligated to buy it, notwithstanding that his first book was excellent.
What if, by the time America’s children were 16 or so, they had the skills to pay the bills and, by the time they were 21, they had the emotional maturity to marry and raise children. Not so long ago in our nation’s history, this was not an uncommon state of affairs.To achieve this sort of thing today, what would be required? Homeschooling, especially as it’s rapidly evolving in the face of increasing numbers of parents choosing this option? Early apprenticeships? A generation that has an independent life early on, versus languishing in the proverbial parents’ basement, is much more likely to create a politics that defends liberty rather than undermines it. Also what if technology was geared to supporting liberty? Complicated technologies favor Byzantine bureaucracies. I suspect we could have a high standard of living a lot without so much complexity, and simpler tech puts more power n the hands of the people.
Currently reading Why Liberalism Failed. Disappointed to hear that his next book is not as good. What kind of solutions does he propose?
Thanks for the recommendation. I don’t think anyone really sees a new way. Even social commenters I greatly respect, notably Victor Davis Hansen, are long on diagnosis and short on cure.
I had no idea Deneen had written another book. A cursory search shows angry reviews by Vox, WaPo, the New York Times and the FT, which means I am essentially obligated to buy it, notwithstanding that his first book was excellent.
What if, by the time America’s children were 16 or so, they had the skills to pay the bills and, by the time they were 21, they had the emotional maturity to marry and raise children. Not so long ago in our nation’s history, this was not an uncommon state of affairs.To achieve this sort of thing today, what would be required? Homeschooling, especially as it’s rapidly evolving in the face of increasing numbers of parents choosing this option? Early apprenticeships? A generation that has an independent life early on, versus languishing in the proverbial parents’ basement, is much more likely to create a politics that defends liberty rather than undermines it. Also what if technology was geared to supporting liberty? Complicated technologies favor Byzantine bureaucracies. I suspect we could have a high standard of living a lot without so much complexity, and simpler tech puts more power n the hands of the people.
Your “don’t see the path” captures Prof. Howland’s point perfectly. He is writing about the advent of nihilism. About the revelation that our search for the right path ends with the discovery that there are no paths to take. What options does one have in such a world? His answer appears to be: The choice between Joe Biden and Donald Trump.
Or “when you reach the fork in the road take it”.
Precisely.
Precisely.
Or “when you reach the fork in the road take it”.
From the perspective of leadership, perhaps RFK Jr. might be the one for that. From a moral, spiritual, and cultural perspective. That is a crisis of leadership in churches. Ironically churches stepping outside the scope of duty assigned to them in the Great Commission, and seeking to meddle with culture has had the opposite from a preserving or guiding effect.
RFK junior as a potential leader?! God forbid.
RFK junior as a potential leader?! God forbid.
I think that the author was referring to the Senate.
The Senate is one branch of the legislature, referred to collectively as Congress. The House of Representatives is the other branch.
I did not know that
I did not know that
The Senate is one branch of the legislature, referred to collectively as Congress. The House of Representatives is the other branch.
I am inclined to agree however I don’t trust the generations coming after X to govern effectively or wisely.
Quite so, especially when 40+ % of them believe people should be imprisoned for saying the “wrong” things.
Quite so, especially when 40+ % of them believe people should be imprisoned for saying the “wrong” things.
“My sense is we’re at a moment of profound change.”
The moving edge of time is always the current moment of profound change.
In particular, because there are people out there who use the latest technology for purely shallow purposes, doesn’t mean that we all have to. Speak for yourself, Mr. “People’s Republic of Austin.”
MInd you, he has PLENTY of faults; I make no bones about that. But the fact that not only Democrats but especially Establishment Republicans loath TRUMP, suggests that he is on to something. Perhaps the best is: “Its not really about me (TRUMP)- its about you, about us.” Save a the few Republican Congressmen pushing back, if they can do to Trump what they are doing, they can do it to anyone. And as someone who has voted RED for most of my life, I like a lot of Robert Kennedy JR, but not sure he can be ‘mean’ enough if he were to win (which is a long, long shot). One of our best bets is to take on the culture, the ideology, at the local level. Mayor, city council, school boards, sheriff, etc.
Trump is doing the Jesus thing “I died for your sins”. Well like I said to Jesus “I didn’t ask you to”.
Trump is doing the Jesus thing “I died for your sins”. Well like I said to Jesus “I didn’t ask you to”.
Exactly.
Term limits for members of Congress would go a long way toward reversing much of what the author describes in this essay. It will never happen of course. Politicians will not vote for anything that reduces their ability to hold onto power.
Patrick Deneen just wrote a book called Regime Change as an attempt to chart this new direction. I really liked Deneen’s first book (Why Liberalism failed) so I expected some optimistic things from this one. Unfortunately, his prescription appear to be very pie-in-the-sky to me. However, since you’re interested in potential solutions, I would recommend it.
Your “don’t see the path” captures Prof. Howland’s point perfectly. He is writing about the advent of nihilism. About the revelation that our search for the right path ends with the discovery that there are no paths to take. What options does one have in such a world? His answer appears to be: The choice between Joe Biden and Donald Trump.
From the perspective of leadership, perhaps RFK Jr. might be the one for that. From a moral, spiritual, and cultural perspective. That is a crisis of leadership in churches. Ironically churches stepping outside the scope of duty assigned to them in the Great Commission, and seeking to meddle with culture has had the opposite from a preserving or guiding effect.
I think that the author was referring to the Senate.
I am inclined to agree however I don’t trust the generations coming after X to govern effectively or wisely.
“My sense is we’re at a moment of profound change.”
The moving edge of time is always the current moment of profound change.
In particular, because there are people out there who use the latest technology for purely shallow purposes, doesn’t mean that we all have to. Speak for yourself, Mr. “People’s Republic of Austin.”
MInd you, he has PLENTY of faults; I make no bones about that. But the fact that not only Democrats but especially Establishment Republicans loath TRUMP, suggests that he is on to something. Perhaps the best is: “Its not really about me (TRUMP)- its about you, about us.” Save a the few Republican Congressmen pushing back, if they can do to Trump what they are doing, they can do it to anyone. And as someone who has voted RED for most of my life, I like a lot of Robert Kennedy JR, but not sure he can be ‘mean’ enough if he were to win (which is a long, long shot). One of our best bets is to take on the culture, the ideology, at the local level. Mayor, city council, school boards, sheriff, etc.
Exactly.
The author certainly provided a scathing appraisal of current American society, and much that he says is true. But I’m not quite as pessimistic as he appears to be (although I certainly do an excellent Chicken Little impersonation when I want to).
My sense is we’re at a moment of profound change. Radical individualism, coupled with a radical form of neoliberal economics, has brought America to a dead end. A new direction is needed and it’s my hope we will find that new way forward soon. The author is certainly correct that the US congress is now a gerontocracy; it is the barely-living, barely-breathing metaphor for the exhausted ideas of the past. Our hope now is we find a new way forward. I will admit, at this moment I don’t see that path or who will lead us.
It’s not possible to separate what’s happening today to USA from the decline of globalisation. Globalisation, for a brief period, created the set of conditions that allowed a capitalist and a matching mandarin class to flourish, awarding them fabulous amounts of wealth and influence. These were a set of people who were at the right place with the right set of thoughts. For this brief period, millions were lifted from poverty across the globe and liberal ideas saw their apex with the end of history being declared. I trace the set of events that shattered this dream and gave us today’s absurd political situation to the terribly handled invasion of Iraq by Bush where the joke went America fought the war and China won it.
We’re merely in the “weak men make hard times” portion of the social cycle.
We’ve let too many midwits promote a self important, deluded mode d’vie, we’ve succumbed, inexplicably, to oikophobia, and we’ve let an effeminate, vindictive, self important elite take too much control of our economy and our culture.
However, much of America is growing very tired of the endless incompetence, arrogance, and intrusion into our lives. I strongly suspect our next election will sweep much of the rot from the very top, enabling real reform, and a fairly rapid economic turn around. An American regime change sweeps our many government agencies of their policymakers, ends many of the prior administration’s executive orders, and if accompanied by legislative majorities, can transform much of our political and economic lives.
Similarly, the culture will change with this, and we can see that this is already starting. Almost no one now drinks Bud Light – until recently the Diet Coke of mass produced beer – almost no one watched the insipid and preachy movies and shows Hollywood forces upon us, and the pro- “ordered liberty” country music song “Try That In A Small Town” is rising quickly to the top of the charts.
The weak men – whom I date to about President Clinton, a man of exceedingly weak moral character, through to President Biden, who’s possibly even worse – have had their day, and are on their way out, along with their useless lackeys and minions.
Absolutely! When I first saw a depiction of that cycle (strong men make good times, good times make weak men, weak men make hard times, hard times make strong men) it helped me make sense of what is happening in our world. The bit it doesn’t mention is how many FAKE “strong men” will try to assert themselves when it becomes obvious everything is collapsing. They are just new narcissists trying to capitalise on the instability. I think the REAL “strong men” are quiet and understated, working behind the scenes in their institutions to maintain some kind of sense and order whilst all around them are losing their heads. I see glimpses of their actions here and there, and it gives me hope we are approaching the next phase of the cycle.
Really?! That slogan always struck me as simplistic nonsense – an Ayn Rand fan’s wet dream.
If something is simple it doesn’t mean its not correct – Occam’s razor principle in action. Look at WW2 – through the 30s loonies ascended and after the nasty bar room brawl ended in 1945 the participants sobered up and the rule of law was re-asserted, excepting the USSR, for 50 to 60 years. Now memories have faded and the deranged are once again revving up for a big conflict.
Maybe but it doesn’t mean either that complex things like the rise of civilisations can be reduced to neat little sound bites.
Too often I see that particular set of sentences employed by people who can’t be bothered to think.
After all, no one who ever reads that and sees themselves as the weak man do they?
It’s the kind of quote that gives you a little massage while whispering in your ear and as such should be viewed with suspicion and amusement in equal measure.
Excellent rejoinder.
Excellent rejoinder.
Maybe but it doesn’t mean either that complex things like the rise of civilisations can be reduced to neat little sound bites.
Too often I see that particular set of sentences employed by people who can’t be bothered to think.
After all, no one who ever reads that and sees themselves as the weak man do they?
It’s the kind of quote that gives you a little massage while whispering in your ear and as such should be viewed with suspicion and amusement in equal measure.
Lt Col Paddy Blair Mayne DSO *** honed on the rugby pitches and boxing ring and Violette Szabo GC, gymnstics, ice skating, long distance cycling and shooting.
If something is simple it doesn’t mean its not correct – Occam’s razor principle in action. Look at WW2 – through the 30s loonies ascended and after the nasty bar room brawl ended in 1945 the participants sobered up and the rule of law was re-asserted, excepting the USSR, for 50 to 60 years. Now memories have faded and the deranged are once again revving up for a big conflict.
Lt Col Paddy Blair Mayne DSO *** honed on the rugby pitches and boxing ring and Violette Szabo GC, gymnstics, ice skating, long distance cycling and shooting.
You know that’s one of the stupidest memes going around or you also believe vaccines cause autism?
Very weak trolling. Very weak indeed. Back to troll school with you!
I thought it was rather good.
I thought it was rather good.
Very weak trolling. Very weak indeed. Back to troll school with you!
Really?! That slogan always struck me as simplistic nonsense – an Ayn Rand fan’s wet dream.
You know that’s one of the stupidest memes going around or you also believe vaccines cause autism?
One can but hope. The narcissistic self destruction inflicted on us by the woke is deeply depressing.
Your former president tried to get fake votes in order to claim he was the winner.
It’s not about taking sides. We need to get away from the typically American outlook on dismissing those holding different opinions as liars or idiots. They serve no purpose except to cause bad feelings.
I think you’re really onto something here, Julian. Don’t let the Americans who sometimes flood these boards as you say “export” our deeply angry and uncharitable national zeitgeist across the Atlantic, not even that mostly-well-meaning loud-finger “AJ Mac”.
That goes for y’all up in Canada too, the land of my birth and dual citizenship: I need a potential escape that hasn’t become just as bad as the States. And for your own sakes too, eh.
Canada under Trudeau has become a woke contry. Also huge guilt complex about how how the indigenous people were treated with a turning against the values of the British foundation fathers. I write this as an Irish, British, Canadian.
Triple citizenship?
Triple citizenship?
Canada under Trudeau has become a woke contry. Also huge guilt complex about how how the indigenous people were treated with a turning against the values of the British foundation fathers. I write this as an Irish, British, Canadian.
It would be nice if it wasn’t about taking sides but, unfortunately, it is. The right is so extreme, off the wall and entrenched that there is no being reasonable or trying to communicate.
Not off the wall; on the wall. The right clings to walls. The “left” has let go, of the walls of the world, that is.
Not off the wall; on the wall. The right clings to walls. The “left” has let go, of the walls of the world, that is.
I think you’re really onto something here, Julian. Don’t let the Americans who sometimes flood these boards as you say “export” our deeply angry and uncharitable national zeitgeist across the Atlantic, not even that mostly-well-meaning loud-finger “AJ Mac”.
That goes for y’all up in Canada too, the land of my birth and dual citizenship: I need a potential escape that hasn’t become just as bad as the States. And for your own sakes too, eh.
It would be nice if it wasn’t about taking sides but, unfortunately, it is. The right is so extreme, off the wall and entrenched that there is no being reasonable or trying to communicate.
Indeed he did.
It’s not about taking sides. We need to get away from the typically American outlook on dismissing those holding different opinions as liars or idiots. They serve no purpose except to cause bad feelings.
Indeed he did.
Your former president tried to get fake votes in order to claim he was the winner.
Well said, and very good to see the word oikophobia used in its proper context.
We have a very similar problem here in the UK, but again the “worm is turning”, albeit a bit too slowly for my liking.
Yes, there have been a few recent pushbacks to the overt deranged credos (Net Zero Extreme & Extreme Trans) promoted by our entire political legal class and the captured fully propagandist media. But they only occured because a few true facts ‘escaped’ BBC Newspeak. I think this description of nihilsm and the snapping of societal vitality is accurate for the UK too. If we agree that meritocratic free enterprise and bucaneering capitalist adventure is the prime source of prosperity, then there are now no grounds for hope. The rival progressive left are innately hostile to enterprise and have since 97 and with the craven support of Wet Cameron May and their loathsome Lib Dem fellow travellers – re shaped our entire society to promote increasingly Extreme Equalitarian progressive ideals. Wealth creation is now a discriminatory hate crime (cue yelling at idea of tax cuts for Rich). Social engineering has utterly hollowed out our state education/exam system & eaten out a rapacious China loving uni sector. We now do not just have Labours reflex windfall taxes and non dom rage. It goes so much deeper. We are sinking under a culture of Hooman Right Greviance and Entitlement, corrupted welfarism and punishing taxation on SMEs. State finances ruined by insane money tree theory are further groaning under the weight of a vast bloated non productive Army of Quangos Regulators & so called Charities. We inhabit a Neo Keynsian Lalaland. ESG madness has infected our once dynamic financial sector whilst the progressive commitment to mass female employment – without the necessary childcare provision – means for example that the battered NHS cannot ever operate 24/7 as it is deemed ‘anti women’ by newly deranged public sector trade unions. Three decades of this Blairism and the horrors of wokery since the EQA of 2015 has polluted the public space with hysteria and hate and encrusted decline on every captured state institution. A Thatcher like revolution and pushback seems just impossible. The Elite have conquered the loathed Brexiteers and intend to punish the wayward grifters with net zero waterboarding. No one powerful in the political class is fighting these core nihilistic values of the Left in the State in schools in law and in the media. Certainly not the Fellow Travelling Furlo Fake socialist Tories. So the poison just sinks deeper and deeper, just as is happening in America. Nihilism is indeed the word.
I wish you’d stop being so mealy-mouthed and call a spade a spade ♠️ (joke obvs).
I will try harder next time! This is the encouragement I need! 🙂
I will try harder next time! This is the encouragement I need! 🙂
“”progressive commitment to mass female employment – without the necessary childcare provision” – The low birth rate predicts trouble ahead. See Japan and the coming demographic collapse we all are facing. Apparently progressives can’t be the future. Whether less skilled immigration can rise to help keep the electricity flowing seems an issue.
We don’t need that, society will adjust.
We don’t need that, society will adjust.
I wish you’d stop being so mealy-mouthed and call a spade a spade ♠️ (joke obvs).
“”progressive commitment to mass female employment – without the necessary childcare provision” – The low birth rate predicts trouble ahead. See Japan and the coming demographic collapse we all are facing. Apparently progressives can’t be the future. Whether less skilled immigration can rise to help keep the electricity flowing seems an issue.
I think the population worm has turned. UK emigration is a footnote in the data, but meaningful numbers are leaving. For the rest the uniparty convergence is becoming intolerable. In the recent by elections apathy was the big winner, but I sense anger is hard on its heels. Certainly Hillingdon, where we live, has a dissenting vibe. Tinderbox moments are increasing?
Is anything said locally about the resignation of David Williams from the Labour party and being its local chair?
He narrowly lost as Labour candidate in 1997 to the very popular Conservative, Michael Shersby, his local popularity and respect being the key.
After Shersby’s very unexpected death six months later, Williams was passed over for a Labour central office place man.
For me, then living in Uxbridge, that demonstrated how local party members are just fodder. A small pointer to the wider rottenness in our politics.
Where are they leaving to?
We’ve reached the stage tax-exiles are leaving for Italy!
A beautiful country. Bella Italia! And a fightin’ broad running the place as a bonus.
A beautiful country. Bella Italia! And a fightin’ broad running the place as a bonus.
Australia and New Zealand.
We’ve reached the stage tax-exiles are leaving for Italy!
Australia and New Zealand.
Is anything said locally about the resignation of David Williams from the Labour party and being its local chair?
He narrowly lost as Labour candidate in 1997 to the very popular Conservative, Michael Shersby, his local popularity and respect being the key.
After Shersby’s very unexpected death six months later, Williams was passed over for a Labour central office place man.
For me, then living in Uxbridge, that demonstrated how local party members are just fodder. A small pointer to the wider rottenness in our politics.
Where are they leaving to?
Yes, there have been a few recent pushbacks to the overt deranged credos (Net Zero Extreme & Extreme Trans) promoted by our entire political legal class and the captured fully propagandist media. But they only occured because a few true facts ‘escaped’ BBC Newspeak. I think this description of nihilsm and the snapping of societal vitality is accurate for the UK too. If we agree that meritocratic free enterprise and bucaneering capitalist adventure is the prime source of prosperity, then there are now no grounds for hope. The rival progressive left are innately hostile to enterprise and have since 97 and with the craven support of Wet Cameron May and their loathsome Lib Dem fellow travellers – re shaped our entire society to promote increasingly Extreme Equalitarian progressive ideals. Wealth creation is now a discriminatory hate crime (cue yelling at idea of tax cuts for Rich). Social engineering has utterly hollowed out our state education/exam system & eaten out a rapacious China loving uni sector. We now do not just have Labours reflex windfall taxes and non dom rage. It goes so much deeper. We are sinking under a culture of Hooman Right Greviance and Entitlement, corrupted welfarism and punishing taxation on SMEs. State finances ruined by insane money tree theory are further groaning under the weight of a vast bloated non productive Army of Quangos Regulators & so called Charities. We inhabit a Neo Keynsian Lalaland. ESG madness has infected our once dynamic financial sector whilst the progressive commitment to mass female employment – without the necessary childcare provision – means for example that the battered NHS cannot ever operate 24/7 as it is deemed ‘anti women’ by newly deranged public sector trade unions. Three decades of this Blairism and the horrors of wokery since the EQA of 2015 has polluted the public space with hysteria and hate and encrusted decline on every captured state institution. A Thatcher like revolution and pushback seems just impossible. The Elite have conquered the loathed Brexiteers and intend to punish the wayward grifters with net zero waterboarding. No one powerful in the political class is fighting these core nihilistic values of the Left in the State in schools in law and in the media. Certainly not the Fellow Travelling Furlo Fake socialist Tories. So the poison just sinks deeper and deeper, just as is happening in America. Nihilism is indeed the word.
I think the population worm has turned. UK emigration is a footnote in the data, but meaningful numbers are leaving. For the rest the uniparty convergence is becoming intolerable. In the recent by elections apathy was the big winner, but I sense anger is hard on its heels. Certainly Hillingdon, where we live, has a dissenting vibe. Tinderbox moments are increasing?
Unfortunately, Andrew, Bud Light sales are down but still substantial. Hard times still hardening.
Besides,the hard times, strong men etc. cycle doesn’t always hold. Empires and civilisations do collapse.
Yes, exactly. That is the “hard times” moment in the cycle… as a result of the collapse, “strong men” will emerge who create the “good times” again. The cycle applies best to very long time periods. I doubt any of us will see the “good times” come around again.
But the strong men, Amy, may be conquerors.
No, only weak men seek to conquer
And those who succeed?
…create the hard times from which strong men emerge… who then create the good times. That’s the cycle. It works on many levels, too, from the individual to the national.
I think you need to define what you mean by weak and strong.
I think you need to define what you mean by weak and strong.
…create the hard times from which strong men emerge… who then create the good times. That’s the cycle. It works on many levels, too, from the individual to the national.
Nah.
And those who succeed?
Nah.
No, only weak men seek to conquer
But the strong men, Amy, may be conquerors.
Especially with climate change as well.
Yes, exactly. That is the “hard times” moment in the cycle… as a result of the collapse, “strong men” will emerge who create the “good times” again. The cycle applies best to very long time periods. I doubt any of us will see the “good times” come around again.
Especially with climate change as well.
I would agree with all of this except that I do not think it will be a sweep. It should have been a sweep in the midterms.
Can but hope but I fear they have too tight a grip on power and, especially, the media that sustains it.
Absolutely! When I first saw a depiction of that cycle (strong men make good times, good times make weak men, weak men make hard times, hard times make strong men) it helped me make sense of what is happening in our world. The bit it doesn’t mention is how many FAKE “strong men” will try to assert themselves when it becomes obvious everything is collapsing. They are just new narcissists trying to capitalise on the instability. I think the REAL “strong men” are quiet and understated, working behind the scenes in their institutions to maintain some kind of sense and order whilst all around them are losing their heads. I see glimpses of their actions here and there, and it gives me hope we are approaching the next phase of the cycle.
One can but hope. The narcissistic self destruction inflicted on us by the woke is deeply depressing.
Well said, and very good to see the word oikophobia used in its proper context.
We have a very similar problem here in the UK, but again the “worm is turning”, albeit a bit too slowly for my liking.
Unfortunately, Andrew, Bud Light sales are down but still substantial. Hard times still hardening.
Besides,the hard times, strong men etc. cycle doesn’t always hold. Empires and civilisations do collapse.
I would agree with all of this except that I do not think it will be a sweep. It should have been a sweep in the midterms.
Can but hope but I fear they have too tight a grip on power and, especially, the media that sustains it.
The solution to America malaise is a return of globalism? That’s an interesting take, since globalism was the agenda pushed by the very technocratic, managerial elite this article laments the rise of.
No, that’d be trying to reverse the collapse of a Ponzi scheme. There may have been a set of conditions where globalisation would have worked, but it didn’t, and I don’t think it’s coming back soon.
No, that’d be trying to reverse the collapse of a Ponzi scheme. There may have been a set of conditions where globalisation would have worked, but it didn’t, and I don’t think it’s coming back soon.
Sure and the working class was sacrificed for it. Globalization had victims in more ways than financial. Children had to leave their hometowns to chase jobs elsewhere and leave the strong family bonds they had grown up with. It was only a dream for those who did not have to pay a price.
A point of agreement between us.
Yes pretty much, and I think it blinded those who benefited from it to the damage it caused.
A point of agreement between us.
Yes pretty much, and I think it blinded those who benefited from it to the damage it caused.
Yes and look at Blair now. Narcissist and war monger in Iraq and Afghanistan.
We’re merely in the “weak men make hard times” portion of the social cycle.
We’ve let too many midwits promote a self important, deluded mode d’vie, we’ve succumbed, inexplicably, to oikophobia, and we’ve let an effeminate, vindictive, self important elite take too much control of our economy and our culture.
However, much of America is growing very tired of the endless incompetence, arrogance, and intrusion into our lives. I strongly suspect our next election will sweep much of the rot from the very top, enabling real reform, and a fairly rapid economic turn around. An American regime change sweeps our many government agencies of their policymakers, ends many of the prior administration’s executive orders, and if accompanied by legislative majorities, can transform much of our political and economic lives.
Similarly, the culture will change with this, and we can see that this is already starting. Almost no one now drinks Bud Light – until recently the Diet Coke of mass produced beer – almost no one watched the insipid and preachy movies and shows Hollywood forces upon us, and the pro- “ordered liberty” country music song “Try That In A Small Town” is rising quickly to the top of the charts.
The weak men – whom I date to about President Clinton, a man of exceedingly weak moral character, through to President Biden, who’s possibly even worse – have had their day, and are on their way out, along with their useless lackeys and minions.
The solution to America malaise is a return of globalism? That’s an interesting take, since globalism was the agenda pushed by the very technocratic, managerial elite this article laments the rise of.
Sure and the working class was sacrificed for it. Globalization had victims in more ways than financial. Children had to leave their hometowns to chase jobs elsewhere and leave the strong family bonds they had grown up with. It was only a dream for those who did not have to pay a price.
Yes and look at Blair now. Narcissist and war monger in Iraq and Afghanistan.
It’s not possible to separate what’s happening today to USA from the decline of globalisation. Globalisation, for a brief period, created the set of conditions that allowed a capitalist and a matching mandarin class to flourish, awarding them fabulous amounts of wealth and influence. These were a set of people who were at the right place with the right set of thoughts. For this brief period, millions were lifted from poverty across the globe and liberal ideas saw their apex with the end of history being declared. I trace the set of events that shattered this dream and gave us today’s absurd political situation to the terribly handled invasion of Iraq by Bush where the joke went America fought the war and China won it.
I cannot disagree with a lot of what is in here.
Honestly, I fear what will come next year. The US is about as close to a complete breakdown of order and society as I have ever seen. No matter who wins next year, Trump or Biden, nobody is going to be happy and half the country will not see the winner as legitimate.
I suspect that we are very very likely to see large scale violence that may or may not escalate to gangs and militias going at it with cops unable to stop it. ( I was actually thinking of selling my guns since I do not shoot much anymore and stopped hunting, but…..now I am thinking I may just need to stock up on ammo) It will start in the cities if Trump wins and in the working class suburbs if Biden wins. Places like San Francisco, NYC, Boston, Chicago, Baltimore, will burn if Trump wins. College towns like Ann Arbor or Amherst will see riots. If Biden wins, places like the suburbs of Cleveland or Detroit or even New Orleans or even Atlanta could see violence.
I also suspect that if Trump wins that there will be states like CA who will genuinely move to secede. If Biden wins, I seriously think that there are state governments that may well simply start ignoring the federal government and its mandates, just ignore it and dare the feds to do anything and of course if the feds do, that will lead to conflicts between state and federal law enforcement and perhaps national guards.
Regardless, the US is broke and getting broker. The corruption and self dealing in DC have resulted in the complete inability of the government to manage or control spending. Not just that, but both parties have to fear the consequences of actually controlling spending, afraid of the results of turning off the spigot. What they should fear is what happens when the markets turn it off for them, which they will at some point. We did just get downgraded. Then, you have the BRICS essentially trying to undermine the dollar and drive down demand for it which will make financing the debt that much harder. The day that the US is unable to pay its debts is the day all hell breaks loose all across the country. Who is in charge at that point almost does not matter. The government will be forced to print cash and create massive inflation and I mean MASSIVE.
I feel disturbed at the kind of mentality you express where your first instinct is to reach for a gun. How typically right wing American you are. And I don’t think we have to fear violence from the left if Trump wins. It’s the MAGA crowd who get violent. They’re the ones to fear.
:… I don’t think we have to fear violence from the left …”
You’ve got to be joking or deluded! What about the likes of Antifa who’ve committed serious violence for years? If Trump had won a second term in 2020 I’m sure the violent reaction of the Left would have matched if not surpassed the response of Trump supporters.
They’re extremists and don’t represent the average, reasonable democrat whereas speaking with average repugs you will find them like Danial P ready to take up arms. Unfortunately, I now live in the midwest so I encounter more folk who are trigger happy.
Please explain the term ‘repug’.
It’s short for republican.
It’s short for republican.
Please explain the term ‘repug’.
They’re extremists and don’t represent the average, reasonable democrat whereas speaking with average repugs you will find them like Danial P ready to take up arms. Unfortunately, I now live in the midwest so I encounter more folk who are trigger happy.
It is not “reach for a gun” as a first instinct. It is knowing it is there if needed.
I watched those riots in Portland, NYC, Chicago and other places. I watched stores burned, people clocked with 2×4’s for trying to protect their homes, I saw the car drivers attacked by mobs, I saw the neighborhoods torched and what the crowds thought of as “the wrong people” beaten.
I have no intention of looking for trouble or a reason to shoot someone but I will be damned if anyone tries any of those things with me, my family or my home. Yes, I would shoot and kill someone who tried any of those things and I feel justified in doing that.
But by the same token, were a reactionary group of right wingers to do any of the same things or come to my community to threaten my friends or neighbors who are immigrants or of the wrong color, I would do exactly the same thing.
I don’t have a gun and I don’t have any friends who have one either. However, every repug I cross paths with does. Your and their underlying paranoia bothers me. If you have a gun you’re going to want to use it, hence the awful gun violence in America which is nowhere else in the first world.
“Every Repug I cross paths with…”
I’m guess that’s a pretty small sample.
Well not to mention the ones I see spouting off on tv.
Well not to mention the ones I see spouting off on tv.
The “awful gun violence” in America is not generally perpetrated by folks of Daniel P.’s views, but by mostly racial minority drug gangs and inner city youth who have imbibed a culture of violence from those gangs (accounting for most murders in the U.S.) and by the insane (accounting for most notorious multiple homicides).
It is very hard to get good statistics on the successful use of private firearms in pro-social defensive ways, because the government does not generally collect such statistics (except, see below), and the media, which by and large supports disarming the populace, doesn’t do much by way of reporting them. But such things do happen: the FBI documented six attempted mass shootings (“active shooter incidents” being their term of art) having been foiled by the intervention of armed citizens in 2021, a similar incident last year in Indiana, with the armed citizen lauded as a “hero”. If one is attentive, one can find brief reports of foiled robberies, often with no shots fired, simply the threat of lethal force providing the result. Likewise the defense of businesses by their owners during various riots, both recent and historic (the defense of Korean businesses by their armed owners during the Rodney King riots come to mind).
I guess everything’s as it should be then. You’ve tried to justify owning guns. Why is it that other first world countries seem to manage without them?
I guess everything’s as it should be then. You’ve tried to justify owning guns. Why is it that other first world countries seem to manage without them?
“Every Repug I cross paths with…”
I’m guess that’s a pretty small sample.
The “awful gun violence” in America is not generally perpetrated by folks of Daniel P.’s views, but by mostly racial minority drug gangs and inner city youth who have imbibed a culture of violence from those gangs (accounting for most murders in the U.S.) and by the insane (accounting for most notorious multiple homicides).
It is very hard to get good statistics on the successful use of private firearms in pro-social defensive ways, because the government does not generally collect such statistics (except, see below), and the media, which by and large supports disarming the populace, doesn’t do much by way of reporting them. But such things do happen: the FBI documented six attempted mass shootings (“active shooter incidents” being their term of art) having been foiled by the intervention of armed citizens in 2021, a similar incident last year in Indiana, with the armed citizen lauded as a “hero”. If one is attentive, one can find brief reports of foiled robberies, often with no shots fired, simply the threat of lethal force providing the result. Likewise the defense of businesses by their owners during various riots, both recent and historic (the defense of Korean businesses by their armed owners during the Rodney King riots come to mind).
I don’t have a gun and I don’t have any friends who have one either. However, every repug I cross paths with does. Your and their underlying paranoia bothers me. If you have a gun you’re going to want to use it, hence the awful gun violence in America which is nowhere else in the first world.
:… I don’t think we have to fear violence from the left …”
You’ve got to be joking or deluded! What about the likes of Antifa who’ve committed serious violence for years? If Trump had won a second term in 2020 I’m sure the violent reaction of the Left would have matched if not surpassed the response of Trump supporters.
It is not “reach for a gun” as a first instinct. It is knowing it is there if needed.
I watched those riots in Portland, NYC, Chicago and other places. I watched stores burned, people clocked with 2×4’s for trying to protect their homes, I saw the car drivers attacked by mobs, I saw the neighborhoods torched and what the crowds thought of as “the wrong people” beaten.
I have no intention of looking for trouble or a reason to shoot someone but I will be damned if anyone tries any of those things with me, my family or my home. Yes, I would shoot and kill someone who tried any of those things and I feel justified in doing that.
But by the same token, were a reactionary group of right wingers to do any of the same things or come to my community to threaten my friends or neighbors who are immigrants or of the wrong color, I would do exactly the same thing.
I feel disturbed at the kind of mentality you express where your first instinct is to reach for a gun. How typically right wing American you are. And I don’t think we have to fear violence from the left if Trump wins. It’s the MAGA crowd who get violent. They’re the ones to fear.
I cannot disagree with a lot of what is in here.
Honestly, I fear what will come next year. The US is about as close to a complete breakdown of order and society as I have ever seen. No matter who wins next year, Trump or Biden, nobody is going to be happy and half the country will not see the winner as legitimate.
I suspect that we are very very likely to see large scale violence that may or may not escalate to gangs and militias going at it with cops unable to stop it. ( I was actually thinking of selling my guns since I do not shoot much anymore and stopped hunting, but…..now I am thinking I may just need to stock up on ammo) It will start in the cities if Trump wins and in the working class suburbs if Biden wins. Places like San Francisco, NYC, Boston, Chicago, Baltimore, will burn if Trump wins. College towns like Ann Arbor or Amherst will see riots. If Biden wins, places like the suburbs of Cleveland or Detroit or even New Orleans or even Atlanta could see violence.
I also suspect that if Trump wins that there will be states like CA who will genuinely move to secede. If Biden wins, I seriously think that there are state governments that may well simply start ignoring the federal government and its mandates, just ignore it and dare the feds to do anything and of course if the feds do, that will lead to conflicts between state and federal law enforcement and perhaps national guards.
Regardless, the US is broke and getting broker. The corruption and self dealing in DC have resulted in the complete inability of the government to manage or control spending. Not just that, but both parties have to fear the consequences of actually controlling spending, afraid of the results of turning off the spigot. What they should fear is what happens when the markets turn it off for them, which they will at some point. We did just get downgraded. Then, you have the BRICS essentially trying to undermine the dollar and drive down demand for it which will make financing the debt that much harder. The day that the US is unable to pay its debts is the day all hell breaks loose all across the country. Who is in charge at that point almost does not matter. The government will be forced to print cash and create massive inflation and I mean MASSIVE.
Such exuberant despair! Maybe we are approaching the end of the West but, equally, perhaps not.
Most civilisations and nations evolve through a series of crises and through challenge and response. America survived and rebounded successfully from the Civil War, the corruption of the Gilded Age, the Great Depression and the 1960s. That we are heading towards a period of upheaval seems increasingly plausible but that this will be the one that destroys America and finally discredits Western culture and institutions is far less obvious.
To take one strand of the crisis, a major economic issue has been that, since the 1990s, though globalisation has benefitted hundreds of millions in China and elsewhere, it destroyed the American Dream for tens of millions in fly over country and amongst the less educated and the young. The logic of free trade had been pushed too far but the policy seemed too entrenched to be altered. Meanwhile 50% of the population were experiencing a decline in their standard of living and future prospects. It was a poison in the body politic. Trump can be seen as inter alia the response to their economic despair who by putting 20% duties on many Chinese imports started to reverse the negative impact on American workers. The Democrats may excoriate Trump – whose defects are indeed both serious and numerous – but it is noticeable that they have rolled over his policy in this area. Challenge and successful response?
Obviously, this is only one strand in the multi faceted difficulties confronting both America specifically and the West generally but despair is self indulgence. The game is not over. Each problem has a solution. “Pessimism of the intellect but optimism of the will” as Antonio Gramsci said. Wise words even if his hopes for the future were slightly different to those of most UnHerd readers.
Given the ‘opposition’ the West will remain ‘on top’ for eons!
Fu Manchu & Co will NEVER catch up, and they know it.
A magnificent injection of that wonderful salve, “optimism”; though perhaps slightly misplaced in this context, always welcome. As WSC was reported to have said, “I’m always an optimist, in any circumstance. There seems little point in being anything else”.
A magnificent injection of that wonderful salve, “optimism”; though perhaps slightly misplaced in this context, always welcome. As WSC was reported to have said, “I’m always an optimist, in any circumstance. There seems little point in being anything else”.
“America survived and rebounded successfully from the Civil War, the corruption of the Gilded Age, the Great Depression and the 1960s.”
America was 90% White through those times. Gen Z is the last majority White generation and even then barely squeaks by…commenters here seem to be willfully ignoring this.
I’m not sure White matters. The question is, “What percentage of the population still supports the American Constitutional order?” There are a lot of whites who are on the wrong side, but there are plenty of Hispanics, Asian-Americans (both of East Asian and South Asian ancestry) and recent immigrants from West Africa who would be just as helpful to American survival and rebound as the paler-skinned citizenry of former times.
I’m not sure White matters. The question is, “What percentage of the population still supports the American Constitutional order?” There are a lot of whites who are on the wrong side, but there are plenty of Hispanics, Asian-Americans (both of East Asian and South Asian ancestry) and recent immigrants from West Africa who would be just as helpful to American survival and rebound as the paler-skinned citizenry of former times.
Despair isn’t self- indulgence. That sounds awfully lacking in compassion.
Not necessarily self-indulgent, no. To the extent it lapses into wallowing or self-pity, or insistent and dramatic presentations–which it very often does–it earns that label.
People around us suffer from our despondencies too. I say this as someone who has suffered–and inadvertently made others suffer through–multiple, long seasons of “clinical despair”, though thankfully not for many years now. While I have both empathy and sympathy for the despairing, I observe a learned hopelessness or voluntary surrender in many of the sufferers.
But that’s what Alex said so presumably he meant it.
I realize that. I don’t endorse his statement as written. Knowing something about his conscientiousness and willingness to find consensus, I doubt he’d stand all the way behind it either.
I realize that. I don’t endorse his statement as written. Knowing something about his conscientiousness and willingness to find consensus, I doubt he’d stand all the way behind it either.
But that’s what Alex said so presumably he meant it.
Not necessarily self-indulgent, no. To the extent it lapses into wallowing or self-pity, or insistent and dramatic presentations–which it very often does–it earns that label.
People around us suffer from our despondencies too. I say this as someone who has suffered–and inadvertently made others suffer through–multiple, long seasons of “clinical despair”, though thankfully not for many years now. While I have both empathy and sympathy for the despairing, I observe a learned hopelessness or voluntary surrender in many of the sufferers.
“Slightly different”! You practice what you preached in connection to that critical theory article: a willingness to learn or extract nuggets from thinkers who may have gotten much wrong, or don’t share one’s overall worldview.
Given the ‘opposition’ the West will remain ‘on top’ for eons!
Fu Manchu & Co will NEVER catch up, and they know it.
“America survived and rebounded successfully from the Civil War, the corruption of the Gilded Age, the Great Depression and the 1960s.”
America was 90% White through those times. Gen Z is the last majority White generation and even then barely squeaks by…commenters here seem to be willfully ignoring this.
Despair isn’t self- indulgence. That sounds awfully lacking in compassion.
“Slightly different”! You practice what you preached in connection to that critical theory article: a willingness to learn or extract nuggets from thinkers who may have gotten much wrong, or don’t share one’s overall worldview.
Such exuberant despair! Maybe we are approaching the end of the West but, equally, perhaps not.
Most civilisations and nations evolve through a series of crises and through challenge and response. America survived and rebounded successfully from the Civil War, the corruption of the Gilded Age, the Great Depression and the 1960s. That we are heading towards a period of upheaval seems increasingly plausible but that this will be the one that destroys America and finally discredits Western culture and institutions is far less obvious.
To take one strand of the crisis, a major economic issue has been that, since the 1990s, though globalisation has benefitted hundreds of millions in China and elsewhere, it destroyed the American Dream for tens of millions in fly over country and amongst the less educated and the young. The logic of free trade had been pushed too far but the policy seemed too entrenched to be altered. Meanwhile 50% of the population were experiencing a decline in their standard of living and future prospects. It was a poison in the body politic. Trump can be seen as inter alia the response to their economic despair who by putting 20% duties on many Chinese imports started to reverse the negative impact on American workers. The Democrats may excoriate Trump – whose defects are indeed both serious and numerous – but it is noticeable that they have rolled over his policy in this area. Challenge and successful response?
Obviously, this is only one strand in the multi faceted difficulties confronting both America specifically and the West generally but despair is self indulgence. The game is not over. Each problem has a solution. “Pessimism of the intellect but optimism of the will” as Antonio Gramsci said. Wise words even if his hopes for the future were slightly different to those of most UnHerd readers.
Very depressing, realistic read of what’s happening, not only in America, but across the west. Where are the game changers? Britain, Canada and Australia are almost lost causes with interchangeable parties. The EU is a bureaucratic nightmare. I really like Ramaswamy in the US – self-made man, second generation immigrant who’s living the American dream – but it’s unlikely his campaign goes anywhere. Ugh.
Very depressing, realistic read of what’s happening, not only in America, but across the west. Where are the game changers? Britain, Canada and Australia are almost lost causes with interchangeable parties. The EU is a bureaucratic nightmare. I really like Ramaswamy in the US – self-made man, second generation immigrant who’s living the American dream – but it’s unlikely his campaign goes anywhere. Ugh.
Superb piece of writing! Acutely accurate, if deeply disturbing, commentary on the current state of US politics from one of the best contributors to Unherd. I would only argue that RFK and VR are no heroes waiting in the wings, simply new actors peddling rebranded propaganda designed to lure the politically homeless with more false hope. Both are slightly more articulate, but just as narcissistic and duplicitous, than the forerunners in their respective parties. No one should be censored but it’s probably all part of the script, and some dramatic plot twist is coming. It is heartbreaking to witness the decline of the US, but maybe it’s a necessary “destruction before you can rebuild”. I personally know of small, Christian communities that are hunkering down and quietly maintaining their values, educating their children and building a spiritual ballast against this demonic storm. They will survive and form the foundations of a new country – or several countries if the Federal system doesn’t hold. Ultimately, I do have faith in people, and we know God wins in the end, but I keep praying for the lost souls, every day.
If it’s going to be religious fanatics who survive than I hope I don’t.
I applaud you for praying for those who are, or whom you consider to be, lost souls. But what in the teachings of Jesus makes you certain that the Father shares all your political views?
Oh lordy, lordy! Who is this “father”? Is he a god who would embark on political discourse? If he is can you ask him to stop wasting his time with politics and bring about peace with his supernatural powers. Do you not realize how irrational you sound? There is no god the father or god the man.
Oh lordy, lordy! Who is this “father”? Is he a god who would embark on political discourse? If he is can you ask him to stop wasting his time with politics and bring about peace with his supernatural powers. Do you not realize how irrational you sound? There is no god the father or god the man.
If it’s going to be religious fanatics who survive than I hope I don’t.
I applaud you for praying for those who are, or whom you consider to be, lost souls. But what in the teachings of Jesus makes you certain that the Father shares all your political views?
Superb piece of writing! Acutely accurate, if deeply disturbing, commentary on the current state of US politics from one of the best contributors to Unherd. I would only argue that RFK and VR are no heroes waiting in the wings, simply new actors peddling rebranded propaganda designed to lure the politically homeless with more false hope. Both are slightly more articulate, but just as narcissistic and duplicitous, than the forerunners in their respective parties. No one should be censored but it’s probably all part of the script, and some dramatic plot twist is coming. It is heartbreaking to witness the decline of the US, but maybe it’s a necessary “destruction before you can rebuild”. I personally know of small, Christian communities that are hunkering down and quietly maintaining their values, educating their children and building a spiritual ballast against this demonic storm. They will survive and form the foundations of a new country – or several countries if the Federal system doesn’t hold. Ultimately, I do have faith in people, and we know God wins in the end, but I keep praying for the lost souls, every day.
We need somebody to make America great again.
Heh
Like in those glory years of 2016-2020, when we were so young and innocent. Like everything else, it seems the process of nostalgic revisionism has accelerated too.
It’s often forgotten, but for many, many Americans, the country never stopped being Great!
Why do Trump-loving so-called patriots seem to hate this country the most of any group now? The only America many of them love exists in an ideal past. For hardline progressives, in an imagined future.
Why do Trump-loving so-called patriots seem to hate this country the most of any group now? The only America many of them love exists in an ideal past. For hardline progressives, in an imagined future.
Why bother?
You’re great enough already, and the grossly overrated Chinks are no problem.
Nasty comment. Says more about you, Charlie, than the Chinese.
Nasty comment. Says more about you, Charlie, than the Chinese.
You can’t go backwards.
No one person can do that.
Heh
Like in those glory years of 2016-2020, when we were so young and innocent. Like everything else, it seems the process of nostalgic revisionism has accelerated too.
It’s often forgotten, but for many, many Americans, the country never stopped being Great!
Why bother?
You’re great enough already, and the grossly overrated Chinks are no problem.
You can’t go backwards.
No one person can do that.
We need somebody to make America great again.
The author is correct, things are totally screwed up, the Blue side has given up any attempt to even listen to anything outside their bubble. Corruption is invisible to them while a former President finds succeess in endless ridicule of the most successful state governor,
I just finished The Fourth Turning Is Here. As someone in my eighties who has lived through the three previous eras described as Turnings by Howe I can say that they are a big deal. The fit is truly going to hit the shan in the next few years, and the result will probably be a levelling like the one following WWII. I operate a tree nursery in rural Texas south of Houston and the immiseration of the lower working class has gotten much much worse in just the last two years. People who could always find something are now broke, out of work, and hungry, and other parts of the country are probably a lot worse. Open borders are almost certainly the biggest reason. Ideas like the Basic Income pushed by Andrew Yang are going to get a lot of attention as this immiseration spreads. As a descendent of flyover country gentry, town doctor, large farmer, I have lived to see the strip mining of capable people out of those areas. The level of federal debt is obviously unsustainable, the Woke manifestation has no solution for it or anything I can see. Academia and government have become a new Planter Class. The Planter Class lived off the stolen labor of their slaves. Academia is living on the stolen future labor of their students via student loans and government is living on the stolen future labor of everyone by incredible borrowing.
The author is correct, things are totally screwed up, the Blue side has given up any attempt to even listen to anything outside their bubble. Corruption is invisible to them while a former President finds succeess in endless ridicule of the most successful state governor,
I just finished The Fourth Turning Is Here. As someone in my eighties who has lived through the three previous eras described as Turnings by Howe I can say that they are a big deal. The fit is truly going to hit the shan in the next few years, and the result will probably be a levelling like the one following WWII. I operate a tree nursery in rural Texas south of Houston and the immiseration of the lower working class has gotten much much worse in just the last two years. People who could always find something are now broke, out of work, and hungry, and other parts of the country are probably a lot worse. Open borders are almost certainly the biggest reason. Ideas like the Basic Income pushed by Andrew Yang are going to get a lot of attention as this immiseration spreads. As a descendent of flyover country gentry, town doctor, large farmer, I have lived to see the strip mining of capable people out of those areas. The level of federal debt is obviously unsustainable, the Woke manifestation has no solution for it or anything I can see. Academia and government have become a new Planter Class. The Planter Class lived off the stolen labor of their slaves. Academia is living on the stolen future labor of their students via student loans and government is living on the stolen future labor of everyone by incredible borrowing.
Great piece. Really like these essays that go to the core, the underlying realities. Because what we’re experiencing is a problem that, as our most famous physicist said of stagnant scientific problems, can’t be resolved at its own level. Our ‘political people’ are stagnant and American democracy is become a scary circus.
Great piece. Really like these essays that go to the core, the underlying realities. Because what we’re experiencing is a problem that, as our most famous physicist said of stagnant scientific problems, can’t be resolved at its own level. Our ‘political people’ are stagnant and American democracy is become a scary circus.
The current elite in the USA is old and tired but refuses to give up their power to younger people. Arguably they are not allowed to give up their power by the sycophants that leech off them.
An one consequence of the Old Guard being stretched longer and longer is that, as the article suggests, there is cultural and political exhaustion. I do hope for all our sakes that when the new Elite steps up (for it will eventually) it is not purely a response to the failures of the previous regime, but I suspect it will have its work cut out to undo the worst of the current gerontocracy.
It’s never going to happen.
It’s never going to happen.
The current elite in the USA is old and tired but refuses to give up their power to younger people. Arguably they are not allowed to give up their power by the sycophants that leech off them.
An one consequence of the Old Guard being stretched longer and longer is that, as the article suggests, there is cultural and political exhaustion. I do hope for all our sakes that when the new Elite steps up (for it will eventually) it is not purely a response to the failures of the previous regime, but I suspect it will have its work cut out to undo the worst of the current gerontocracy.
Didn’t Dianne Feinstein famously run for governor of CA on a ‘double death ‘ ticket (pro abortion and pro death penalty) ?
Didn’t Dianne Feinstein famously run for governor of CA on a ‘double death ‘ ticket (pro abortion and pro death penalty) ?
For the USA – the Legislature should eviscerate the executive autonomy of the Presidency and elsewhere in the world countries should avoid creating executive Presidencies at all costs. (see France, Russia, China and Venezuela etc for reasons why).
Much else is required but that at least would be a good start for a turn away from the dominance of political and/ or financial elites and a move to government of the people by the people – and hence less intrusive and hasty Government, which surely would be no bad thing.
For the USA – the Legislature should eviscerate the executive autonomy of the Presidency and elsewhere in the world countries should avoid creating executive Presidencies at all costs. (see France, Russia, China and Venezuela etc for reasons why).
Much else is required but that at least would be a good start for a turn away from the dominance of political and/ or financial elites and a move to government of the people by the people – and hence less intrusive and hasty Government, which surely would be no bad thing.
Writing style appreciated but somewhat self imdulgent given the lack of sunlit uplands as part of any solution. I would put the malaisesown to a combination of death loop debt levels in govt, sclerotic politics and dominance of rights over responsibilities within the populace. Solutions don’t look that difficult. Whilst not the 80/20, a few ideas: term limits, house of lords chosen by lot from qualified pool, parties forced to choose nationally representative candidates across the whole, share buybacks illegal aligned to R&D allowances, stronger state investment in pure R&D, reinstatement of civics in schools aligned to set of clearly expressed national values, investment in vocational training/education, supply side reforms to enable housing to be built, benefit payments linked to public service credit points which can be built up from any age towards anticipated insurance requirements.
I’m sure sharper.minds can do better than this, but it really isn’t that hard to steal or re-imagine great ideas. I suspect an FDR-style new deal lies ahead within 7 years providing plenty of space for construcive imagining.
“From your mouth to God’s ears” as the saying goes. If only. Unfortunately this is the first time there has ever been such a prolonged drought of political ability in either party. In the past there were heir apparents to the top spots in both Republican and democratic camps, Sam Nunn, Al Gore, John Heinz, middle of the road adults who were viable future presidential candidates. ( this was before Al Gore went a bit mental). It has been a long time since anyone with the least shred of integrity let alone ability has been attracted to politics. The two geriatric idiots ineffectually duking it out of for king of the not so free world are emblematic of our political class. Their masters are another story but not a brighter one.
Exactly.
Exactly.
Yes, true. We need renewed purpose, renewed faith, and new leadership and ideas to support that purpose and faith.
Thank you Susan. While not promising “sunlit uplands” the good folk that set up The University of Austin (Hirsi Ali, Haidt, Dawkins to name three) are at least doing something profoundly positive on the education front.
UTAX (where Howland is Provost and not to be confused with the University of Texas at Austin) and Ralston College (Savannah Georgia) are a beacon of light in the darkness that tertiary education has become.
“From your mouth to God’s ears” as the saying goes. If only. Unfortunately this is the first time there has ever been such a prolonged drought of political ability in either party. In the past there were heir apparents to the top spots in both Republican and democratic camps, Sam Nunn, Al Gore, John Heinz, middle of the road adults who were viable future presidential candidates. ( this was before Al Gore went a bit mental). It has been a long time since anyone with the least shred of integrity let alone ability has been attracted to politics. The two geriatric idiots ineffectually duking it out of for king of the not so free world are emblematic of our political class. Their masters are another story but not a brighter one.
Yes, true. We need renewed purpose, renewed faith, and new leadership and ideas to support that purpose and faith.
Thank you Susan. While not promising “sunlit uplands” the good folk that set up The University of Austin (Hirsi Ali, Haidt, Dawkins to name three) are at least doing something profoundly positive on the education front.
UTAX (where Howland is Provost and not to be confused with the University of Texas at Austin) and Ralston College (Savannah Georgia) are a beacon of light in the darkness that tertiary education has become.
Writing style appreciated but somewhat self imdulgent given the lack of sunlit uplands as part of any solution. I would put the malaisesown to a combination of death loop debt levels in govt, sclerotic politics and dominance of rights over responsibilities within the populace. Solutions don’t look that difficult. Whilst not the 80/20, a few ideas: term limits, house of lords chosen by lot from qualified pool, parties forced to choose nationally representative candidates across the whole, share buybacks illegal aligned to R&D allowances, stronger state investment in pure R&D, reinstatement of civics in schools aligned to set of clearly expressed national values, investment in vocational training/education, supply side reforms to enable housing to be built, benefit payments linked to public service credit points which can be built up from any age towards anticipated insurance requirements.
I’m sure sharper.minds can do better than this, but it really isn’t that hard to steal or re-imagine great ideas. I suspect an FDR-style new deal lies ahead within 7 years providing plenty of space for construcive imagining.
The US still has the advantage, there are 50 odd experiments in Democracy, one in each state.
They just need to de-empower the central government a little, maybe to the tune of about 2T dollars a year and everything would be a lot more cathartic.
The US still has the advantage, there are 50 odd experiments in Democracy, one in each state.
They just need to de-empower the central government a little, maybe to the tune of about 2T dollars a year and everything would be a lot more cathartic.
At the top, rot. At the bottom … a disorganized base. The first step towards a solution is for the base to organize. At first, locally. ‘The wisdom of crowds’, ‘two heads are better than one’ — is true, if people are in a serious organization — a ‘little platoon’, as Burke called it.
What should such an organization do? A first step would be to train and prepare to deal with the consequences of a serious breakdown in the legal/economic/social order. Simply being prepared to respond to a serious disruption of the supply chain, a big fire, a flood, mass looting — would knit such a group together.
If it is able to attract serious numbers — dozens of people — it shouild consider organizing sub-units which specialize in the things necessary in emergency situations: intel, medical, comms, transport, logistics, engineering.
Events will overcome ‘normalcy bias’ in more and more people, so even a handful of people, if it makes an effort to grow, will find an increasingly large audience ready to listen to ii, and join with them to prepare for what may be coming.
Alongside “the wisdom of crowds” we should remember “hive mind” and “mob mentality”. Two or three or fifty heads, sure. Depending on the heads. But ten thousand overheated heads in lockstep march lead to nothing but disorder and worse. Are you calling for some kind of proletarian revolution under a capitalist sky? Odd kind of justice perhaps to use Old Karl’s manifesto against him.
Alongside “the wisdom of crowds” we should remember “hive mind” and “mob mentality”. Two or three or fifty heads, sure. Depending on the heads. But ten thousand overheated heads in lockstep march lead to nothing but disorder and worse. Are you calling for some kind of proletarian revolution under a capitalist sky? Odd kind of justice perhaps to use Old Karl’s manifesto against him.
At the top, rot. At the bottom … a disorganized base. The first step towards a solution is for the base to organize. At first, locally. ‘The wisdom of crowds’, ‘two heads are better than one’ — is true, if people are in a serious organization — a ‘little platoon’, as Burke called it.
What should such an organization do? A first step would be to train and prepare to deal with the consequences of a serious breakdown in the legal/economic/social order. Simply being prepared to respond to a serious disruption of the supply chain, a big fire, a flood, mass looting — would knit such a group together.
If it is able to attract serious numbers — dozens of people — it shouild consider organizing sub-units which specialize in the things necessary in emergency situations: intel, medical, comms, transport, logistics, engineering.
Events will overcome ‘normalcy bias’ in more and more people, so even a handful of people, if it makes an effort to grow, will find an increasingly large audience ready to listen to ii, and join with them to prepare for what may be coming.
This is what a civilization level decline looks like. Of course this state cannot continue indefinitely, but what does the next transition look like? Will it be a populist revolution centered around a charismatic leader that injects a new energy into an old system by sweeping away the old institutions that have become corrupted and turning the American Republic into a true American Empire? Will it be a bitter civil war that draws in global powers to devoid the spoils of a fallen empire, leaving America a patchwork of small countries who feud constantly and sometimes draw in foreign powers to fight proxy wars with one another (like the Middle East)? Will the still powerful and respected military take over and make America into a military state like Russia, Egypt, or Pakistan? Will it be a total civilization level collapse into anarchy that spreads globally, unraveling our codependent global economy one domino at a time, plunging the world into a dark age comparable to the several hundred years after the fall of Rome?
This is what a civilization level decline looks like. Of course this state cannot continue indefinitely, but what does the next transition look like? Will it be a populist revolution centered around a charismatic leader that injects a new energy into an old system by sweeping away the old institutions that have become corrupted and turning the American Republic into a true American Empire? Will it be a bitter civil war that draws in global powers to devoid the spoils of a fallen empire, leaving America a patchwork of small countries who feud constantly and sometimes draw in foreign powers to fight proxy wars with one another (like the Middle East)? Will the still powerful and respected military take over and make America into a military state like Russia, Egypt, or Pakistan? Will it be a total civilization level collapse into anarchy that spreads globally, unraveling our codependent global economy one domino at a time, plunging the world into a dark age comparable to the several hundred years after the fall of Rome?
Banana republic. Sad!
Banana republic. Sad!
This guy’s been “drinking his own ink” to some extent though i share some of his fears: Nihilism is structured denial of knowledge systems based on study – true nihilists understand the flaws in rationalism, empiricism and pure ideology (religions like marxism, christianity, tengrism) They therefore conclude that humanity is on a sort of Nantucket sleighride which no amount of studying the human condition can alter. At a macro level there is strong evidence of this – at a micro level much less so. The theatre of the absurd in US politics is nothing to do with nihilism – it is unstructured and driven by the hind brain only. The proper terms for this may be: ignorance, stupidity or simply malice.
This guy’s been “drinking his own ink” to some extent though i share some of his fears: Nihilism is structured denial of knowledge systems based on study – true nihilists understand the flaws in rationalism, empiricism and pure ideology (religions like marxism, christianity, tengrism) They therefore conclude that humanity is on a sort of Nantucket sleighride which no amount of studying the human condition can alter. At a macro level there is strong evidence of this – at a micro level much less so. The theatre of the absurd in US politics is nothing to do with nihilism – it is unstructured and driven by the hind brain only. The proper terms for this may be: ignorance, stupidity or simply malice.
This article is spot on.
This article is spot on.
I wish the author was a regular contributor to Unherd–very well phrased description.
I wish the author was a regular contributor to Unherd–very well phrased description.
Excellent article! A masterful summation of cultural decline!
Excellent article! A masterful summation of cultural decline!
A good point in a good article.
I’d also include streaming services, which are a mixed blessing.
We now choose our own personalised entertainment (within bounds decided by others, and influenced by algorithms), but except for a big few events (usually sport), there isn’t the same shared experience.
When we had four channels, there was a fair chance that most people you encountered would have seen the same programmes, at the same time.
A good point in a good article.
I’d also include streaming services, which are a mixed blessing.
We now choose our own personalised entertainment (within bounds decided by others, and influenced by algorithms), but except for a big few events (usually sport), there isn’t the same shared experience.
When we had four channels, there was a fair chance that most people you encountered would have seen the same programmes, at the same time.
I suppose it was inevitable, but it’s unfortunate that UnHerd has pivoted so hard to American authors and American subscribers.
We ought to have some interest in the death throws of the American empire, as they risk dragging the Western world down with them, but the sheer volume of US-focused articles has been overwhelming in the last few months.
I agree (and upvoted) although as an American subscriber I can’t say that…. I guess.
I agree (and upvoted) although as an American subscriber I can’t say that…. I guess.
I suppose it was inevitable, but it’s unfortunate that UnHerd has pivoted so hard to American authors and American subscribers.
We ought to have some interest in the death throws of the American empire, as they risk dragging the Western world down with them, but the sheer volume of US-focused articles has been overwhelming in the last few months.
Why do other readers think that political opinions are so polarised these days? It used to be, say 50 years ago, that voters chose their party by weighing up pros and cons. Now it seems that voters see one party as right and the others as incapable of doing anything right or for good motives.
Why do other readers think that political opinions are so polarised these days? It used to be, say 50 years ago, that voters chose their party by weighing up pros and cons. Now it seems that voters see one party as right and the others as incapable of doing anything right or for good motives.
How do we escape from Plato’s cave? I’d like to see some suggestions!
This essay beautifully ties together in elegant and succinct prose many of symptoms of the decadence in modern America and its western allies. It was a pleasure to read.
How do we escape from Plato’s cave? I’d like to see some suggestions!
This essay beautifully ties together in elegant and succinct prose many of symptoms of the decadence in modern America and its western allies. It was a pleasure to read.
Wow! Thank you for this great essay.
Wow! Thank you for this great essay.
“… grassroots politics … gave way long ago to the top-down astroturfing of technocratic managerialism …”
I gave up reading when I encountered this linguistic monstrosity!
“… grassroots politics … gave way long ago to the top-down astroturfing of technocratic managerialism …”
I gave up reading when I encountered this linguistic monstrosity!
About time Jacob got out more. I imagine something over 300 million people don’t live on his planet or at least speak a different version of English. Strunk & White refers.
Well well. This has really brought out the apocalyptists, things-aren’t like-what-they-used-to-be, and simple-solution doorstep chatterers! Recall – politics was ever thus. Look at history – from McCarthyism and Jim Crow laws to anti-Vietnam riots, to the assassination of presidents, and the centuries of European wars, revolutions and far greater political rumpuses than this comic strip clowning. The antics of Trump and Biden are just another repeat of the age old Punch and Judy antics of politicians the world over, albeit more colorful than some. But no mention here (so far as I’ve read) of the real challenge the West faces – China and especially Russia. So far as the two geriatrics are concerned, they won’t live long and the US will get over it. The next day will dawn as ever. But while the author and others naval gaze about the decline of America, the storm clouds are gathering over Europe, and look where that led last time. Look to the horizon, and everything at home begins to look like petty, self-indulgent introversion.
Well well. This has really brought out the apocalyptists, things-aren’t like-what-they-used-to-be, and simple-solution doorstep chatterers! Recall – politics was ever thus. Look at history – from McCarthyism and Jim Crow laws to anti-Vietnam riots, to the assassination of presidents, and the centuries of European wars, revolutions and far greater political rumpuses than this comic strip clowning. The antics of Trump and Biden are just another repeat of the age old Punch and Judy antics of politicians the world over, albeit more colorful than some. But no mention here (so far as I’ve read) of the real challenge the West faces – China and especially Russia. So far as the two geriatrics are concerned, they won’t live long and the US will get over it. The next day will dawn as ever. But while the author and others naval gaze about the decline of America, the storm clouds are gathering over Europe, and look where that led last time. Look to the horizon, and everything at home begins to look like petty, self-indulgent introversion.
Really tight, cogent, incisive prose. Great article that says a lot with a minimum of blather.
Quite a good piece and largely accurate. Being picky, Mr Howland promotes a false equivalence between the falsely-malinged, boorish but essentially decent and patriotic President Trump and the simply corrupt, self-serving old waxwork Biden; and also misses out the appalling insider-trading crook, drama queen and DNC perma-Senator Nancy Pelosi from his list of rotting gerontocratic zombies. And unHerd’s readers – mostly southern English, one assumes – are surely sufficiently well-educated not to need lessons in basic Latin?
But otherwise, he pretty much nails it. This is what happens when a nation becomes too urban, loses its spiritual side and becomes excessively secular and multi-cultural: it commits cultural and social suicide.
The future for the increasingly Communist, fentanyl-addicted USSA is grim. Its debt-to-GDP ratio is turning parabolic. The interest alone will soon be unpayable. Yet these zombies are – literally in some cases – asleep at the wheel. Orthodox Russia will outlast the rotten US Republic. In fact, I’d put its odds of outlet war Vladimir III at only about 50-50.
This is pretty poor stuff and I’m surprised that the likes of Steven Pinker amd Kathleen Stock would want to be associated with UATX if this is the frame it chooses for its presence. The article goes into hysterics about the state of politics but there is no analysis of political economy. Extreme wealth side by side with extreme poverty, a surge in homelessness, the gutting of middle-class hopes, the opioid epidemic, the militarisarion of domestic security – no coverage here. Why not? Because the author is stuck in his culture war rut. Classing fringe Ramaswamy and Kennedy as brave insurgents who articulate the concerns of many is another misstep. Neither has answers to rhe pressing issues. Both swim in the muddy waters of conspiracism, which is anorher word for ripping yourself to pieces in endless civil strife. America no longer has a purpose. Until there’s a proper analysis of the self-harm wrought by hypercapitalism the dangerous decline will continue. Xi and the CCP need only to sit and wait for the cliff edge.
This is pretty poor stuff and I’m surprised that the likes of Steven Pinker amd Kathleen Stock would want to be associated with UATX if this is the frame it chooses for its presence. The article goes into hysterics about the state of politics but there is no analysis of political economy. Extreme wealth side by side with extreme poverty, a surge in homelessness, the gutting of middle-class hopes, the opioid epidemic, the militarisarion of domestic security – no coverage here. Why not? Because the author is stuck in his culture war rut. Classing fringe Ramaswamy and Kennedy as brave insurgents who articulate the concerns of many is another misstep. Neither has answers to rhe pressing issues. Both swim in the muddy waters of conspiracism, which is anorher word for ripping yourself to pieces in endless civil strife. America no longer has a purpose. Until there’s a proper analysis of the self-harm wrought by hypercapitalism the dangerous decline will continue. Xi and the CCP need only to sit and wait for the cliff edge.
Dude, you need to get out more! The beauty of the nation and its people is to be found everywhere. The insanity of essays such as this is that they oversimplify by focusing on a few bad things and then extrapolate them to include everyone and everything.
Please try and see the whole picture.
Amen. Our numbers seem to be growing.
Materially, we are doing quite well. And beauty is indeed to be seen everywhere.
But saying “Dude, you need to get out more!” is NOT an adequate response to the many challenges facing us as noted. They are real, consequential problems.
Neither is Jacob Howland’s doom screed, his second in a row, an adequate response.
Thank you for taking the time to respond to my post, Kelly.
I was not intending to suggest there aren’t problems to solve. I found the idea that we are a “zombie state” a gross overgeneralization. My thought was that it offers a very blinkered view of the US—and perhaps even the world—that seems to be rooted in a cloistered perspective.
And I agree, Kelly, let’s work at developing solutions to the real problems we have. I’m up for it.
Exactly.
Neither is Jacob Howland’s doom screed, his second in a row, an adequate response.
Thank you for taking the time to respond to my post, Kelly.
I was not intending to suggest there aren’t problems to solve. I found the idea that we are a “zombie state” a gross overgeneralization. My thought was that it offers a very blinkered view of the US—and perhaps even the world—that seems to be rooted in a cloistered perspective.
And I agree, Kelly, let’s work at developing solutions to the real problems we have. I’m up for it.
Exactly.
Amen. Our numbers seem to be growing.
Materially, we are doing quite well. And beauty is indeed to be seen everywhere.
But saying “Dude, you need to get out more!” is NOT an adequate response to the many challenges facing us as noted. They are real, consequential problems.
Dude, you need to get out more! The beauty of the nation and its people is to be found everywhere. The insanity of essays such as this is that they oversimplify by focusing on a few bad things and then extrapolate them to include everyone and everything.
Please try and see the whole picture.
That this author considers RFK and Ramaswamy as being somehow equivalent indicates that he has little awareness of what’s at stake in the upcoming election. One is a brilliant young man who supports science and has a clear vision of what needs to be done to avoid losing the future to China. The other is an aging crackpot who has absorbed every conspiracy theory the left and the right have to offer.
In what way is he a crackpot? Because he’s a lawyer? Maybe because he stands against the status quo? Did you watch Freddy’s interview with him? Anyone been able to debunk ANYTHING in the Fauci book? Hmm
I find your observations of RKJ to be rather scary and far from the reality of the man.
In what way is he a crackpot? Because he’s a lawyer? Maybe because he stands against the status quo? Did you watch Freddy’s interview with him? Anyone been able to debunk ANYTHING in the Fauci book? Hmm
I find your observations of RKJ to be rather scary and far from the reality of the man.
That this author considers RFK and Ramaswamy as being somehow equivalent indicates that he has little awareness of what’s at stake in the upcoming election. One is a brilliant young man who supports science and has a clear vision of what needs to be done to avoid losing the future to China. The other is an aging crackpot who has absorbed every conspiracy theory the left and the right have to offer.
What a nice “everything sucks” diatribe with no idea how we got here and no idea where we go from here. What a waste of time. Funny thing about doomsayers, the doom never comes. The date for the end of the world always has to be moved ahead. The days never end. Armageddon never arrives. We just go on.
Everyone knows things are bad and everyone has their particular bogeyman who is responsible, and we all sit in our bubble and hear only what we want to hear, which is always some pinhead telling us that everything sucks. No one has a solution except to get rid of the other guy but everyone should know he ain’t goin’ nowhere.
The solution to our problem is ridiculously simple and no one sees it. No one wants to see it. You have to talk and listen to the other guy, give him the respect and humanity that he deserves.
Oh, and stop paying attention to bullshit like this.
“The solution to our problem is ridiculously simple and no one sees it.”
As you seem to know the answer – what is it?!
Re-read the comment. Carefully and with an open mind this time.
Point taken.
I did and it didn’t help.
Point taken.
I did and it didn’t help.
Re-read the comment. Carefully and with an open mind this time.
I wish I could give you my next 10 upvotes for this. I want to select a favorite sentence or two but I am in loud agreement with your entire comment. What you champion is not a full or permanent solution–since that’s a pipe dream–but the sine qua non of true improvement and repair. You see it and so do many others, but so many are as blind as they could be in this regard. Or they acknowledge the truth but fail to follow it much of the time (I hope I don’t pass any reflective glass right now).
Waiting for the Global Elites to relent or get conclusively checked while hating your wrongthinking neighbor is an eternal losing proposition, for everyone.
Not that many others, at least not here.
That’s true enough. Just heartened not to be alone among those who chime in.
That’s true enough. Just heartened not to be alone among those who chime in.
Not that many others, at least not here.
“You have to talk and listen to the other guy, give him the respect and humanity that he deserves.”
That is indeed ridiculously simple. Love your neighbor, we might even say.
But you might as well say, Just get along!
World peace!
Chillax!
Do better!
Because how do we get from here to there, and what’s the first step?
Well, the first step is a better understanding of the hole we are in. And this piece is a pretty good summary.
Simple but not easy. And in desperately short supply right now. The notion that we need to “understand” or perhaps
amplify*magnify the sheer magnitude of our cultural and global horrors before marshalling resilient good cheer and deepening our one-to-one understanding of and respect for those around us is exactly backwards.Loving one’s neighbor can be manifested in practical action in the here and now; it’s not just a warm fuzzy feeling or a World Peace pipe dream. And the people sleeping rough or ranting in your vicinity (I live in California so just imagine) are your neighbors too. Of course no amount of neighborliness or compassion–and certainly not the false, hands-off “compassion” of the deluded progressive–will make things just fine, no amount of anything will. But we’re in no real danger of overdoing it there yet. I welcome civil pushback or qualifications.
By talking and listening I meant searching for common ground and compromise. I don’t expect you to love anyone, just show them some respect. I am simply saying we have to stop treating people we disagree with as the enemy that must be beaten at all costs. Dismissing me as a Pollyanna looking for a Kumbaya moment is just a way to avoid trying to do just that.
Yes. I wonder what people in here make of the Zeihan book, ‘the end of the world is just the beginning’?
I haven’t the time to conduct the deep research required to take all of his assertions at face value. But let’s say he’s pretty correct: WE (the lucky ones) are going to have to preside over some pretty gnarly ‘mass death-type’ events, whilst remaining focused and cool headed with our outrage-mongering media whipping our ‘neighbour’s’ into a frenzy.
It’s not that I don’t agree with you, nor that I also don’t see the artistic license in this piece. But, aside from not seeming that ‘helpful’, you have to admit that it isn’t that off the mark, surely?
How do you know we’re not doing that already? Your sentiments are not exactly original.
Look around. Do you actually claim that this is the general, common practice?
Doomsaying and despair are the opposite of originality or freshness, especially of late. Not only that, but they make bad things subtly worse and and harder to change.
“True wit is nature to advantage drest / What oft was thought but ne’er so well exprest” –Alexander Pope
A debatable couplet that contains enduring wit.
There’s something most engaging about that quotation from Pope, which I’d not seen before and, within the context of this thread, highly prescient. For myself, I have an old stand-by from C. Chaplin, “A day without laughter is a wasted day”. Possibly way off-topic, though.
Hits home for me, sir.
Hits home for me, sir.
Benjamin sounded a bit preachy, suggesting we all have respect for each other. Well, dah! That’s preaching to the converted as far as I’m concerned. And wit, love it, always, but I don’t get the connection here.
It’s matter of practicing it not “knowing” it in your head and ignoring it or treating it as optional as soon as you disagree with someone. The reminder is quite apt on these pages. And he said a bit more than you’re willing to allow too. Yes you’re welcome to disagree, granted. But is it good to mock each other so much? “Of course, everyone knows it isn’t, so quit with that sermon and let’s all get back to aggressively ignoring what we claim to know”. And I do not exempt myself from all of this
Is everything you post some groundbreaking insight, or often more of a painstaking faultfinding, with few harmonious notes to be found? Don’t confuse reflexive opposition with virtue.
*I’ll make an effort to just let you do your thing more often and resist finding fault with what you post or replying to you at all unless you’ve addressed me–or I just can’t resist.
I think you’d said elsewhere that you are currently waylaid somewhere in America, so I hope you have a good evening/night.
I suspect you’re saying all that to remind yourself of it because you don’t know me at all.
I suspect you’re saying all that to remind yourself of it because you don’t know me at all.
It’s matter of practicing it not “knowing” it in your head and ignoring it or treating it as optional as soon as you disagree with someone. The reminder is quite apt on these pages. And he said a bit more than you’re willing to allow too. Yes you’re welcome to disagree, granted. But is it good to mock each other so much? “Of course, everyone knows it isn’t, so quit with that sermon and let’s all get back to aggressively ignoring what we claim to know”. And I do not exempt myself from all of this
Is everything you post some groundbreaking insight, or often more of a painstaking faultfinding, with few harmonious notes to be found? Don’t confuse reflexive opposition with virtue.
*I’ll make an effort to just let you do your thing more often and resist finding fault with what you post or replying to you at all unless you’ve addressed me–or I just can’t resist.
I think you’d said elsewhere that you are currently waylaid somewhere in America, so I hope you have a good evening/night.
There’s something most engaging about that quotation from Pope, which I’d not seen before and, within the context of this thread, highly prescient. For myself, I have an old stand-by from C. Chaplin, “A day without laughter is a wasted day”. Possibly way off-topic, though.
Benjamin sounded a bit preachy, suggesting we all have respect for each other. Well, dah! That’s preaching to the converted as far as I’m concerned. And wit, love it, always, but I don’t get the connection here.
Look around. Do you actually claim that this is the general, common practice?
Doomsaying and despair are the opposite of originality or freshness, especially of late. Not only that, but they make bad things subtly worse and and harder to change.
“True wit is nature to advantage drest / What oft was thought but ne’er so well exprest” –Alexander Pope
A debatable couplet that contains enduring wit.
A baseline practice of respect, even across differences, and unstinting acknowledgement of full common humanity: 1) “That’s naive” 2) “We already know that” 3) “I can’t respect my opponent let alone love my enemy”
1) No, it is fundamental and achievable with heart, and effort, and grace 2) It is not a matter of knowing in one’s mind, but feeling and doing it 3) Then you have tiny cause for complaint when you are vilified and disrespected. And “he/she did it first” is an appallingly weak excuse.
So I should stop using it too.
Yes. I wonder what people in here make of the Zeihan book, ‘the end of the world is just the beginning’?
I haven’t the time to conduct the deep research required to take all of his assertions at face value. But let’s say he’s pretty correct: WE (the lucky ones) are going to have to preside over some pretty gnarly ‘mass death-type’ events, whilst remaining focused and cool headed with our outrage-mongering media whipping our ‘neighbour’s’ into a frenzy.
It’s not that I don’t agree with you, nor that I also don’t see the artistic license in this piece. But, aside from not seeming that ‘helpful’, you have to admit that it isn’t that off the mark, surely?
How do you know we’re not doing that already? Your sentiments are not exactly original.
A baseline practice of respect, even across differences, and unstinting acknowledgement of full common humanity: 1) “That’s naive” 2) “We already know that” 3) “I can’t respect my opponent let alone love my enemy”
1) No, it is fundamental and achievable with heart, and effort, and grace 2) It is not a matter of knowing in one’s mind, but feeling and doing it 3) Then you have tiny cause for complaint when you are vilified and disrespected. And “he/she did it first” is an appallingly weak excuse.
So I should stop using it too.
Exactly.
Simple but not easy. And in desperately short supply right now. The notion that we need to “understand” or perhaps
amplify*magnify the sheer magnitude of our cultural and global horrors before marshalling resilient good cheer and deepening our one-to-one understanding of and respect for those around us is exactly backwards.Loving one’s neighbor can be manifested in practical action in the here and now; it’s not just a warm fuzzy feeling or a World Peace pipe dream. And the people sleeping rough or ranting in your vicinity (I live in California so just imagine) are your neighbors too. Of course no amount of neighborliness or compassion–and certainly not the false, hands-off “compassion” of the deluded progressive–will make things just fine, no amount of anything will. But we’re in no real danger of overdoing it there yet. I welcome civil pushback or qualifications.
By talking and listening I meant searching for common ground and compromise. I don’t expect you to love anyone, just show them some respect. I am simply saying we have to stop treating people we disagree with as the enemy that must be beaten at all costs. Dismissing me as a Pollyanna looking for a Kumbaya moment is just a way to avoid trying to do just that.
Exactly.
To be kind a rather trite comment.
Was Gandhi trite? Was MLK trite? Was Jesus trite? I’m not comparing myself to them, they changed the world. I know it is cool to be cynical. I can be cynical too, it’s not hard these days. But cynics don’t change anything.
Amen! (How unoriginal of me).
Amen! (How unoriginal of me).
That isn’t kind and you know it. Perhaps less mean that you could have been. You seem to feel compelled to place yourself in opposition to anything hopeful or altruistic. Appeals to brotherly/sisterly love and resilient good cheer may be more or less grounded in evidence, but I’m afraid no case for them could ever persuade you these days.
“All seems infected that the infected spy, / As all looks yellow to the jaundic’d eye” (Pope, again)
I don’t like the preachy stuff. It’s all seems so obvious to me to live with kindness and humor, and I do. I’m also authentic and feel compelled to call out what doesn’t feel right.
But must you do it in such a tedious way? You mighn’t like preachiness but you indulge in a lot of it. Or is moralizing utterly distinct from preaching? For someone who charges triteness and unoriginality you can be quite tedious and predictable. That’s my authentic take, to which I’m entitled too. Let’s allow for mutual authenticity–whaddya say?Second take.: Ok. While It saddens me a bit that you find that calls for mutual respect–a quality and practice sorely lacking these days, you’ll not convince me otherwise–don’t feel right, this here is still (kind of) a free country. And while Benjamin Greco’s comment appealed to my individual perspective, his tone was not exactly gentle. Fair enough.
But must you do it in such a tedious way? You mighn’t like preachiness but you indulge in a lot of it. Or is moralizing utterly distinct from preaching? For someone who charges triteness and unoriginality you can be quite tedious and predictable. That’s my authentic take, to which I’m entitled too. Let’s allow for mutual authenticity–whaddya say?Second take.: Ok. While It saddens me a bit that you find that calls for mutual respect–a quality and practice sorely lacking these days, you’ll not convince me otherwise–don’t feel right, this here is still (kind of) a free country. And while Benjamin Greco’s comment appealed to my individual perspective, his tone was not exactly gentle. Fair enough.
I don’t like the preachy stuff. It’s all seems so obvious to me to live with kindness and humor, and I do. I’m also authentic and feel compelled to call out what doesn’t feel right.
Was Gandhi trite? Was MLK trite? Was Jesus trite? I’m not comparing myself to them, they changed the world. I know it is cool to be cynical. I can be cynical too, it’s not hard these days. But cynics don’t change anything.
That isn’t kind and you know it. Perhaps less mean that you could have been. You seem to feel compelled to place yourself in opposition to anything hopeful or altruistic. Appeals to brotherly/sisterly love and resilient good cheer may be more or less grounded in evidence, but I’m afraid no case for them could ever persuade you these days.
“All seems infected that the infected spy, / As all looks yellow to the jaundic’d eye” (Pope, again)
“The solution to our problem is ridiculously simple and no one sees it.”
As you seem to know the answer – what is it?!
I wish I could give you my next 10 upvotes for this. I want to select a favorite sentence or two but I am in loud agreement with your entire comment. What you champion is not a full or permanent solution–since that’s a pipe dream–but the sine qua non of true improvement and repair. You see it and so do many others, but so many are as blind as they could be in this regard. Or they acknowledge the truth but fail to follow it much of the time (I hope I don’t pass any reflective glass right now).
Waiting for the Global Elites to relent or get conclusively checked while hating your wrongthinking neighbor is an eternal losing proposition, for everyone.
“You have to talk and listen to the other guy, give him the respect and humanity that he deserves.”
That is indeed ridiculously simple. Love your neighbor, we might even say.
But you might as well say, Just get along!
World peace!
Chillax!
Do better!
Because how do we get from here to there, and what’s the first step?
Well, the first step is a better understanding of the hole we are in. And this piece is a pretty good summary.
To be kind a rather trite comment.
What a nice “everything sucks” diatribe with no idea how we got here and no idea where we go from here. What a waste of time. Funny thing about doomsayers, the doom never comes. The date for the end of the world always has to be moved ahead. The days never end. Armageddon never arrives. We just go on.
Everyone knows things are bad and everyone has their particular bogeyman who is responsible, and we all sit in our bubble and hear only what we want to hear, which is always some pinhead telling us that everything sucks. No one has a solution except to get rid of the other guy but everyone should know he ain’t goin’ nowhere.
The solution to our problem is ridiculously simple and no one sees it. No one wants to see it. You have to talk and listen to the other guy, give him the respect and humanity that he deserves.
Oh, and stop paying attention to bullshit like this.
I concur with this part: “Nihilism is demonic to the extent that the will to nothing is still a will, a life force. That it is only a negative one is by no means reassuring, because it is easier and more economical to tear down than to build up”.
But he majority of the article reads like Jeremiah after a bad breakfast. Not therefore unwarranted or untrue, but very negative, itself destructive or at least non-constructive in tone. Though not nihilistic, Howland indulges in so much denunciation and lamentation that he is not as far from “nothing-ism” (as you likly know nihil means “nothing” in Latin) as he may think. Disordered, meanspirited, and transitional times indeed. But the Apocalypse–except perhaps in the etymological sense of Revelation”–is not being imposed from on high. Let’s not hasten or develop a (heightened) fascination with Doom.
*Read Benjamin Greco’s earlier comment, which I didn’t see before posting, for a superior variation on my theme of the day. Likewise for Ralph Hanke.
I concur with this part: “Nihilism is demonic to the extent that the will to nothing is still a will, a life force. That it is only a negative one is by no means reassuring, because it is easier and more economical to tear down than to build up”.
But he majority of the article reads like Jeremiah after a bad breakfast. Not therefore unwarranted or untrue, but very negative, itself destructive or at least non-constructive in tone. Though not nihilistic, Howland indulges in so much denunciation and lamentation that he is not as far from “nothing-ism” (as you likly know nihil means “nothing” in Latin) as he may think. Disordered, meanspirited, and transitional times indeed. But the Apocalypse–except perhaps in the etymological sense of Revelation”–is not being imposed from on high. Let’s not hasten or develop a (heightened) fascination with Doom.
*Read Benjamin Greco’s earlier comment, which I didn’t see before posting, for a superior variation on my theme of the day. Likewise for Ralph Hanke.
Well, it’s the silly season, so I’m guessing that’s why your text was published. Robbie Kennedy believes vaccines cause autism and that covid was engineered to spare Askhehazi Jews and Chinese. But, somehow, you consider this buffoon to be a good president for your country, though you accuse Biden of being senile. Trump isn’t stupid. He’s dishonest. He knew he had lost and he kept trying to get votes. He kept lying and made imbeciles do his bidding, but you seem sad he’s self-absorbed, as if that was the issue.
Seriously, I’m SAD! my subscription paid for this stupid rant.
Hugely SAD. He attributes corruption to Biden but not Trump (!). The point about Trump’s chief deficits not being intellectual–though he is incurious about others’ lives and doesn’t like to read–is missed by many who oppose him and even some of his supporters.
I located an isolated passage of interest but this really was a stupid rant, like rotten red meat thrown to hungry doomlovers.
Very well said, Filipa, thank you.
Hugely SAD. He attributes corruption to Biden but not Trump (!). The point about Trump’s chief deficits not being intellectual–though he is incurious about others’ lives and doesn’t like to read–is missed by many who oppose him and even some of his supporters.
I located an isolated passage of interest but this really was a stupid rant, like rotten red meat thrown to hungry doomlovers.
Very well said, Filipa, thank you.
Well, it’s the silly season, so I’m guessing that’s why your text was published. Robbie Kennedy believes vaccines cause autism and that covid was engineered to spare Askhehazi Jews and Chinese. But, somehow, you consider this buffoon to be a good president for your country, though you accuse Biden of being senile. Trump isn’t stupid. He’s dishonest. He knew he had lost and he kept trying to get votes. He kept lying and made imbeciles do his bidding, but you seem sad he’s self-absorbed, as if that was the issue.
Seriously, I’m SAD! my subscription paid for this stupid rant.
“General enfeeblement of life forces”? “Demonic nihilism”? Good grief, what hyperbolic nonsense. Tucker Carlson mixed with an end-of-days catastrophising that would make a Jehovah’s Witness blush. I think the author might need to go outside for a walk in the sunshine, and then sit down and read some American history.
“I think the author might need to go outside for a walk in the sunshine”
It’s hard to appreciate the sunshine when I can barely afford food or rent.
“sit down and read some American history”
Even during the Civil War the North and the South had more ideological unity than Republicans and Democrats do now. If you think what we are going through is comparable to anything in our country’s history then it is you who is ignorant.
Careful not to sit down in a pile of fentanyl needles.
“I think the author might need to go outside for a walk in the sunshine”
It’s hard to appreciate the sunshine when I can barely afford food or rent.
“sit down and read some American history”
Even during the Civil War the North and the South had more ideological unity than Republicans and Democrats do now. If you think what we are going through is comparable to anything in our country’s history then it is you who is ignorant.
Careful not to sit down in a pile of fentanyl needles.
“General enfeeblement of life forces”? “Demonic nihilism”? Good grief, what hyperbolic nonsense. Tucker Carlson mixed with an end-of-days catastrophising that would make a Jehovah’s Witness blush. I think the author might need to go outside for a walk in the sunshine, and then sit down and read some American history.
When you equate Biden with Trump you lose all credibility. No need to read further. I see what you are doing. Trump is easily the worse President in history.
As bad as Lincoln? Don’t be absurd.
Is this satire? Lincoln was an extraordinary leader.
Defending the Confederacy is obscene. If they didn’t want a war, maybe they shouldn’t have attacked a US military base.
You mean the bombardment of Fort Sumter? What option did the Confederacy have? I’d say it’s clear the North “wanted a war.”
Edit: I mean South Carolina, not the Confederacy
Edit: I mean South Carolina, not the Confederacy
*self-censored (“nothin’ to see here”)
You mean the bombardment of Fort Sumter? What option did the Confederacy have? I’d say it’s clear the North “wanted a war.”
*self-censored (“nothin’ to see here”)
He’s taking the p#ss out of ‘Unherd Reader’.
Is this satire? Lincoln was an extraordinary leader.
Defending the Confederacy is obscene. If they didn’t want a war, maybe they shouldn’t have attacked a US military base.
He’s taking the p#ss out of ‘Unherd Reader’.
W Bush was far worse than the Don
TDS is real, and you have it bad bro
Woodrow Wilson and LBJ were far worse than Trump, both as Presidents and human beings. Wilson was extraordinarily racist for a Virginian born in 1856 (let that sink in) and LBJ literally raped female members of his staff (besides losing the war in Vietnam and the war on poverty).
So we got it wrong?
I instead of “Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids have you killed today”, it should have been, “Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids have you raped today”?
Interesting.
If only Wilson’s so-called “racism” were the worst thing about him!
So we got it wrong?
I instead of “Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids have you killed today”, it should have been, “Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids have you raped today”?
Interesting.
If only Wilson’s so-called “racism” were the worst thing about him!
I do not think it is a matter of which President is worse than another. Let’s all try to get past that now. We are in crisis- due to our political class mostly- Presidents on down and all the people they select to run their “agencies”. But we the people are to a lesser degree responsible also. We squabble about the most insignificant of issues and think they are matters of life and death. I do not have any answers here but I do have one hope. The hope of gratefulness. If we can first be grateful for all we have, grateful that we live in America and grateful that if we don’t like it we can move. Grateful is a first step to addressing this incredibly complex issue of living on this earth together.
Didn’t LBJ pick his dogs (Spaniels or Beagles?) up by their ears?
Well, I am grateful for the Grateful Dead — but I doubt that that’s what you mean; although they were a pretty good example of “living on this earth together”.
“IF we don’t like it we can move”. Oh please, not that one. How many people can afford to move to another country?
Didn’t LBJ pick his dogs (Spaniels or Beagles?) up by their ears?
Well, I am grateful for the Grateful Dead — but I doubt that that’s what you mean; although they were a pretty good example of “living on this earth together”.
“IF we don’t like it we can move”. Oh please, not that one. How many people can afford to move to another country?
This comment smells of spam
What! Worse than James Madison?
Far worse. But for a closer call try the presidents who immediately preceded and followed the Civil War: James Buchanan and Andrew Johnson.
“Andrew Johnson”!
Not the victor of New Orleans surely?.
How extraordinary, that my nominee Mr Madison presided over the most humiliating defeat in US history, whilst your nominee Mr Jackson presided over the only decent victory the US achieved over the dreaded ‘Redcoats’ during the War of 1812.
You’re confusing Andrew Johnson (Lincoln’s former vice president) with Andrew Jackson (the one on the $20 bill, whom you seem to celebrate without reservation–pun intended)
Johnson escaped an impeachment effort by one vote in 1868. Look him up (if so inclined). Quite a mean mug on that good ol’ boy.
Thank you, my mistake! I was too keen to point the finger!
I will look up Johnson, not an easy name to forget in current circumstances!
Thank you, my mistake! I was too keen to point the finger!
I will look up Johnson, not an easy name to forget in current circumstances!
You’re confusing Andrew Johnson (Lincoln’s former vice president) with Andrew Jackson (the one on the $20 bill, whom you seem to celebrate without reservation–pun intended)
Johnson escaped an impeachment effort by one vote in 1868. Look him up (if so inclined). Quite a mean mug on that good ol’ boy.
“Andrew Johnson”!
Not the victor of New Orleans surely?.
How extraordinary, that my nominee Mr Madison presided over the most humiliating defeat in US history, whilst your nominee Mr Jackson presided over the only decent victory the US achieved over the dreaded ‘Redcoats’ during the War of 1812.
Far worse. But for a closer call try the presidents who immediately preceded and followed the Civil War: James Buchanan and Andrew Johnson.
To the disinterested, but nonetheless interested, observer the comparison seems reasonable enough.
If you can’t agree on who was worst… who was the best US president?
George Washington.
As the US Presidency is secured by the richest and least scrupulous man in town, I would guess that they were all much of a muchness. I do not understand why Americans revere these people so. At her coronation Queen Elizabeth took her vows. And as far as we can tell, she kept them. I doubt that US presidential candidates know what a vow is.
Almost no Americans “revere” presidents, not until they are out office and especially, dead–at least not before Obama and then Trump.
The present day British monarch is mostly a figure head: a symbol of tradition and power, a public relations agent, and an unofficial national “mobilizer” at times. Don’t many Britons revere Elizabeth and even, tentatively, Charles. If so, why? Perhaps Elizabeth’s protracted reign and general popularity make her an exception of sorts.
She didn’t actually DO anything and there were huge perks to the job.
She didn’t actually DO anything and there were huge perks to the job.
Almost no Americans “revere” presidents, not until they are out office and especially, dead–at least not before Obama and then Trump.
The present day British monarch is mostly a figure head: a symbol of tradition and power, a public relations agent, and an unofficial national “mobilizer” at times. Don’t many Britons revere Elizabeth and even, tentatively, Charles. If so, why? Perhaps Elizabeth’s protracted reign and general popularity make her an exception of sorts.
George Washington.
As the US Presidency is secured by the richest and least scrupulous man in town, I would guess that they were all much of a muchness. I do not understand why Americans revere these people so. At her coronation Queen Elizabeth took her vows. And as far as we can tell, she kept them. I doubt that US presidential candidates know what a vow is.
If you can’t agree on who was worst… who was the best US president?
While his style might be deplorable, his policies led to remarkable growth until the virus invaded. After the invasion he allowed pandemic policies that were harmful to be used. But by that time the forces trying to tear him down had won the battle. Biden policies align with the no growth forces which are bringing advanced societies into collapse. Trump may be lot wiser now but remains a troubled person. Biden is a poor figurehead unable to stand on his own and his managers incapable of standing before the public.
“Troubled” is an understatement!
“Troubled” is an understatement!
Obama, Biden’s puppet master is clearly in the running for ‘worst’…..
Rubbish!
Rubbish!
And there you go, right back in the binary. It’s reflexive.
Let’s stipulate that Trump is indeed the worst. So what? It doesn’t change the reality of Biden’s awfulness. Or the rest of the problems facing us, for which neither offers real help.
Exactly.
Exactly.
I tried to give you an up vote but was stopped by unherd which said I’d already voted but I hadn’t. It didn’t register. This voting system is as bad as Trump would have liked the last one to be!
I love your demonic nihilist comments, Clare. Weird Barbie has infected the entire Cocktail Party.
Thank you, (I think) I do my best.
Thank you, (I think) I do my best.
I love your demonic nihilist comments, Clare. Weird Barbie has infected the entire Cocktail Party.
As bad as Lincoln? Don’t be absurd.
W Bush was far worse than the Don
TDS is real, and you have it bad bro
Woodrow Wilson and LBJ were far worse than Trump, both as Presidents and human beings. Wilson was extraordinarily racist for a Virginian born in 1856 (let that sink in) and LBJ literally raped female members of his staff (besides losing the war in Vietnam and the war on poverty).
I do not think it is a matter of which President is worse than another. Let’s all try to get past that now. We are in crisis- due to our political class mostly- Presidents on down and all the people they select to run their “agencies”. But we the people are to a lesser degree responsible also. We squabble about the most insignificant of issues and think they are matters of life and death. I do not have any answers here but I do have one hope. The hope of gratefulness. If we can first be grateful for all we have, grateful that we live in America and grateful that if we don’t like it we can move. Grateful is a first step to addressing this incredibly complex issue of living on this earth together.
This comment smells of spam
What! Worse than James Madison?
To the disinterested, but nonetheless interested, observer the comparison seems reasonable enough.
While his style might be deplorable, his policies led to remarkable growth until the virus invaded. After the invasion he allowed pandemic policies that were harmful to be used. But by that time the forces trying to tear him down had won the battle. Biden policies align with the no growth forces which are bringing advanced societies into collapse. Trump may be lot wiser now but remains a troubled person. Biden is a poor figurehead unable to stand on his own and his managers incapable of standing before the public.
Obama, Biden’s puppet master is clearly in the running for ‘worst’…..
And there you go, right back in the binary. It’s reflexive.
Let’s stipulate that Trump is indeed the worst. So what? It doesn’t change the reality of Biden’s awfulness. Or the rest of the problems facing us, for which neither offers real help.
I tried to give you an up vote but was stopped by unherd which said I’d already voted but I hadn’t. It didn’t register. This voting system is as bad as Trump would have liked the last one to be!
When you equate Biden with Trump you lose all credibility. No need to read further. I see what you are doing. Trump is easily the worse President in history.