Enjoying the view from Limbo
Nietzsche’s “two great European narcotics”: Christianity and alcohol. German Christianity and German beer were, for Nietzsche, particularly noteworthy as the vanguard of European man’s decline. Christianity in the modern sense and alcohol in the “our beer” sense are, among other things, Nietzsche’s shorthand for — but also the moving and final causes of — nineteenth century romanticism.
For quite some time now, I have been declaring as often as possible the final results of my four-year psychological assessment of Donald Trump: He is a vain, immature coward who likes to bluster and play tough when safely protected by the crowd, but always buckles and begs for mercy before any legitimate threat. He is therefore the worst possible commander-in-chief for a...
Bernie Sanders has had a heart attack. If this is anything more than the sort of blip on a heart scan that doctors notice two months later, there is little question that his presidential campaign is done. In fact, under these circumstances, I think it would say a lot about his immoderate lust for power if he even considered staying in the race...
by Daren Jonescu · Published October 5, 2019 · Last modified October 8, 2019
Jorge Luis Borges, one of my favorite modern writers, published two distinct but similar poems called “Limits,” dealing with roughly the same philosophical theme, namely the gradual narrowing of our remaining experience as we grow older. I wish to discuss the shorter of the two poems, which, although less well-known, is the one I prefer. I begin with Borges’ work itself, which I...
I am sometimes accused of exaggerating the threats to modern civilization, or of engaging in hyperbole in discussing today’s political trends. I am certainly not one inclined to feel self-deludedly sanguine about the current state of things, or blind to rising evils and dangerous follies. I note this merely to preface an anecdote that demonstrates the extent to which we are all, even...
By way of yet another addendum to my recent musings about the bipartisan nature of America’s rapid disintegration, I see today that the owner and editor of Alt-Right Poop (formerly Right Scoop) is getting that Trumpy tingle up his leg again, this time over straightforward evidence of the angry mob character of Trump’s supporters, as though this were a wonderful thing. In the...
Trump promised to eliminate the national debt. The debt is growing faster than ever. Trump promised to build a big beautiful wall, and said Mexico would pay for it. There is virtually no new wall of any sort, none of it the type Trump promised, and Trump used a fake national emergency declaration (according to Trump’s own account) to steal American taxpayers’ money...
Today, President Donald J. Trump sat on his toilet, which in this case is exactly the right location, and typed out the following missive to the world:
Congratulations to President Xi and the Chinese people on the 70th Anniversary of the People’s Republic of China!
In my last post, I noted that, thanks to the ascension of Donald Trump and the Trumpists, it is no longer possible to say with ease which of America’s two major parties would be more likely to instigate violent social upheaval to achieve its ends. Within twenty-four hours of that musing, Trump caused a new stir on Twitter by invoking the specter of...
Over at Alt-Right Poop (formerly Right Scoop), the top two headlines as I wake up on this Sunday morning, Korean Time, are “TRUMP TWEETS that impeachment Dems are ‘SAVAGES’!” and “Rashida Tlaib is trying to raise money with ‘Impeach the motherf**ker’ shirt.” Which leads me to ponder this strange question: When the election year rioting starts, which party will have instigated it? The...
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