🧵 How Civilizations Fall

Recently I had the pleasure of reading The Law of Civilization and Decline, by American historian, Brooks Adams. Brooks Adams had a distinguished lineage: great-grandson of Pres John Adams, grandson of Pres John Quincy Adams, and son of diplomat & author, Charles Francis Adams. Educated at Harvard, Brooks became secretary to his diplomat father and wrote several books.

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On April 14, 1561, the people of Nuremberg saw what seemed to have been an aerial battle between flying spheres, crosses, and cylinders, and the appearance of a black, very large, arrow-shaped object. 2
According to a broadsheet written by By Hans Glaser, letter-painter of Nurnberg:

“At daybreak, between 4 and 5 a.m., a dreadful apparition occurred on the sun, and then this was seen in Nuremberg in the city, before the gates and in the country – by many men and women"

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A young Kurt Russell starred with Charles Bronson in "The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters."

Russell liked Bronson and gave him a gift once. Bronson took it and walked straight to his trailer without a word. Russell was worried and the crew told him that Bronson was just "an unhappy guy." 2
A little while later, Russell was called to Bronson's trailer. Russell was worried that he'd done something wrong.

Russell knocked. Bronson opened the door, looked at him, and said, "Um, nobody's ever given me a present before, so thanks."

Then he shut the door.

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"U Non-Immigration Visas are set aside for victims of certain crimes who have suffered mental or physical abuse and are helpful to law enforcement or government officials in the investigation or prosecution of criminal activity... includ[ing] abduction, extortion, false imprisonment, felonious assault, hostage, and kidnapping, among others. [It] allows an immigrant to remain in the country for 4 years." 2
Nobody in FedGov seems to be familiar with... or else doesn't care... about the concept of unintended consequences, specifically "perverse incentives," also known as the (perhaps apocryphal) "Cobra Effect."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perverse_…

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Today is January 6. I post this thread as a reminder to anyone on any side of any political aisle: 2
At the end of the Amer. Revolution, some army officers attempted a coup over unpaid wages, known as the Newburgh Conspiracy. Washington met the plotters and gave them a speech, the first words of which were: "Gentlemen, you will permit me to put on my spectacles, for I have not only grown gray but almost blind in the service of my country."

Shamed, they ended their attempts. Some men wept.

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I remember being a small child in the 1970s. At that young age, I was a sci-fi enthusiast, especially toward the predictive and futuristic settings of our world. I used to marvel at the things I saw in film and television.



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All the “near-future” sci-fi of the 1960s and 70s was taking place now, in the 2020s, or had already taken place.

I took much of what I saw as predictive instead of fantastic: flying cars, Mars colonies, abundant nuclear power, advanced medicine, etc.

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I think often about the effects of modernity on today’s society. In the past, absent any epic events, change was more like water dripping on a rock: the rock was reshaped, but it took a long time. 2
Today’s modernity doesn’t just continue – it accelerates at a pace undreamed of in previous eras.

In the 20thC, it went from dripping water to a pressure washer. In the 21st it’s a water jet cutter.

Change now seems exponential, and continues accelerating until we find a brake.

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Excerpts from
“The Secret History of the World,” by Mark Booth, p. 153

“Orpheus might have failed by the standards of the conventional hero, but his influence on history was greater and more long-lasting than that of Hercules, Theseus, and Jason.” 2/5

“The music Orpheus originated would be a balm for healing the sick and troubled spirit of humanity down the millennia.”

https://t.co/ThMvraLr0Cherrin.com.au/the-healing-po…

Thread: Excerpts from “What It Is Like to Go to War,” by Navy Cross recipient (Vietnam), Karl Marlantes

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“Many will argue that there is nothing remotely spiritual in combat." 2
"Consider this. Mystical or religious experiences have four common components: constant awareness of one's own inevitable death, total focus on the present moment…"

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How China Outmaneuvers America

"To win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill."
-Sun Tzu, “The Art of War” 2/
When Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in August, Lib & neocon twitter went nuts, like it was V-E Day. Nothing concrete came of that visit, and anyone cheering it as some diplomatic masterstroke was foolish. Why? Many reasons.

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On January 27, 1838, Abraham Lincoln gave a speech to the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield,IL, titled "The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions.” 2.
Some excerpts from Lincoln’s speech:

“Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow? Never!”

Prop artists for films make some good-looking firearms. Some of my favorite examples: a small🧵

The carved grips on James McAvoy's pistol in "Wanted," and Deckard's LAPD 2019 Blaster in "Blade Runner" The Robocop AUTO-9
The Grammaton Cleric Pistol in "Equilibrium"

The Strange Financial History of The Louisiana Purchase. A thread.

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Nervi Belli Pecunia Infinita: Endless money is the sinews of war.
-Cicero On Oct 1, 1800, First Consul of the Republic of France, Napoleon Bonaparte, acquired Louisiana from Spain by the secret Treaty of San Ildefonso. To America’s dismay, Napoleon held title to the Mississippi River and the port of New Orleans.

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Instead of building any nuclear plants we will:
-Strip mine for lithium
-Pour resources into inherently inefficient platinum mining
-Mass produce non-recyclable wind turbine blades
-Clog landfills with toxic solar panels
-And burn coal

All in the name of going green. 2/
Strip mining for lithium:
lifezette.com/2022/04/the-ra…

Thread on Crispus Attucks.

Attucks was a long-forgotten figure of the American Revolution, whose memory was resurrected and enshrined by a mid-19th Century abolitionist and historian. Half-black and half-Wampanoag, and born in Framingham, MA, Attucks was a whaler, sailor, and stevedore, possibly a former slave. He was also reported to be the leader of the charge against the British soldiers at the Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770.

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Allow me to introduce you to Lance Thomas, a watchmaker and repairer who owned a high-end store in Los Angeles.

From '89-92, he was in four shootouts with armed robbers, in which he killed a total of five and wounded one, while also being shot a total of five times. 2/10
Back in the late 1980s, there was a violent crime wave in LA, in which businesses like his were robbed at gunpoint. Lance bought a small revolver, which he kept on his watchmaker’s bench.

Thread: The Boomers Viewed from GenX

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The popular view of the Boomers, captured in a picture. This is not a “Defense of Boomers” thread, but an anecdotal account of things I’ve seen. 2/10
I am a member of GenX: the kids of Boomers who were lucky enough to have survived newly-legalized abortion and the shrinking of the nuclear family after mothers entered the workplace en masse. We’re known primarily for our cynicism and comprise the last analog generation.

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Review of “God Shaped Hole.”

I’ve read horror in the spirit of Lovecraft before, but of those I’ve read, only @0x49fa98 has really captured the essence of what Lovecraft would write in the modern day. @0x49fa98 2/
He understands that it’s not the actual horror, graphically described, but the sense of horror that elicits fear in the reader.

Most people don’t know how difficult this is to do, and ZeroHP is particularly good at it.

Thread on Actor William Smith

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Character actor supreme and Renaissance Man, William Smith, was one of my favorite people in Hollywood. 2/
Born in Missouri, in 1933, he grew up on a cattle ranch. He joined the USAF at 18, where he found a talent for languages. He learned Russian, German, French and Serbian, and became a Russian Intercept Interrogator, flying ferret missions over the USSR.
dailykos.com/stories/2018/1…

Relationships Thread
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This tweet by the estimable Last Corsair prompted me to write something I’ve told people for a long time. This was the advice I got, and it worked. If you find it problematic, that's up to you, and I’m not apologizing.

Now, on to the secret...

https://twitter.com/corsair21c/status/1430741159840608257

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Marriage is work; with all of the connotations of dignity, worth, trials, and satisfactions in that word. It’s the most satisfying work that there is (with raising kids as a close second), but anyone who says it isn’t (and will be like the RomComs) is selling something.

Thread: US aid to USSR, WWII
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The Soviets get credit for being the juggernaut which steamrolled the Nazis by those historians who are “in the know.” What’s often overlooked, however, is the potential for a Soviet defeat without all of the assistance it received from the US. 2.
Lend-Lease really took off in 1943-44, factoring heavily in Soviet offensive victories. But crucial aid had already reached the USSR for a year. Without American food supplies (4.4mil tons during the war), millions more civilians would have died, especially in 1942.