Jeremiah > Recent Status Updates

On the positive side a government can only provide services if it understands the people. Hence census and other data gathering.

Seeing like a state is such a pivot in thinking. It reminds me that a lot of the evil that has been done by governments was only possible and followed naturally from government wanting to control people and enabled because the government had good data and could see the people it was ruling. The need for a government to see it's people and territory alone leads to some horrible crimes.

Essential reading for these days, same as everything Snyder produces. Thoughtful, erudite, and personal. A deep, philosophical examination on what liberty is, what it means to be free.

I'm two pages in: annoying, pretentious, stuff white people like.

Is sex assignment at birth really on par with racism as Butler suggests in chapter 1? This would put gender studies at odds with science.

Two pages in, Quote as Freud taught us about dreams whatever is happening in phantasms...."
I instantly want my money back.

TLDR: Feminist mom of 3 boys learns that boys are wired differently. Boys ares failing to launch related to a hard to define masculinity crisis that both the left and right see as a major issue. In short there is a male identity crisis in the era of metoo and trans rights.

The Microsoft engineers cost a dictionary that does not consider ze and hir to be legitimate English words. This is a form of erasure." p 112
If this seems like a problem in this world akin to " Violence " read on.

Apparently biased portrait of the state of Israel. Blumenthal records disturbing violence against Palestinians by IDF and strident anti Palestinian views by Zionist politicians. Painting a picture of a racist, apartheid state, strangely including neo Nazis imported from Russia who may or may not have Jewish heritage. Disturbing but I'm taking everything Blumenthal says with an asterisk to face check.

It is not the destiny of Black america to repeat white america’s mistakes. But we will, if we mistake the trappings of success in a sick society for the signs of a meaningful life.

p63

For a man to be proud and high conceited, that he is not proud and high conceited, is of all kind of pride and presumption, the most intolerable. Marcus Aurelius,

We’ve seen how the elenchus works. It refutes what you say by showing that it’s inconsistent with something else you think. This chapter dwells further and more generally on consistency because it is so central to the Socratic method. We will consider why Socrates regards consistency as important, how consistency relates to the truth, and why inconsistency sometimes seems less a pressing problem to us... "

"Here is the Socratic method in crude form: When someone makes a claim about right and wrong or good and bad, question it. Ask what the claim means, and about other things its holder believes, and look for tension between those points; show with your questions that the claim must in some way be unsatisfactory to the person who made it. In effect you deny what your discussion partners say, but the denial is artful."

Our culture has become so anti-feminine that many women are trying to deny their feminine core desires and adopt the masculine way of dedication to mission. By denying their feminine essence, such women are predisposing themselves to emptiness of heart, depression, and bodily symptoms of disease.
p207

The superior man is cringe worthy and features an offensive stereotype or two per page. Worse is all based on Deidas opinions about the nature of make and female energies. Still there is some thought-provoking ideas about the differences about men and women and the challenge to stay true to our selves and our mission while in a relationship.

"Capitalism is the most cooperative system ever created for the peaceful improvement of peoples’ lives. It has only a single fatal flaw: It doesn’t feel like it."

300 the comic book in long form.

Bureaucracy, a wonderful thing, a gift of the gods to humanity! A string that leads you through a labyrinth;*

Bureaucracy memorializes best practices. As long as the concept of “better” exists, bureaucracy must exist, which is why it’s a distinctive competence of Homo bureaucraticus. It’s about structure and creativity, governance, transparency, fairness, morality, standards and exceptions, coolness under pressure, institutionalization of shared knowledge, religion,...

“Listen,” I whispered into the perfume of her skin. “Roy being locked up isn’t why we came together. You hear me?”
“I know,” she said, sighing. “I know, I know, I know.” “Celestial. Please, let’s get married.” In the dark, she spoke with her lips so close to mine that I could taste her words, rich and peaty.

The writing is not celestial.

Ugh. Not sure I'll finish this. If you like soap operas but wish they were a more predictable you may like An American Marriage.

As Joseph Shumpeter famously observed originality is an act of creative destruction. Advocating for be systems often requires demolishing the old way of doing things and we hold back for fear of rocking the boat.

What does an anti Bolshevik obscure fascist Hitler friendly, Russian philosopher often referenced by Putin have to do with the rise of Trump in America and fascism on Europe? Read on to hear about Ivan Ilyun's politics of inevitability.