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William

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biography-political‎ (3)
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William is Currently Reading

William is currently reading

Sex and Culture

by J.D. Unwin

bookshelves: anthropology, currently-reading

Reading for the 2nd time

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William said: " Did Prof. Unwin intend, upon the publication of his book in 1934, to predict the eventual collapse of Anglo-American civilization? Based on a complex and exhaustive system of gradings of Western societies in history and of 'savage' cultures throughou Did Prof. Unwin intend, upon the publication of his book in 1934, to predict the eventual collapse of Anglo-American civilization? Based on a complex and exhaustive system of gradings of Western societies in history and of 'savage' cultures throughout the world as reported by field anthropologists, Unwin deduced that collapse begins one generation after any society abandons its insistence that brides be virgins. Family breakdowns, disruptions of fertility and childrearing, the weakening of the minds and bodies of young people, losses of belief in personal honor and rationality, and growing uninterest in God and religion ensue, leading to a coarser, more monotonous and lower energy culture.

Britain’s upper classes at the time, as portrayed in the books of Aldous Huxley and Evelyn Waugh, were already showing signs of depravity as did its feckless appeasement of Hitler soon afterwards, but the United States remained chaste at all social levels, retaining energy and power until its sexual revolution in the 1960s. Unwin’s predicted loss of cultural creativity and energy did in fact hit us a generation later, with American visual arts turning crappy or commercial, some of its music becoming unlistenable, vulgar or repetitive, even as its fictional superheroes began to show signs of ennui and confusion in the advent of the new millennium.

Now, as Unwin’s predicted social collapse follows we see outbreaks of fatal drug addiction, traitorous generals, one political party playing power politics unchecked by the other party or by respect for the U.S. Constitution or God, and plunging birth rates, while tech overlords, an ever-growing army of federal workers, science bureaucrats and Wall Street financial engineers, strive to elevate themselves high above the American people in pursuit of personal wealth and comfort, and the Devil take principle.

Would the United States have avoided the never-before-seen irrationality of its response to the China virus or the unnecessary and disastrous surrender to the Taliban had we avoided the sexual revolution in the 1960s? In the world of investments, we can "backtest" the viability of a trading strategy by discovering how it would have played out ex-post facto. As world events continue to backtest the truth of Unwin's discovery, astonishingly, this seems quite likely to be so. ...more "

Jan 10, 2022 08:47AM · see review

William is currently reading

Known and Unknown

by Donald Rumsfeld

bookshelves: currently-reading, biography-political

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William said: " I admired Donald Rumsfeld's handling of the job of Secretary of Defense and the War on Terror during the 'Oughts, but had forgotten the great extent of his prior distinguished career in the House of Representatives, followed by important posts in the ...more "

Aug 18, 2011 05:41AM · see review

William’s Quotes

“Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray's case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward—reversing cause and effect. I call these the "wet streets cause rain" stories. Paper's full of them.
In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story, and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about Palestine than the baloney you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know.”
― Michael Crichton

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