Why would anyone want to be "the most radical" in anything? Being the most radical just means you've closed off appeals to common sense, prudence, and a proper balance among competing principles.
Indeed who among the accomplished persons we admire was one of "the most radical"?
The men among the American founders that I most admire--Washington, Jay, Hamilton, Adams--achieved extraordinary and enduring things precisely because they were not among "the most radical." theamericanconservative.com/articles/ameri…
As to recognizing that Enlightenment liberalism is no cure for mankind's ills--well, I've thought that my entire life. And yet I have never found anything appealing in being "the most radical." I leave the pleasure of that kind of recklessness to the Marxists.
I've known plenty of adolescents who are attracted to being the most radical.
At that age, there is a tendency to confuse a powerful, principled stand with "the most radical" stand.
But men and women attain maturity by attaining balance. The truth always lies in the proper balance of principles.
They learn you can have a powerful, principled stand, and yet for it to be true because it is takes into account the necessary balance of competing principles.
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Assad is a tyrant and a tool of Iranian empire. He deserves whatever is coming.
But the al-Qaida adjacent monsters about to take over are a catastrophe: For the Syrian Christians, Druze, and the Kurds, as well as for Israel and the Arab monarchies.
1/
What a mess the US has made in Syria:
1 By overthrowing neighboring regimes in Iraq, Libya, Egypt.
2 By backing al-Qaida adjacent Sunni fanatics to go after Assad.
3 By pretending Sunni imperialist Turkey is a US “ally.”
4 By refusing heavy arms for the Kurds.
/2
Sure, the Sunni takeover in Syria is part of what looks like a general collapse of Iranian power across the Mideast. That’s good news.
But US foreign policy doesn’t get credit for that. Because since 2008 America has mostly been building up Iran.
/3
For 346 days—from Oct 7, 2023 until the detonation of 4000 Hezballah beepers in Lebanon on Sept 17—the Biden administration kept Israel’s hands tied, trying to force an early “peace” that would prevent an Israeli victory. Those days have ended. tabletmag.com/sections/israe…
In November, 2023, I laid out the Biden administration’s strategy for the entire war: Supply Israel but *prevent* Israeli victory in order to maintain a “balance of power” between Israel and Iran in the Middle East. /2
Why would any American work to maintain a “balance of power” between the Israel and Iran? The Iranian regime is relentlessly hostile to the West and calls for the destruction of both Israel and the US. Shouldn’t America hope for an Israeli victory in the current conflict?
/3
I hate to spend even ten minutes on a lowlife like Avik Roy. But he recently gave a 45-minute interview in which he repeatedly says NatCons seek a "white ethnostate" in America as our "core" goal. I want to make sure everyone understands who and what this guy is.
/1
Avik Roy's "white ethnostate" interview was posted as a podcast on Law and Liberty along with a transcript of the interview. You can read it here:
Avik Roy begins his "white ethnostate" interview by stating that his target is national conservatives, our NatCon conferences, and our 10-point Statement of Principles.
/3
For months friends have been asking me: "What's wrong with James Lindsay? Why's he acting so strange?"
I've been saying I don't really know. He refuses to even have a conversation with me.
But I finally have some thoughts to share: A thread on "What's wrong with James?"
/1
The first thing to understand about where James's head is right now is that he believes "conservative Christianity" is about to be "largely politically nullified" in the United States.
/2
This isn't a long-term prediction. James has said repeatedly that the destruction of conservative Christian influence is going to happen in a massive attack by the left over the coming summer.
/3
If you don’t know the Bible well, you cannot understand the forces that created the Western world.
If you don’t know the great thinkers of the common law tradition, you cannot understand the forces that created Britain and America.
1/
The reason the Bible and the common law tradition have been excluded from the history of ideas and political theory is that they give expression to human particularity—and not *only* to human universals.
But you cannot understand human beings without human particularity.
/2
This exclusion of the Bible and the common law tradition from our understanding of history and ideas leaves us intellectually crippled.
It means we can’t understand our own past and present. It means we can’t see the path forward.
/3