@Scholars_Stage's Threads
6 added
Genghis Khan conquered the known world. He did so without once drinking a cup of coffee.
You will be ok.
You will be ok.
The Romans built an empire that stretched across the continents, lasting a millennia.
They did all of that without drinking a single cup of coffee.
They did all of that without drinking a single cup of coffee.
In the remnants of broken empire Du Fu wandered, composing the thousand poems that would win him the title greatest poet of the Chinese language, maybe any language.
He too did all of that with no coffee.
You will be ok.
He too did all of that with no coffee.
You will be ok.
Since for the third day in a row I am too ill to do anything but read and tweet, might as well tweet about reading.
There are a few 'classic' authors who I read and then thought after, 'Wow! This really is as good as the reputation!"
For me these included
There are a few 'classic' authors who I read and then thought after, 'Wow! This really is as good as the reputation!"
For me these included
1) Homer's Iliad.
I was entirely surprised with how moving I found the Iliad. I was unprepared for the emotional impact it had on me--or how gripping I found it to read. I read it *three* times that year in different translation. This book speaks to my soul in a way few do.
I was entirely surprised with how moving I found the Iliad. I was unprepared for the emotional impact it had on me--or how gripping I found it to read. I read it *three* times that year in different translation. This book speaks to my soul in a way few do.
Incidentally, I didn't have the same experience with the Odyssey. Not that I disliked it--I found it quite interesting--but more as a cultural artifact than as poetry.
Trump’s public response to impeachment proceedings—first civil war language, then coups—has firmly put me in favor of impeachment.
Impeachment is not coup, it is an entirely constitutional process. A tipping point has been crossed. Dangerous to have this man as president.
Impeachment is not coup, it is an entirely constitutional process. A tipping point has been crossed. Dangerous to have this man as president.
By way of context: I did not think Mueller report had anything in it impeachable. I was agnostic on the Ukraine stuff until all sides had given chance to lay out their case in full.
Trump is not interested in doing this. He instead accuses others of violence and incites it among his own. Rubicon passed. He must go.
Look, I’ll be honest.
I just find Europe terribly boring.
I just find Europe terribly boring.
I am much more interested in trying to find common intellectual ground with conservatives in India or in Japan than I am with conservatives in Germany or the Netherlands.
Because politics in India is *interesting.*
Hey folks, short new blog post out - "The Title IX-ification of American Childhood"
scholars-stage.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-ti…
This post is a response to @wesyang's new series on the history of Title IX, and what America's new sex bureaucracy tells us about our times.
scholars-stage.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-ti…
This post is a response to @wesyang's new series on the history of Title IX, and what America's new sex bureaucracy tells us about our times.
@wesyang frames bureaucratic initiatives like this as being the spawn of social justice ideology. I reverse the casualty: social justice ideology is tailor built for a world where political victory comes through petitioning the management.
Things were not always this way--there was a time when American society was built around self governing citizens empowered to solve their own problems. Many of these problems were solved through participatory social institutions like labor unions, church boards, and social clubs;
Ok folks, look.
Is it possible to find Chinese who don’t buy into all of the Communist narratives? Sure. Is it possible to find Chinese who have more thoughtful and articulate reasons for supporting the Party than most of my twitter followers have for supporting anything? Yes.
Is it possible to find Chinese who don’t buy into all of the Communist narratives? Sure. Is it possible to find Chinese who have more thoughtful and articulate reasons for supporting the Party than most of my twitter followers have for supporting anything? Yes.
Is it possible to have interactions with open minded Chinese people that do not end with them saying “you don’t understand China”?
Yes.
Yes.
But.....
There is a ‘but.’
There is a ‘but.’
Huang Qifan gave a speech on the trade war a few days ago . It is eye opening. The ideas in it aren't really new, but they are expressed with such frankness (+with so little Communist cant) that I triple checked this guy is who I thought he was. mp.weixin.qq.com/s/BlaEbPucBXVF…
Huang is a central committee member. Currently works as Financial and Economic Affairs Committee of the NPC. Not a small fry.
He divides his speech into four sections. The first section discusses why the 2013-now is actually a "new era" in China's economic development.
He divides his speech into four sections. The first section discusses why the 2013-now is actually a "new era" in China's economic development.
The next section sketches both his explanation for why America and China are having trade "friction" and why China should not cave to the Americans.
Appended to this is a subsection on why the Chinese political and economic system is flatly better than America/Europe's.
Appended to this is a subsection on why the Chinese political and economic system is flatly better than America/Europe's.
There are hundreds of studies that try to analyze how political beliefs form. These studies are almost always based off of data drawn from democracies.
But what about political beliefs.... in autocracies? My newest essay looks at this question: scholars-stage.blogspot.com/2019/09/public…
But what about political beliefs.... in autocracies? My newest essay looks at this question: scholars-stage.blogspot.com/2019/09/public…
I start with an interesting set of questions: how much can we trust polling data in authoritarian states?
Do big changes in public opinion that occur when autocracies fall and are replaced by democracies evidence that 'real' opinions had been suppressed, only to surface when ppl were no longer afraid to say what they believe?
Lots of calls for national “conversations.” Do you know what we need a national conversation about: fact that the PLA has the upper edge against US Pacific Command in a conflict between them.
Does it matter that the Chinese have the ability to destroy all airfields in Taiwan, Japan, and Guam in about 30 minutes time? Does it matter that their weapons outdistance ours and that our surface fleet will be too vulnerable to attack to come close to
the actual theater of conflict in a war? Does it matter that PLA rocket force doctrine emphasize strategic surprise, and that PLA manuals confidently assert that their ability to exercise “war control,” eg they think they can control if war will escalate and how?
More on the theme of elites and the decision to go into Iraq: notable how many people got the right answer (“don’t do it”) from very stupid premises.
And premises in sharp disagreement with each other.
And premises in sharp disagreement with each other.
What to make of the fact that one faction of the don’t go into Iraq faction were so voracious in this opinion because they were fanatical adherents to a cartoonish theory of ‘realist’ international relations—a theory no one takes seriously now and was already a minority then?
Or that another group came to the same policy rec through a radical and explicitly Marxist critique of American ‘imperialism’?
I told someone today that thinkers of the right seem to be divided into five groupings.
I am curious, twitterers of the right, of you think my sense of the intellectual terrain is correct.
I am curious, twitterers of the right, of you think my sense of the intellectual terrain is correct.
Group 1: Legacy fusionists. Their flag ship is NRO, “David Frenchism.” Economic libertarianism is their general take on econ issues, a neutral public sphere their line on social issues. Often against Trump the person but little problem with GOP generally.
Accused of never having left the 80s, they tend to write in the idiom of an exasperated well to do gen Xer—which, unsurprisingly, many of them are.
A related thought.
As I work on my history of American life from 2003-2020, I have been reading through the debates had on whether or not to go into Iraq had in 2002-2003 like.
As I work on my history of American life from 2003-2020, I have been reading through the debates had on whether or not to go into Iraq had in 2002-2003 like.
And their.... *tone* isn’t sort of extraordinary. I am reading debates held in Slate magazine for example and I cannot believe it is the same publication as Slate today.
It is interesting to see just how *earnest* all the participants are. None of these debates was about “owning” the other side. It is really clear that the participants believe that their essays and counter essays might actually determine policy.
What do the founding fathers have in common with confederate secessionists? 21st century terrorists with civil rights leaders?
They were extremists. And for all their differences in ideology, their campaigns follow a similar logic.
This post explains:
scholars-stage.blogspot.com/2019/08/a-brie…
They were extremists. And for all their differences in ideology, their campaigns follow a similar logic.
This post explains:
scholars-stage.blogspot.com/2019/08/a-brie…
Earlier today I wrote a thread that has been RT'd many times. It analyzed the Hong Kong protests through this framework.
I believe this general model is useful enough that it deserves to be described independently of any current--and controversial--protest movement.
The essential insight of my sketch is this:
The essential insight of my sketch is this:
I have a friend who is a Cathay airline attendant.
I visited her in July.
“Oh I suppose I should go to one of the protests,” she said. “But I never know where they are.”
I visited her in July.
“Oh I suppose I should go to one of the protests,” she said. “But I never know where they are.”
She does not want Hong Kong to be part of China. She feels hopeless about the protests succeeding. But she supports their aims, in abstract.
All of the sudden tho she did not *need* to know where the protests were-they came to Cathay. And what did she decide to do?
Some thoughts on Hong Kong, none pleasant.
But first, an aside on extremism and it’s purpose.
But first, an aside on extremism and it’s purpose.
Revolutionaries, terrorists, and protest leaders all work on a similar principle. In a tactical sense this where American heroes like civil rights leaders and the 76 revolutionaries dovetail with villains like confederate secessionists from America and salafi-jihadist terrorists.
In any given population there will be a wide distribution of opinion about What Should Be Done? Let’s make it a distribution. 1-100. The revolutionary wants people to all be at 100. But maybe only 10% are there. Most are somewhere between 30-70 like.
This whole thread is very much worth reading. Where I part ways from Lyman is that I *do* ‘begrudge communities for their mythologies.’ The country will have a mythology. It is just a question of which one. This project attempts an answer to that.
Is it a good one?
Is it a good one?
The message of the 1619 project is that slavery is *the* defining fact and feature of American history.
That there slaves in 1619 is true. But think of other things that happened just within that time range:
That there slaves in 1619 is true. But think of other things that happened just within that time range:
1st settlement by certain NA tribes (eg Comanche), 1st colonization by Europeans, 1st slaves on American territory, first colonies by Anglos, 1st church house in America, 1st religious colony in America, 1st war between colonists and NA group, 1st legislative assembly.
I’m so tired of people who are like “in America no one has real freedom of speech—say the politically incorrect thing and the entire nation turns to squash you.”
Brilliant man, brilliant. You’ve just restated the thing intellectuals have hated about mass society since the 1680s.
Brilliant man, brilliant. You’ve just restated the thing intellectuals have hated about mass society since the 1680s.
You think I am joking but I’m not. Old issues of the Spectator from the 1700s complain about the aftermath of the English civil war in just these terms
scholars-stage.blogspot.com/2015/05/politi…
scholars-stage.blogspot.com/2015/05/politi…
Now Addison there is talking about what we could call partisanship and out group hate today, but he was comfortable generalizing it to the entire population when he needed to.
