Critical Mass Modern cities are a critical mass of different people, competing ideologies and countless manifestations of globalisation that produce chaos and confusion at almost every level. In truth, I had been struggling for an introduction, a logical starting point for this article for days on end and in my own personal
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The Right’s Future Must be Parallel, and Counter-Revolutionary What I Told National Conservatives in Brussels Last week I travelled to Brussels to attend the National Conservatism Conference. I was slated to speak on a panel on “The Future of Conservatism.” Whether the panel would actually happen seemed in doubt for much of the time I was there, since
The Road to "De-Flanderization" Weaver's Banquet Talk, April 2024 Here, I am supposed to give a talk on a subject. And I always speculate that, at one of these get-togethers, maybe I should do a deep dive on a particular topic like Bluegrass or my favorite Italian films or the new Dune movie. But
Empire of Dollars 5 How the United States of America maintains control of the global monetary system - part 5: The petrodollar The petrodollar system is the practice of trading oil for U.S. dollars, and U.S. dollars only.[1] The petrodollar system was the result of a bilateral trade agreement the United
Classical liberalism’s excremental excuses According to recent reports, a gay Spanish politician who belongs to the country’s left-wing governing party has been forced to resign after pictures surfaced of the municipal councilor eating his own excrement. While disgusting, the existence of yet another degenerate politician would be unremarkable, if not for the fact
Deracination and the imagination On the need for gravity when taking a leap In the seventh chapter of his Biographia Literaria (1891), Samuel Taylor Coleridge considers the work of the imagination as analogous to moving against and with the world’s gravity. “In every movement,” he says, “we first counteract gravitation, in order to
‘Democracy’ Means Never Having to Hear ‘You’re Fired!’ On fortifying managed democracy from ‘political interference’ I try not to let myself get dragged into writing quick reaction pieces on breaking news or stuff other people write. It’s a bad habit of the internet age. But what can I say, sometimes I just can’t help it. Sometimes
What the left can teach the right about political power Political power is not a toy. It is not a trophy awarded to the winner of the debate club. Power is a game, but it is the game of kings. It is chess, not checkers. If you intend to play the game, you had better come with a serious strategy
Reflections #9 The Uniparty I have been meaning to write about this topic for a long time now. The Uniparty comes up time and time again, especially on Unpopular Opinions with my good friend the Academic Agent and fellow guests. In layman’s terms, the basic premise behind the idea of the
That Old Confidence He never looked back. Not once. Last year, just before Christmas, I was reading a book on the Cold War, and I remember being impressed by the ability and confidence of America’s leaders—men who safely navigated the nation through one of the most dangerous periods in its history.
Waiting for "Mark Zero" A meditation on a favorite pulp novel I woke up on my birthday to see a bridge collapsing. My wife was watching it on her iPad. "You've got to see this. There's been an accident" she said. I watched the video from start to finish. Then she said in a
Gaza and the laws of war As the father of a toddler, I am obviously distressed to hear that toddlers are being maimed and killed by bombs paid for by my tax dollars. I want this shambolic slaughter-circus to stop. I think every institution involved in it, from UNRWA to the UN to Hamas to the
Richard Dawkins, champion of atheism, mourns Christianity’s decline In a recent appearance, the notorious atheist Richard Dawkins lamented the lost influence of Christianity, going so far as to declare himself a “cultural Christian.” While achieving a level of notoriety for his work in the field of biology, Dawkins became best known for his vocal opposition to religion in
Reflections #8 Normal is over On Sunday morning I was greeted by the shrieking sound of police sirens. Possibly three to four vehicles sped past with their sirens blazing aloud. Later that morning, I go outside of my front door for a brisk walk and I immediately see an abandoned vehicle with
Why regime charity poses a big problem MacKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, recently announced her intention to engage in another round of philanthropy by donating $640 million to charity. Of the $60 billion she received after splitting with her husband, Scott has already given over $16 billion to various nonprofit organizations. To most
Faith with Both Eyes Open Examining Malcolm and Simone Collins' Religious Project The other day I saw Malcolm Collins’ most recent article in Aporia. It's worth a read, albeit still quite frustrating in some of its assumptions. A lot of people have been asking me about Malcolm and Simone Collins, the authors of pronatalist.org
Why the left fears beauty A British museum owned by Cambridge University recently overhauled its art exhibits and introduced new signage warning that paintings of the British countryside could trigger “dark nationalist feelings.” Another sign in the exhibit explains, “Landscape paintings were also always entangled with national identity. The countryside was seen as a direct
The detritus of this technological moment The ontology of the garbage truck and its phenomenological significance There’s no getting away from waste. I mean literal garbage, although there’s a deeper metaphysical resonance in the idea. For centuries, people used wagons to take away waste. By the 1920s open-top trucks were used for the same
Reflections #7 The decline of civility In modern-day Britain, the decline in manners, standards and public behaviour is very difficult to ignore and it is difficult to ignore because it is all around us. The sad fact of the matter is that, in many respects, we are no longer a civil country.
Interview: Ryszard Legutko Liberal Democracy, Communism, and totalitarian temptations in free societies In my recent essay “Poland and the Demon in Democracy” I discussed the political turmoil happening in Poland through the lens of Polish philosopher Ryszard Legutko’s 2016 book The Demon in Democracy: Totalitarian Temptations in Free Societies. After the essay
A republic’s shield or tyranny’s sword? In the modern world, it is difficult to imagine a nation without a professional standing military force, but throughout history such a force has been considered at odds with the liberty of the people. The debate was far from settled when the United States was founded. While many consider it
A conversation about monarchy "Now and for the foreseeable future, any election is either plenary or nugatory." One David Volodzko, whom I know not otherwise but who writes about “communism, fascism and radical movements,” and who was apparently fired by the Seattle Times for improperly comparing Hitler to Lenin—skilfully earning the ire of
Citizen disposal Against state-approved suicide Towards the end of a recent Triggernometry conversation, Konstantin Kisin asks Kelsi Sheren, a former combat veteran, “What’s the one thing we’re not talking about that we really should be?” Without hesitating, she responds, “MAiD. Medical Assistance in Dying and what Canada is doing to
Dispatch: A Question of Loyalty A return to the rough-and-tumble 1790s “I have, for sometime past, viewed the political concerns of the United States with an anxious, and painful eye. They appear to me, to be moving by hasty strides to some awful crisis; but in what they will result—that Being, who sees, foresees,
America’s true identity crisis We live in an ideological age. Communism, fascism, classical liberalism, progressivism, democracy, capitalism — we fight wars over these terms even though some of these ideologies are dead and others have become meaningless. Modern people think of ideology as something constructed before a society begins, something that defines a civilization from
The right was wrong about virtue-signaling A video of a family with four “transkids” went viral across social media this week. Many conservatives were justifiably appalled and pointed out that the chances of randomly having four children with severe body dysmorphic disorder in the same family are incredibly low. Commenters on the video suggested that the
The Data Made Us Do It There is no such thing as a "data-driven" decision Recovering from winter-time illness, I am returning to form on this SubStack by just reacting to the latest thing that caught my ire on the internet, this time the article Men Have Abandoned Marriage and Parenthood from the blog Graphs about
Reflections #6 Broken Britain When l was researching some articles at the end of last year, I stumbled on a new You Tube niche of sorts: people that basically go across the UK highlighting the decline of major cities and towns on the ground. You Tubers like the Wandering Turnip, Charles Veitch,
Self-immolation and oversocialisation On the mimetic rivalry beneath auto-cremation “Lesser power does not let go, is not power at all. … Lesser power acts, and fails to accomplish.” — Tao Te Ching §38. “Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it.” — Jesus, Luke 17:33. We live in the age of the suicide selfie.
Ghosts of an Undiscovered Country A review of "Thrilling Adventures Among the Early Settlers" by Warren Wildwood The following is an excerpt from a book review published on the OGC SubStack reviewing "Thrilling Adventures Among the Early Settlers" by Warren Wildwood. Back in the old days of YouTube, just before COVID, when the sides of
Google really is programming our kids Google found itself embroiled in controversy last week after the company’s Gemini artificial intelligence demonstrated an almost comical adherence to woke ideology. Multiple users found that the AI had a peculiar bias against white people, removing them from almost every historical context. Gemini repeatedly rendered popes, Vikings, medieval knights,
Navigating America's moral wasteland On the surface, Americans all value the same things. Life, liberty, equality, the rule of law, the pursuit of happiness — these terms form the basis of our shared moral language. If a nation is to forge a shared identity, it must share a moral vision, an understanding of what the
Dispatch: Lamp of Experience I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past “I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past.” —Patrick Henry Lamp of
Degenerative AI Why I won't be encouraging my students to outsource their intelligence “Not the external and physical alone is now managed by machinery, but the internal and spiritual also ... The same habit regulates not our modes of action alone, but our modes of thought and feeling. Men are grown mechanical in
Confucius Says “lol, lmao” On the very basics of governance This will be a very short post, just a little something that came to mind as I continue work on other material. But since it amused me I figured I’d share it with you all as well. I was watching a bit of
Putin and Biden are two sides of the same oppressive coin The American right suffers from a chronic failure of knowing what time it is, and nothing revealed that fact more clearly than the recent death of the Russian dissident Alexei Navalny. Navalny, the 47-year-old outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin, died suddenly while serving a long prison sentence on charges of
The True Nature of the Culture War Conservatives and many others on the political right fail to understand what exactly is this thing that we call the "culture war" and as a result, they are ineffective in their efforts to fight it. You may have heard this phrase, “the return of the strong gods” in reference to
Ruled by Men or Governed by the System? We are locked within the tyranny of the administrative state, governed by the administrative system. What is the alternative? It is to once again be ruled directly by men. Once you begin to seriously question the administrative state in its various forms and manifestations, people will ask the obvious question,
Hope and Tragedy in the Wilderness Prologue to Greatness Battle of the Monongahela During the French and Indian War, a British expeditionary force under the command of General Edward Braddock was en route to capture Fort Duquesne near present-day Pittsburgh but clashed with a mixed detachment of French irregulars and Ottawa, Ojibwa, and Potawatomi warriors along
Reflections #4 Ali G – the comedy sketch that became a meme and then became reality In the late 90s, one character in British comedy stood out among many, having a broad appeal that bridged traditional class, age and racial barriers – Ali G. Ali G is a veritable spaghetti junction of identity politics.
Unplugging from the devil's electric nervous system On rediscovering various textures of investments In a children’s book no longer in print called Arthur’s New Power (1978), Russell Hoban tells a quirky story about a family of very human-like crocodiles who, at the start of the tale, have so overused and overloaded the power circuit of
The hidden against the manifest On the demon of demythologisation in our time There’s a TED talk I saw circulating recently via the devil’s electric nervous system. In it, the Davos Alibi Bot, an imbecile named Yuval Noah Harari, develops a contrast between facts (like mountains and trees) and fictions (like God and
Poland and the Demon in Democracy Liberal authoritarianism’s tusks have been bared across the Westt “Democracy has won” in Poland following the election of a new government in October – or at least so declared the country’s new prime minister, Donald Tusk. The former top European Union official’s party only won 30% of the
‘Somalia first’ and other alarming signs of a failing American empire Every gardener is fighting a constant battle against chaos. Hard work must be done to construct planter beds, pull weeds, and generally repel the relentless forces of nature that seek to take back what the gardener has built. If the garden is to persist, its owner must transmit the importance
Football! Football! Football! Football! Nixon liked football. So you must like it! Because you like Nixon, right? If this article were about college football, I’d feel a little different about it. At least college teams represent real institutions in specific localities; many of the players may still be from out of state,
The Bones of a Dark Age Academy An outline for restoration in the detritus of the old world The Trap of the Tragic Style Writers often receive questions they hate to answer. Unsurprisingly, those questions are the ones readers most commonly ask. The questions are not illegitimate or impossible to answer, it's just that they tug on
Texas must hold the line While journalists and pundits are busy debating the fallout from the Republican primary, the real battle for the future of America is occurring on the Texas border with Mexico. The Biden administration has enacted a malicious open-borders policy welcoming millions of illegal aliens into the country and facilitating a full-scale
The purpose of a pundit is what he does "This fantasy has no more relevance to the actual system than any other fantasy." One nice principle for analyzing systems—entirely parallel to Ranke’s historical rule of drawing history “as it really was,” and Burnham’s political rule of “real meanings,” but not loaded with any historical or political
Women Can't Compete With A.I. Girlfriends Hoes Mad While I generally avoid arguing with women on the internet, this article is particularly terrible and worth commenting on purely as a repudiation to the “longhouse.” First things first; DO NOT USE A.I. GIRLFRIENDS. Do NOT download the app, do not play with them just for fun;
Reworlding art On teaching young artists about the necessity of revelation The following is a talk I delivered on 20 January 2023 in Durban, South Africa, to a group of teachers at the Kwazulu-Natal Independent Education Board conference. It distils quite a bit of my recent thinking around art creation and creativity.
New Orleans is America A guest post by George Bagby This is a guest post by a dear friend and mentor of mine George Bagby. I’ve spoken with him often on my show, and he offer a unique perspective on current events that I hope you’ll enjoy. Please check out his YouTube
Civil rights laws killed the Constitution A minor panic has broken out among the chattering class after a few conservative commentators showed an interest in questioning the civil rights revolution and its accompanying legal framework. Liberal and conservative publications alike have expressed grave concern that anyone might question the need for an oppressive bureaucracy that has
Real power To hold the horizon is to rule the world “Great power, not clinging to power, has true power. Lesser power, clinging to power, lacks true power. Great power, doing nothing, has nothing to do. Lesser power, doing nothing, has an end in view.” Tao Te Ching §38, translated by Ursula
You will probably die of a cold "Nothing can stop scientists from stamp-collecting viruses to pad their resumes."ext People, even smart people, are so mindkilled these days. It will probably be the death of us all. Here’s how. Usually the smart people start by learning statistics. Statistics paralyze your ability to reason logically. Also, they
Liberals are bad and they know it Several weeks ago I wrote a piece on how the left disenchants and deconstructs heroes. This post called The Tyranny of Just, explored how progressives will leverage minor truths to demolish broader cultural narratives. You see exactly what I’m talking about in the new Napoleon movie. Instead of focusing
The Rise of the Right-Wing Progressives Noting some confusions, making some distinctions A few months ago the prominent tech investor Marc Andreessen released a lengthy “Techno-Optimist Manifesto” that caused a big stir on certain segments of the internet. It’s a full-throated hymn glorifying technology, progress, and boundless growth, while castigating what it portrays as the
POSIWID and the Moderate Liberal Melt-Down "The Purpose Of a System Is What It Does" Recently, several interesting Twitter controversies ran together and I felt it might be useful to do a write-up on SubStack. The initial thread concerned the concept of “POSIWID” or, put fully, “The purpose of a system is what it does". This
Fear and Loathing in London After an extensive period living and working in East Asia, I returned to London recently. I hope I don’t come to regret this decision but let’s just say my hopes are not high, hindsight is 20-20 as they say. There is no continuity and no coherence to life
Immigration is a weapon Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez received enthusiastic applause during a recent appearance on “The Daily Show” after announcing her intention to solve the border crisis, not with some ridiculous solution like building a wall, but by granting documentation to every illegal immigrant in America. At this point, “The Daily Show” audience must consist
"It's just so very, very small" Contemplating the smallness of transgender genitals in the vastness of the cosmos In the infamous South Park episode, "Chinpokomon", a new Japanese cartoon craze sweeps America. While at first appearing as an incomprehensible anime show for kids, the parents realize that the characters are transmitting subliminal messages to their children
Human Biodiversity Happy Birth Day Given the bizarre spergout in response to Bronze Age Pervert’s now infamous “HBD” tweet, I deem it prudent to sidestep the commentary and examine what BAP actually wrote in his tweet. I will examine it sentence by sentence and discern what I find objectionable. While for
Heroin liberals and cocaine conservatives "The difference between conservatism and cocaine is that you can OD on cocaine." Political orientations in present America are best regarded as fundraising narratives. Democratic politics proper—the contest for sovereign power by organizations or individuals with massive support, decided by counting heads—is basically dead. In the present American
My top 9 reads of 2023 Many people start the new year with the resolution to read more books that deepen their understanding of the world around them. I am often asked for reading recommendations, so I have habitually collected and shared the most thought-provoking books I encountered in the previous year. These are not books
Cyberpunk 2077 is Reactionary I don't consider myself a hardcore gamer, but I do indulge in video games for about a week 2-3 times a year before returning to my usual routine. My most recent affair has been with Polish developer CD PROJEKT RED’s Cyberpunk 2077 2.0. The game recently released a
The importance of capturing castles Boycotts, elections, school shootings, waves of illegal immigration, riots, pandemics, foreign wars, inflation — the political battles cycle past us so rapidly it can be difficult to focus on any given event. Journalists write feverish articles, and pundits voice their outrage, drawing media attention to the crisis of the week. Whenever
Stay sane in ’24 by focusing on the real fight The stretch between Christmas and New Year’s day always feels like the necessary calm before a moment of great transition. The chaos of holiday preparations has come and gone, the children are still home from school, and work slows to a crawl as the world awaits the beginning of
The Case for Coercive Christianity There are many out there who think that the Christian way is persuasion, not coercion. They thus reject the idea of writing Christian moral teaching into law. It is time to address this concern. As some Christians begin to assert a more muscular presence in the public sphere, working out
Savages and Succession If you’ve been on the internet long enough you’ve become too calloused to exhibit normal human emotions. After a decade of furries, lol-cows, and goon-caves it becomes difficult to feel visceral disgust. Emotions like disgust and revulsion become weaker with repeated use. Rarely, will I see something that
A techno-pessimist manifesto "One can easily see Trotsky at Burning Man." Are you a techno-optimist? This is a serious condition—as common as prediabetes. Don’t laugh. You can treat your prediabetes—and your techno-optimism, too. 30% of Americans are prediabetic. All Americans are prediabetic, in a sense—we all have access to
Reflections #3 The farce that is Tory Britain in 2023 I have spent most of the last two months researching and writing a number of articles on both Britain’s economy and on mass immigration. Quite honestly, I am mentally exhausted and need a rest, I have read countless articles and watched
The conservative case against satanic altars Every society organizes itself around an idea of the sacred. This may sound silly to contemporary ears, but it continues to be true even if modern people have convinced themselves they are too advanced to indulge in such primitive notions. Statues are monuments designed to inspire reverence, and the kind
A New Heroic Archetype: Moving Beyond Tolkien Stories for a Winter Age In the summer of 2023, Scyldings hosted a conference in Nashville, Tennessee. Many were drawn from across the USA to discuss an important subject: how can we forge a common foundation within the Dissident Right, with particular relation to the American context. The speeches were
Gifts of the Magi Talk Presented at "The Mistletoe Masquerade 2023", Washington D.C. I have learned, doing talks more than a few times in 2023, that the easiest way to open is with a joke or, failing that, complaining at length about something that the audience finds irritating. However, at this stage in
Don’t end the Bud Light boycott Conservatives are constantly complaining about the left’s domination of culture, but they rarely take the actions necessary to make a difference. Corporate executives are acutely aware that offending progressive sensibilities can quickly end their careers, while offending the right carries little or no consequence. I can remember dozens of
GOP leaders long to DIE Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) drew some heat over the weekend after attacking his own party for being too white while speaking at the Oxford Union. McCarthy claimed the Democrats “actually look like America” while the Republicans “look like the most restrictive country club.” This, mind you, while he
Left-Right Parity Should the Right use Leftist strategy? The question as to whether or not the Left are fundamentally correct in their political strategy is one often debated on the Right. Should we adopt their strategies? It is often true that “the woke are more correct than the mainstream,” as they say.
Hard Times And The White Wargus What do women crying for help on TikTok tell us about where we are at the end of 2023? Heading into the final furlong of a year is always a good time to take a breather and consider what you’ve just lived through and what particular trends or moments
Don’t conserve institutions that hate you At their founding, the institutions of a civilization were created to serve the needs of its citizens and perpetuate their way of life. These organizations transmit and safeguard the values of the culture from which they arise. As a civilization grows and the scale of its operation increases, the people
The UK Economy: Lots of Problems, Few Solutions - part two The UK Economy – Lots of Problems, Few Solutions Part Two Housing Crisis The property market and its many problems are so complex and layered that many analysts speak of multiple housing crises at once. In the UK, there is a never-ending housing bubble. House prices in Britain have increased by
A Brief Guide To Content Creation I’ve recently had a growing number of people asking me for some tips and pointers on creating content. I thought I’d cobble together some of the tricks of the trade, as it were, that I’ve learned over the years. Naturally, my preferred form is the essay, either
The story of Hoydel Letting go of the ten thousand things It’s one of the strangest folk tales and also one of my favourites. You can find it in Franz Xavier von Schönwerth’s collection, The Turnip Princess and Other Newly Discovered Fairy Tales (Penguin, 2015). Anyone who knew the carpenter Hoydel wasn’
Building a Parallel Polity: Sketching Out the Road Ahead I occasionally say on Twitter that conservatives should stop giving to the Republican Party and use the money to build autonomous parallel communities. What does that look like? Let's sketch it out. My regular readers will know that I argue several things at once in regard to the current moment.
The competency crisis is upon us Our current managerial elite predicates its rule on the notion of expertise. Americans once believed that “popular will” granted a ruling class legitimacy, but that story has been replaced with one of scientific knowledge and credentials. The modern political formula frames the world as a complex series of interconnected scientific
The Holy Moments Exploring the decline of cinema in four bad movies Autumn is a strange season, especially in America. There is a spirit hanging in the air, slowly dying. The pagan gods of Summer perish and return their power to be interned in the earth until judgment. And the living mark the
Let's Skip the News Boy Let's skip the news boy (I'll go and make some tea) Arabs and Jews boy (too much for me) They get me confused boy (puts me off to sleep) And the thing I hate--Oh Lord! Is staying up late, to watch some debate, on some nation's fate – Genesis, “Blood on
The Incompetent Authoritarianism Of The Irish State On the curiously incompetent Irish State and the Empire's Celtic Problem Readers will no doubt be aware of the recent migrant stabbing spree in Ireland that resulted in fiery but peaceful scenes erupting on the streets of the capital, Dublin. The following day I went in search of ‘‘takes’’ that
The Myth of Jewish High IQ Before all other things, I study power and politics. Keen awareness of elite theory keeps one alert of Schmittian exceptions, which is to say when special allowances are made in one case but not in others. The vexed area of IQ research is one such case. For example, notorious race-denier
Clearpill yourself on Gaza "You just like to see tanks pop their turrets while the driver bakes." Are you an American or European? Do you have feelings about the war in Gaza? Stop. You shouldn’t. You should be totally clear on the question—in the Scientology sense. Your Kantian moral imperative is to
For the right to win, it needs a new formula Every nation is run by an organized minority of its population, a ruling class, and that class always tells a story about why its members should be in charge. It could be the divine right of kings, it could be the mandate of heaven, or it could be popular election
The UK Economy – Lots of Problems, Few Solutions Introduction The United Kingdom’s economy is in very bad condition and has been for some time now. Britain’s economy is marked by low growth, rising debt, low productivity, prolonged high inflation, and a lack of investment. The British government is burdened by debt and has its hands tied
Whatever Happened To The Midlife Crisis? Pondering over the cultural trope of the midlife crisis It was my birthday this week and I quipped to my other half that I was at the prime age for a midlife crisis and she burst out laughing. I’m not actually having a midlife crisis but if I was
Woke: Collectivist or Individualist? A short debate A while ago reader Charles Pincourt contacted me with some thoughts on the nature of the “Woke” revolution and its challenge to liberalism and civilization. I found that we disagreed in ways that made for an interesting discussion, so we decided to turn the conversation into a
Line Go Up PART 2 How the elites benefit from mass immigration: part 2 Proposition 3 Migrant labour reduces labour costs Immigration is advantageous to those in industry that benefit by importing low-skilled, low-wage labour onto our shores. Immigration increases the size of the workforce and increases the government’s tax base as well. Immigration
An Uncanny Valley At The Cenotaph On peculiar unreality of British Political life. The somewhat modestly named “Behavioral Insights Team” carries this passage on their website in which they “face up to the challenges” of climate action: Prioritizing actions. Some behavioral barriers will be tougher to address than others. In one project, we found that encouraging
Live Your Own Truth: Finding Our Way Out of the Dead End of Propaganda, Mimesis and the Idea of Personal Genius to Begin the Process of Birthing a New Culture It is vitally important that we learn how to once again "ground" ourselves. But we cannot do this with reason or science. We cannot do it with universals. The only way out is through. Critical theory. Post-modernism. Politically, these terms spark revulsion in many. They are looked upon as the
Line Go Up How the elites benefit from mass immigration: part one 1 in 6 people in the UK were born overseas. 700,000 Polish-born people are in the country.[1] Between 2001 and 2020, net migration accounted for 60% of the UK’s population growth.[2] Since 2000, the UK has had
The Greatness of Simplicity An addendum by William George Jordan While working on writing “Hard Lessons from Israel’s High-Tech Border Failure” earlier this week, including thinking through its arguments on the value of simple over complex systems, I kept finding my memory niggled by an old speech/essay on simplicity that I recalled
The Last Days Of The Not My Problem Bros? As the good ship Dissident Right sails ever deeper and more precariously into the uncertain maelstrom of geopolitical tumult, my mind keeps returning to the beginning of the Russia/Ukraine war. As ever, when such happenings happen, factions are formed and friendships broken as everyone gets their takes in and
Hard Lessons from Israel’s High-Tech Border Failure Thoughts on complex systems, failure cascades, and the international order Over the last two weeks, I have, like everyone else, been closely following Hamas’ horrific attack on Israel and the resulting war. So many others have already done an eloquent job covering it at a general level that I’m
An Idol Crumbles Some reflections on our current unraveling The gyre widens and the vibe shift continues. The world doesn't feel the same as it did in 2019, and never will again. There is a vague scent of apocalypse in the air. The old political formulas don't make sense. And people are starting
Is Woke Putting the Zionism Away? Before starting, it is worth stating for the record that I am truly neutral in this conflict as I have mentioned many times on my shows and that the only true position is to defend your own people and not the causes of outgroups. I have told people not to
Dystopian Fiction (2019) Back in 2019, I was traveling back from a conference and stuck in an airport with only my iPad. I started writing a Dystopian Fiction in the “Notes” feature. I had a strong desire to write something that had no plot, no characters, no emotional hook, and no resistance narrative.
IM-1776: The Edward Luttwak Tapes The paradox of American power I recently had the privilege of interviewing Edward Luttwak for IM-1776 (The Edward Luttwak Tapes). Edward Luttwak is an expert in international relations and military strategy, who first rose to prominence at the age of 26 with the publication of his first book, Coup d’
Empire of Dollars 4 How the United States of America maintains control of the global monetary system - part 4: U.S. Treasury bonds It is a mistake to think of the U.S. dollar as just one thing, as in just a unit of currency, because it is not. It is various nodes
Welcome To The New Current Thing My initial thoughts on the new conflict in the Middle East and what will surely become the new Current Thing Well, folks, it’s official — The New Current Thing is finally here. The New Thing arrived on my social media feed in the guise of a mutilated corpse of a
Dissident Thoughts #1 A new series begins here on my Substack aiming to address cultural and social issues in a more concise and direct way than I deal with monetary issues.
Dissident Thoughts #2 The deconstruction of everything Increasingly, life has lost all structure, purpose and meaning. We look around us and we see chaos. We live in a world that is completely disenchanted. The Frankfurt School believed that if you render everything meaningless then society becomes unworkable. This has been achieved by deconstructing
What is Freedom? We have been told that freedom is the power to exercise our will to make choices without restraint. But for a Christian, freedom is something all together different. What is it? What is “freedom?” In today’s context we often associate the word “freedom” with the ability to exercise our
On Social Conformism It’s been a while, so let me write down my thoughts. This will be a bit different because it’s an attempt at something a little more stream-of-consciousness, the sort of thing I think about driving my car. I wrote this all in one paragraph and then when back
On Bisexuality I often hear from advocates that “bisexuality” is logically consistent. That may or may not be true, but it doesn’t matter for my argument. Bisexuality may be or seem to be logically coherent within itself, but that logic on its own may be baseless and ultimately incoherent. Bisexuality is
Why nobody Cares About The Aliens... Aliens are real, but we live in hyper-reality The Mexican Government showed us pictures of 1000-year-old aliens and nobody cared. Nobody ran through the streets in a panic, nobody rioted, and nobody prepared for war because nobody cared. Nobody cared about the aliens because we’ve seen them before. We’
Our Current Economic Malaise Debt is out of control. Inflation is out of control and reached double-digit levels in many countries. So, what is going on and how did we get here? There is no easy or simple explanation and there are many push and pull factors stretching as far back as the 2008
2.5 Years of Upheaval Looking backward, and ahead, with gratitude The Upheaval turned two years old on April 7. I had intended to write a reflection for the occasion, as I did for year one, but ended up missing the anniversary. I felt like there was still something big missing that I had to
Centrist Caesars, Twitter X And The ADL On the competing visions of liberalism at the heart of Twitter X vs ADL war There’s an interesting exchange in George RR Martin’s Clash of Kings in which Varys, the scheming eunuch, and Tyrion ruminate over the ethereal nature of Power. The question fundamentally is where Power actually
Creative Destruction Reviewing Neil Howe’s “The Fourth Turning Is Here” “The old American republic is collapsing. And a new American republic, as yet unrecognizable, is under construction.” The opening line of historian Neil Howe’s The Fourth Turning Is Here (2023) jumps to the point. It also foreshadows the odd dualistic
The evil of banality On the consequences of unseeing our inheritance “A peculiar characteristic of our times is the combination of significant scenes with insignificant actors. … Yet one must concede the zeitgeist an infallible hand in picking out [so many trivial men]—if we consider it in just one of its possible aspects, that
THE STONE AGE MINDSET Over the last few weeks, I have been exploring Orkney. It is a cluster of small islands that are located an hour north of mainland Scotland by ferry. One of its most striking features is that it is home to several Neolithic tombs, stone circles and domestic complexes. These monuments
Blue Eyes, Red Heart "One gang will rule this city!" Ancient wisdom shines through in modern places, not least the 1979 cheese classic The Warriors which superimposes the plot of Xenophon’s Anabasis onto a near-future New York City dominated by gangs but ruled by a corrupt police force. The movie opens with the
Dispatch: The Mug Shot Apotheosis of an Antihero “History is moving pretty quickly these days and the heroes and villains keep on changing parts.” —Ian Fleming The Mug Shot Last Thursday Donald Trump was booked at the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta on felony charges, marking his fourth indictment of the year. A former
The Witan Conference: A Meeting Of Fine Gentlemen My thoughts on materializing in real world at The Witan Conference I’ve been unusually quiet online this week because I was away attending the recent ‘‘The Witan’’ conference in England at the weekend. I had originally intended to merely be a face in the crowd to get a grasp
The Great White Psycho A quick take on the media feeding frenzy over Lucy Letby and Great White Defendants The British media is currently in frenzy mode over the jailing of Lucy Letby, a nurse who Sky News tells us will ‘‘Die in jail after receiving 14 whole life sentences’’. Letby has been found
Living within the Machine: the Problem of Deism I talk a lot about the effects of technology, the technical system and the way of thinking called technique, but they are sustained by a way of seeing the universe that we might broadly call: "Deism" After a day of spreadsheets, emails, reports and meetings, Brandon was glad the day
The Deconstruction Of Radio 2 And Easy Listening On the purging of all things comfy from Radio 2 The Sunday drive and the country dog walk I enjoy with my good lady have recently taken a turn toward the postmodern philosophy lecture in our futile endeavor to find a comfy radio station to listen to during the drive.
The prejudice against prejudice On reclaiming language and speaking the truth Every object of knowledge demands a method of knowledge proper to it. In other words, the way to understand anything is to take every object of study on its own terms. Accept the given as it gives itself and allow it to exist
The Particularism of Joseph Schumpeter Re-reading Joseph Schumpeter’s Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy,[i] I’ve been struck by how insightful it is on many counts, not least his essentially elitist view of society inherited from Pareto and, related, his view that much of human thinking is non-rational and downstream of instincts, which is to
Three questions for Richard Hanania "It is sad to let them trap you in so little a box." Richard Hanania used to suck—he tells us so himself. This is the hardest kind of post to write. And if I do say so myself—not having anything to hide, since I never tried to protect
Piers Morgan And The Manufacturing Of Opinion What can Jacques Ellul's ideas about vertical and horizontal propaganda tell us about online discourse? I’m currently reading Propaganda a book by Jacques Ellul who readers may be more familiar with from his well-known work The Technological Society (which I haven’t read). I will probably have more to
The obliteration of subjectivity On the destruction of inwardness in noiseworld In his 1958 essay Individuality and Modernity, the ever-astute Richard Weaver observes that much of our happiness is dependent upon our ability to maintain a delicate tension between our inner lives and the outer world. He assumes that our attention is, or at
The China Convergence Yes, the West is becoming more like China. Here is the real reason why. I do believe this is the longest thing I’ve ever written, but also the most important. Read with a stiff drink. – N.S. Lyons Differences and tensions between the United States and China have never
20 Rules for "Frens" A guideline for online discourse (Based on a popular tweet thread I wrote last year, I am expanding my points about what it means to be a “Fren” for the benefit of those looking to build and foster community in the dissident space) It’s a common observation that the
A Plague Of Hagues Responding to William Hague's Age of Migration article analysis and long form, free, text It’s difficult not to give yourself over entirely to despair and despondency in these times. I wasn’t planning to write about immigration. I have another, more culturally orientated article I was working on. The
Ruminations By A Vegetable Patch Contrasting the split between the organic and inorganic life unfolding before us I sit wearily down on the rickety stool I’ve appropriated for the purpose of viewing my vegetable patch. I gaze over the raised bed construction and the rows of flourishing vegetables knowing that precious little will have
Teeny-Bopper Revolutionaries: Part 5 of a Deep Dive into Jacques Ellul's "Autopsy of Revolution" You need the organizational skills of the managers to turn a revolt into a revolution. But the process of institutionalizing the revolution at the same time domesticates it. We see a similar scene unfold again and again these days. Earnest, pink haired youths gluing themselves to priceless works of art
High Noon: The Warriors and The Merchants In my forthcoming book, The Prophets of Doom, a recurring feature of the analysis – which, in fact, goes hand-in-glove with analysis derived from elite theory as per The Populist Delusion – is the notion that there are four broad social types who may rule. Oswald Spengler called them the Four Estates,
The Modern State vs. Authority As I understand from listening to a conversation about it, the book The Ancient City describes moves by the ancient Roman city against the paterfamilias: the head of the family and his authority over his home. But I am not going to try to tackle the ancient world and will
The Invisible Revolution A review of America's Cultural Revolution, by Chris Rufo “The urgent task for the political Right is to correctly understand the contours of the current revolution and create a strategy for defeating it on real political grounds: revolution against revolution, institution against institution, negation against negation. This new counter-revolution will
In Memoriam V.H.C. Hearts and Spines. Sometimes I can't ignore it and my heart shrinks. This isn’t my country. It’s not the same. So many faces from childhood—resting in deserts and fields and under weeping trees. Long gone to that great beyond. What have I done with the pieces they
Empire of Dollars 3 How the United States maintains control of the global monetary system - part 3: The liquidity of the U.S. dollar 3. The liquidity of the U.S. dollar Liquidity refers to the ease, accessibility, speed and efficiency that a currency can be bought and sold without causing a significant
The paranoid style of American precrime On the necessity of transcending leftard schizotemporality In Storm of Steel, his vividly gripping account of his experiences as an officer in the Great War, Ernst Jünger writes about a fellow soldier named Eisen, a plump little man who was always shivering in the trenches. To fight the cold, he
Destroying Europe: The Final Stage free, text Remember the story of multiple blind men describing the part of the elephant they are feeling? Medieval Europe was: * European * White * Christian * “Anarchistic” politically (my own emphasis with “Medieval Anarchy”), that is, politically de-centralized * Capitalist * Rationalist * Scientific * ...and more! However you want to think about it the "powers
Leftism's Not Dead My final retrospective on Professor McManus I don't like to revisit old dialogues. Nevertheless, something about my recent interaction with online leftist Matt McManus stuck in my craw, and I found myself revisiting some of our previous talking points. Perhaps it’s because Professor McManus is one of the few
The metaphysics and politics of coffee My coffee has gone cold and so now I must contemplate the entire universe Every time you make yourself a cup of coffee, maybe while standing nearly lifeless (or half dead) in front of that coffee pot on a particularly dismal Monday morning, it is not difficult to take it
The Paradox of Tony Blair: The Schmittian Liberalism of Divine Right Carl Schmitt 101 is rooted in an insight by Thomas Hobbes who wrote: ‘It is men and arms, not words and promises, that make the force and power of the laws.’ From this Schmitt derives many of his core principles: all power is decisionist; neutrality is a myth; the essence
Indiana Jones And The Lost Enchantment On the curious indifference being shown to the butchering of a childhood classic I realise I shouldn’t take the bait, but I decided to write something about the fact an Indiana Jones movie “dropped” and nobody cared. This is the point when people might roll their eyes or view
The Change Merchants Why rule by nerds leads to perpetual chaos Over the years, various labels have emerged to describe the type or class of people who tend to run societies in the postmodern West: the “professional managerial class” or the “managerial elite,” the “creative class” or the “laptop class.” Or, as I’
Too Heavy For Superman... On the increasing load diversity is placing upon mighty shoulders analysis and long form, free, text The oddball alternative rock band The Flaming Lips have a bittersweet song in their somewhat neglected canon called Waiting For Superman. The song depicts the masses once again in need of saving and once
Hunting the white stag On the inevitability of hierarchies In the first of his Arthurian Romances, Chrétien de Troyes tells a rather odd story. At least, it is odd by modern standards; and modern standards should not necessarily be trusted. The story goes that a bunch of men, led by King Arthur, go out
Empire of Dollars 2 How the United States maintains control of the global monetary system - part 2: An overview of the benefits of the dollar system to the United States 2. An overview of the benefits of the dollar system to the United States Debt, Consumption and Sustainability Currently, the U.S. runs
The Faustian Left And The Sisters Of Fate Fate, Destiny and a Confused Bearded Lady This past week Fate as a concept has been on my mind quite a lot. I began considering Fate when I happened to come across a video of a female-to-male transexual who was crying because — now complete with a beard — she never knew
The Beautiful Fantasy of Unconditional Basic Income On the new realities faced by the pro UBI lobby and how it fits into the grand scheme of things Liberal progressives with a socialistic streak have long held, deep in their hearts, a wonderful dream. They surveyed the societal landscape of the modern West, America in particular, and were
Remove Your Children From the Clutches of Our Enemies Marshall Fritz was right. Marshall Fritz founded the Alliance for the separation of School and State in 1994 well before many were ready for such a radical approach to the problem of regime schooling. I remember being with him in a private meeting as he tried to persuade an important
Putting the Woke Away For the past couple of years, I have talked a lot about containment as a key strategy of power. I defined and outlined what that entails in an article called ‘On Containment’. We used to talk about this as ‘Back to Fresh Prince’, but since I started this substack, as
Empire of Dollars How the United States maintains control of the global monetary system - part 1: Introduction and overview 1. Introduction The United States is the dominant superpower in the world today, a position it has held since the end of World War II. The United States’ gross domestic product (GDP) is
Baudrillard's Kipper and the Great Reset The long and winding road from authentic kippers to the Great Reset Long-time followers may recall that I like to consider myself something of an old salty sea dog and a man of the salty brine. I have a life-long fixation and love for the sea and being an Englishmen
A new theory of constitutional cynicism "Once they do not rule, laws do not sleep. Laws die." Kynikos: Why do we believe in the law? In this country, our country—in the United States in 2023, I tell you, there is no law, nor even order—only mere capricious force. In such a state of society,
Metamodernism A quick peak under the mask of the will to oscillate Charlie Kaufman’s 2008 film Synecdoche, New York is possibly the quintessential postmodern film. It makes use of all the stuff we intuitively associate with postmodernism: irony, deconstruction, pastiche, relativism, and, of course, the rejection of big stories as
DeSantis Puts The Woke Away free, text Why does Elon Musk shill for DeSantis? https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1662193436684951556 Musk and his ilk want unlimited, unrestricted business with whomever they want and as many immigrants as they want to import for cheap labor. During Trump’s campaign, he always talked about the economy, trade,
Liberalism vs. Democracy: Which is the more entropic force? Mike from Imperium Press is one person whose articles I read without fail: he’s always interesting, seldom wrong, and more often than not I agree with him. You should subscribe to him. However, recently, he wrote a piece with which I disagree, or at least which is at odds
Dune, The Butlerian Jihad: Review and Analysis analysis and long form, free, text “Humans tried to develop intelligent machines as secondary reflex systems, turning over primary decisions to mechanical servants. Gradually, though, the creators did not leave enough to do for themselves; they began to feel alienated, dehumanized, and even manipulated. Eventually, humans became little more than
The psychopolitics of mimicry On the destruction of the human being and the plague of identities Recently, a TikTokker showed how limb lengthening surgery made it possible for him to go from being five feet five inches tall to six feet tall. Mary Harrington perceptively and hilariously suggests that the TikTokker in question is
Conspiratorial realism A rather rough speculation on why conspiracy theories might turn out to be true It is remarkable that very young children, without ever being taught, will realise that absolutely nothing in the world explains itself. This is what’s behind that infamous why phase. Kids will ask why until grownups,
The Twitter Coup Guest Contributor: Black Horse free, text I asked Black Horse, frequent contributor to my show Radical Liberation, to update his analysis of the Twitter deal in light of Elon Musk negotiating a buyout of Twitter with the Board. We discussed this originally in The Twitter Takeover. Note that the deal
OVERSEAS INTERVENTIONS BY THE US: PART 3 Nicaragua Nicaragua is a country whose relations with the U.S. stretch back many years. The United States occupied Nicaragua from 1912 to 1933. During World War II, Nicaragua offered a second line of defense for the Panama Canal, protecting American control of the isthmus and shipping by allowing the
Overseas Interventions by the United States: part three Nicaragua and Argentina Nicaragua Nicaragua is a country whose relations with the U.S. stretch back many years. The United States occupied Nicaragua from 1912 to 1933. During World War II, Nicaragua offered a second line of defence for the Panama Canal, protecting American control of the isthmus and shipping
Official Endorsement for President Concrete Block 2024 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 25, 2023 ALPENA, MICHIGAN – These years of upheaval are trying times for our nation, and painfully uncertain for American families. In this moment what America most needs is steady, unwavering leadership. Which is why I am pleased to transmit the official announcement of
Those Who Walk Away from Hogwarts How Professor McManus defeated House Slytherin The Fall of House Slytherin Perhaps it's a Millennial defect in my soul, but I have an odd inclination to explain political ideas with references to Harry Potter. Actually, I am not particularly fond of the books, but it's indisputable that they have captured
Destroying Differences As I explained on Lambster last weekend, “What the Right and Christians Must Learn from Each Other”, egalitarians hold a view of man as alienated from God and each other through our differences. This tragic alienation can only be resolved by losing our differences and being reabsorbed. …tragic alienation will
Lazy Jack An exegesis of a folk tale Consider your life as a question. How will you, as this live hermeneutical forcefield, as this mode of perception irregularly used by strangers, be an answer to this world that questions you; and how will you allow the world to answer the question of
GPT-4 invalidates the Turing test "You never anthropomorphize your Apple Watch, even if it can beat you at chess." Neighbors these days often ask me about “AI.” What does the ChatGPT phenomenon mean? Will it take over the world? If not—what will it do? Neighbor: there is no “AI.” There are large language models
God's been sacked A memo to all staff “I am afraid we are not rid of God because we still have faith in grammar.” Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols (1889). To all staff, To curb rumours, we want to bring to your attention a matter of some importance. As you are already
Of Course NPR and the BBC are State Media More accurately: they're Party-State media… Yesterday National Public Radio (NPR) announced that it is leaving Twitter, after the platform “falsely labeled” it as “state-affiliated media.” This is the “the same term it uses for propaganda outlets in Russia, China and other autocratic countries,” the indignant NPR huffed. Twitter CEO Elon
Upheaval Interview: Matthew B. Crawford A dialogue on embodied reality, self-governance, and technocracy with the mechanic-philosopher Matthew B. Crawford is a philosopher. Actually he’s more like a modern Renaissance man: a self-taught auto-mechanic and one-time custom motorcycle shop owner, a repentant former D.C. think tanker, a best-selling author with an undergraduate education in
The question concerning AI Thinking about inhuman pseudo-intelligence with Martin Heidegger “We look into the danger and see the growth of the saving power. Through this we are not yet saved. But we are summoned to hope in the growing light of the saving power. How can this happen? Here and now and in
Digging craters to catch the rain A brief guide to thinking in four directions “In the form in which it comes, a thought is a sign with many meanings, requiring interpretation or, more precisely, an arbitrary narrowing and restriction before it finally becomes clear. It arises in me—where from? How? I don’t know. It
Bitvana or the bitcaust "It's all money. Always has been." Nobody has any respect these days. But I feel that since I was writing about the game theory of hyperbitcoinization in 2006, folks should have some respect for my opinions. At least on that subject. Ya know. But now it’s 2023 and everyone
THE 1913 FEDERAL RESERVE ACT The Federal Reserve is the central bank of the United States of America. It issues the U.S. dollar, which happens to be the world reserve currency. The Federal Reserve is the most powerful institution in the world today, arguably the most powerful ever: this is because it has total
How the United States Gained Control of the Global Monetary System: part three Stage 3 - The 1971 Nixon Shock free, text Stage 3 1971 Nixon Shock Summary of Key Points * The fiat dollar is born * Removing the link to gold allows for infinite expansion of the money supply and money creation no longer has any restraints With the Federal Reserve system now
The zombification of therapy On chatbot psychologists for unworlded selves Recently, as large language models have improved—meaning that they have become more deceptive—there’s been a bit of a push to use AI chatbots to take on the role of the therapist. This amounts to replacing the therapist with a philosophical zombie:
How the United States Gained Control of the Global Monetary System: part two Stage 2 - The 1944 Bretton Woods Conference free, text Stage 2 1944 Bretton Woods Conference Summary of Key Points * The U.S. dollar becomes the world reserve currency. * In the aftermath of World War II, American power is now formalised in the eyes of the world and the United
Through The Upper Country Pierre d’Iberville And The Hudson Bay Expedition Editors Note: Canada, it’s early history and it’s people, was shaped by the twofold struggles between it’s people and the hostile environment, and between it’s peoples for dominance. The story of Pierre d’Iberville is a great window
How the United States Gained Control of the Global Monetary System: part one Introduction; Stage 1 - The 1913 Federal Reserve Act Introduction In this series I will attempt to explain how the United States gained control of the global monetary system, at least as this humble author sees it. The monetary system is, at its core, a dollar-based, central bank controlled, fiat
Dr. John Rae Fur Trader, Explorer, & Canadian The Canadian psyche is deeply informed by a primal awareness of the harsh land in which we live. As an early exploration of this, Today, The Red Ensign presents the story of Dr. John Rae, a Scottish-Canadian Explorer & business man who thrived in the vast Canadian
Overseas Interventions by the United States: part two Chile, Philippines and Iran Part two of this series will deal with the United States’ interventions in Chile, the Philippines and Iran. A variety of influences, state and non-state, are at work and on display in these operations. America’s exploits in Chile and Iran were seen as textbook, covert
Donald Alexander Smith, Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal Pioneer, Aristocrat, Canadian free, text The Red Ensign is a publication dedicated to Anglo-Canadian people, their history, and to all that they could be again. For both of these purposes we frequently publish pieces reviewing the lives of the great men of Canada’s history, highlighting the elements of their
Overseas Interventions by the United States: part one Introduction; Guatemala and Indonesia Introduction In this series I will examine America’s numerous overseas interventions, the reasons, and the purpose for their involvement in these foreign countries and how these interventions have destabilised those respective countries to one degree or another. This series also explores how the American empire
The Red Ensign Canada: A People, not a Post-National State Welcome to The Red Ensign; a publication dedicated to highlighting the achievements, and advancing the future of the Anglo-Canadian people. This Substack is the production of a small team of Canadians dedicated to preserving a posterity for future generations of Canadians, and to
FEAR AND LOATHING IN LONDON I returned to London at the end of 2021 after an extensive period living and working in East Asia, in many respects I now wish I hadn’t. Hindsight is 20-20, as they say. If I had known then what I know now I would have taken a different course
Doom Further thoughts on the war on reality The nominalist revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race.1 If so many people hadn’t succumbed to a fringe philosophical development in the middle ages, the world would look very different. If nominalism had not sprung up,
The Temptations of Carl Schmitt A long look at the man of the moment in a totalizing age of strife “Today will be very instructive for those still clinging to the idea of returning to norms and sacred institutions,” tweeted one popular young right-wing commentator shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court’s draft ruling
The Petrodollar: part three The petrodollar wars and the consequences of American foreign policy In part two of this series we looked at America’s military engagements and why preserving the dollar system is essential for the United States. In this, the final part in the petrodollar series, I examine the consequences of American
CYCLICAL HISTORY – A BRIEF INTRO TO GLUBB, TAINTER, AND TURCHIN Among the thinkers who work within the broad school of cyclical history, many fall into one of two major camps: those who intuit or infer patterns in existing histories or narratives, and those who model the ebbing and flowing from a statistical viewpoint. The latter can more robustly verify the
Decline A brief introduction to the history of consciousness “No, listen,” I say. “Imagine this. You’re in an old aeroplane, the altimeter reads 5000 meters, you’ve lost a wing, you’re going down like a tumbler pigeon, and on the way, you’re going over your schedule: Tomorrow from
Monarchy and the Mind of the Matriarch Three short essays about one thing Opening my notepad today, I happened on three notes that added up to one essay. The first read “The biggest intellectual mistake of the 20th century”, the second “The Benefits of Monarchy”, and the last simply “The Woman Question”. Perhaps the sum will be
Ukraine: The Strategic Landscape An overview of the situation This article will overview the situation in Ukraine and give some predictions for the future. 1) Kherson A referendum was held in Kherson from September 23rd–27th. It asked: “Do you approve of having Kherson Oblast exit Ukraine, reforming Kherson Oblast into a self-governing state
The art of descandalisation On outrage porn, mimesis, and forgiveness One of the signs of our time is the almost overwhelming prevalence of so-called outrage porn. That colloquialism refers to things that provoke shock or indignation, whether by design or default. And, my goodness, there’s a lot of it around. Probably we did
Get Sertified A guest post by Don Baton Recently Don Baton, pseudonymous author of the great unwoke classical music newsletter The Podium , sent me an amusing (but also not so amusing) account from New York, and I felt it was worth him turning it into a short satirical piece for publication. That
Dispatch: The Children's Crusade A self-hating generation comes of age “An ancient axiom of politics teaches that a spoiled people invite despotic control. Their failure to maintain internal discipline is followed by some rationalized organization in the service of a single powerful will. In this particular, at least, history, with all her volumes vast,
The Luddites and Linus Torvalds Escaping Modernity's Bind There is a man standing on the neck of modern thought and his name is Ned Ludd. Really, I hated Ned before I knew his name, despite him not being American, not being my contemporary, and, well, not being real. As a legend, as an archetype, the
The United States, The World Bank and The IMF: Partners In Power Introduction The World Bank and the IMF (International Monetary Fund) were founded at the Bretton Woods conference in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire in 1944. These multilateral institutions wield tremendous power and influence across the world today. Indeed, depending on how you look at it, they can legitimately be said to
The great discarnation The ontology of the work of AI and its hermeneutical insignificance “I dont have nothing only words to put down on paper. Its so hard. Some times theres mor in the emty paper nor there is when you get the writing down on it. You try to word the big
Can an AI Chatbot Replace the Washington Blob? ChatGPT and I investigate I will be taking some time off over the next couple of weeks for Christmas, as well as to try to get in some deep reading for the next more substantial essay. In the meantime, I heartily recommend spending some time having fun with artificial intelligence
The Nixon Shock: part two How the Nixon shock changed the world forever Globalisation of Fiat System The creation of the fiat dollar changed the world forever because the reality is that as the dollar became a floating fiat currency so, by necessity, did all the other currencies in the world. This is because the
Courage in the Streets of China Celebrating a brief revolt for human dignity against banal, nihilistic, authoritarian technocracy I highly recommend you read this in the web or app version rather than email so that you can view the many included videos, and so that it doesn’t get cut off. Apologies in advance for any
40 Lessons from Warhammer 40k Learning from the Grim-Dark Future free, text It's time to talk about everyone’s favorite science fiction pulp setting: Warhammer 40000. Since its inception, this extended fictional universe (designed as the backdrop for miniature war-gaming) popularized the image of the "Grim-dark" future. Of course, most of 40k's core ideas are
The Nixon Shock: part one The creation of the fiat dollar It is August 1971. America is in the grip of an inflationary crisis the likes of which has not been seen since the era of The Great Depression. Owing to the declining value of the dollar, countries were scrambling to exchange their dollars for
The incoherence of rights Thinking about ethics with Marshall McLuhan “A friend of mine who tried to teach something about the forms of media in secondary school was struck by one unanimous response. The students could not for a moment accept the suggestion that the press or any other public means of communication could
The Petrodollar: part two The petrodollar wars - U.S. foreign policy and the dollar system The first instalment of this series dealt with the origins and the mechanics of the petrodollar system and the benefits it brings to the United States. In this part, I will explore how U.S. foreign policy is
Transcendences Between limits and possibilities One of the most natural of human desires, a desire that is arguably at the very centre of everything we are and do, is the desire for transcendence. But as with all natural things, all apparent givens, this desire is part of the background of life.
The High Bretton Woods Era The mass reindustrialization and suburbanisation of the United States in the post-war era, along with an American centred global economy, allowed Americans to live an affluent lifestyle far beyond anything that had come before it. On the surface, the Bretton Woods system was generally working well as member states adhered
Dispatch: No More Apologies Pandemic amnesty and its discontents Emily Oster, an economist at Brown University, calls for a “pandemic amnesty” in a recent piece for the Atlantic. The first year of the pandemic was a time of “tremendous uncertainty,” Oster writes, and “treating pandemic choices as a scorecard on which some people racked
The Petrodollar: part one The origins of the petrodollar and its role in the global financial system free, text If you have never heard of the petrodollar system, it would not surprise me. It is certainly not a topic that makes its way out of the State Department or Wall Street and on to
Bretton Woods – The Birth of the American Empire The Louisiana Purchase and westward expansion. The 1913 Federal Reserve Act. The Monroe Doctrine. The Ford Model T. The Nixon shock in 1971. The global realignment after World War One and the decline of the British empire. The end of the Cold War. It is no easy task defining when
Welcome to the Dissident's Domain A gentle introduction I thought this would be a short and simple introduction, whereby I can introduce who l am, what l am interested in, what I believe in and what kind of content and commentary you can expect to find here. However, one thing that I have learnt is
The Line The Great Wall of Arabia “The Line” megaproject was brought to my attention again recently: There has been a lot of commentary around “The Line” that goes like: “It’s dystopia city! The Great Reset!” Well, maybe it is that, too, but I think it’s quite obviously something else—
The Hungry Country Three Trials and Three Acquittals “…respect for the memories and deeds of our ancestors is security for the present and seed-corn for the future.” —Richard Taylor Lares and Penates Somehow through the centuries my family has managed to retain some of that “older religiousness” of the early American yeoman. We
The (He)art Reset the vibe shift is real and has been a long time coming There are few subjects as fascinating as art and the right-wing. How long have we been talking about this? A long time certainly. More than a decade before Andrew Breitbart made his proclamation that “politics is downstream from
Orderly Queues to Nowhere It’s a free country, ain’t it? “Malo periculosam libertatem quam quietam servitutem." Sometimes I just can't believe this is the same place I grew up. When I was a kid everybody recited that ancient American catechism: "It's a free country, ain’t it?" But I can't remember the
A Letter to Right-Wing Pagans I am not here to throw your maypoles on the bonfire, your vanities are a different story Is there a serious religious debate on the dissident right? Not from what I can see in 2022. Online, there is a perennial discussion about “Paganism versus Christianity” which usually takes place in
Liberalism No Work, Very Sad Sometime last month I found myself drawn again into a conversation (conflict?) with the “radical centrists” Adam and Sitch. Most of the exchange was civil, but towards the end my interlocutors on the radical center continuously accused me of being “evasive” and hiding what I really believed as a right-winger.
Rod Dreher and a Parting of Ways Some bad news from Rod Dreher today, more personal than political. But to me it feels existential. In all honesty this is hitting me harder than it should. Rod Dreher was an enormous influence on my own journey from atheism to Christianity. And although it might seem shallow to admit
Discourse won't Save the Boomers (but let's try anyways) Is it really possible "red-pill" your parents? So it turns out that my last letter was built on a faulty premise. Perhaps a follow-up is in order? In my last Substack entry, I painted a picture of a dissident community preoccupied with helping young folks and building a future apart
Anime Won't Save the Zoomers (and neither will Dante) Some thoughts on helping our new lost generation Today’s letter, perhaps fitting for the new year, is directed at a perennial right-wing complaint: kids these days, or as they say on the Internets, the “Zoomer Question”. As is obvious, the kids are not alright. Young people today (the “Zoomer
THOMAS CARLYLE: THE DIVINITY OF ORDER Despite the pains and lengths man has suffered to legislate and manage post-industrial society, we find ourselves living in a state of disorder, and that we have lived in a growing state of it for centuries at the least. No matter the quantity of data and peer-reviewed studies that suggest
How it finally ends Some thoughts on the current American epoch, written on the 4th of July, 2021 We can't keep living like this. We won't keep living like this. That is as core a certainty as I have at this point. That's the thing that keeps me doing politics in 2021. Not victory
On Folk Culture and the "Extended Universe" A letter concerning the development of dissident art, and included prototype In 2021, the platitude "Get Woke, go broke" is dead. Everyone got woke, and no one who got woke went broke. The meme was on life support before 2019. In 2021 its corpse is starting to smell. Did anyone
A letter to earnest right-wing activists Behold the awesome power of fiat currency and elite over-production! To kick off this new era on SubStack, I intend to produce a series of letters directed at the persistent political divides which exist both on online and off. My goal generally will be to clarify the controversies as I