Enjoying the view from Limbo
An honest search for knowledge inevitably and necessarily opens out on other avenues of inquiry beyond the one originally embarked on. The moment one begins to feel “knowledgeable” about X, further questions present themselves — questions which, if examined with the same honesty with which you set out on the initial investigation, typically complicate the original knowledge. Specifically, the whole truth you seemed...
Artificially shut down the entire economy with despotic and drastic restrictions on daily life and trade that are completely unwarranted and disproportionate to the “crisis.” Then sweep in with massive redistribution bills (i.e., property-annihilating power grabs) that will reverberate painfully through the economy for generations, on the grounds that “people are hurting these days due to the pandemic.” (A real pandemic crisis would...
Defenders of today’s near-global tyranny in response to a virus that has so far amassed fewer deaths in four months than a fairly typical common flu season are keen to exploit the metaphor of wartime measures to excuse their desire to suppress liberty and subject their neighbors to the risk of permanent material suffering and extreme emotional hardship. They speak of “defeating the...
One of the paradoxes of this age that has forfeited all belief in a reality beyond immediate sense perception, and all humanity beyond the material mechanism, is that people, though no longer believing they exist, have become hysterically obsessed with prolonging their “life” (i.e., their illusory appearance of self-moving unity) regardless of the cost. No price is too high to pay for a...
Few things are sadder than watching previously reasonable people lose their marbles. America seems to have made this sort of transition its national pastime over the last few years, which is making life for my many American friends downright depressing of late. For me, one of the most disturbing and disappointing instances of this psychological deterioration is the shift that has occurred at...
An enthusiastic and diligent student who has been studying Plato with me for several months — we were in the middle of a close analysis of Book III of the Republic several weeks ago, when coronavirus “social distancing” interrupted our conversation — sent me an e-mail yesterday to share his distress over the current situation. You know, students like me don’t know how...
I see a headline today, “Hundreds crowd newly reopened Florida beaches,” accompanied by a photo of a bunch of people walking along a shoreline, expressionless, like zombies. That’s about right. “Permission granted,” says the government. “We should go outside today Martha,” says the Sheep-Man. “The governor says it’s okay.” The whole view reminds me of that scene in Jaws when the beaches reopen...
Throughout this Pandemic that Ate a Planet, I have made a fairly concerted effort to avoid reading “opinion pieces” on the subject from anywhere around the world, including those whose authors appear to be nominally on the right side of history, i.e., against the universal enslavement that is currently being passed off as “safety,” “community,” and “protecting the elderly.” Yesterday, quite by accident,...
The police department in Raleigh, North Carolina, United Shutdowns of America, has arrested citizens who gathered to protest against the state’s overt denial of constitutional rights. Citing the governor’s official stay-at-home orders — precisely the policy that the protesters were challenging — the police department defended its thuggery by declaring that “protesting is a non-essential activity.” Let’s parse that clause, shall we? The...
Roughly 1.35 million human beings lose their lives in car accidents each year, including 38,000 in the U.S. alone. That’s 3,700 automotive deaths worldwide per day. “Well, that’s life,” you say. “They knew the risks.” First of all, no they did not know the risks; for while we all hear the occasional local news story about a fatal accident involving drunken teens on...
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