Enjoying the view from Limbo
The following is an open letter to an unknown girl, one without a name, one without a friend, and, as of Friday, May 25th, if Ireland’s abortion-legalization referendum goes as expected, one without a future on this Earth. For communicative convenience, I will do this child, whom I’ll never meet, an honor her mother wasn’t willing to grant her, namely naming her: “Emily.”...
“I leave before being left. I decide.” — Brigitte Bardot BREAKING: It is being reported that the long-anticipated royal wedding has been called off. With the star-crossed lovers, Donald “Mr.” Trump and Kim “Dear Leader” Jong-Un only weeks away from sealing their Moon-struck romance with a televised kiss, rumors indicate that their wholly absurd matrimony has been cancelled. Here’s how the gossip columnists...
The strongest proof that mankind is the plaything of Necessity may be the seemingly endless parade of blinkered idiocy or willful blindness with which civilization is currently herding itself into a pen of its own making. One particularly maddening manifestation of this idiocy is the insistence of American “conservatives” that the solution to a State-manufactured catastrophe, school shootings, is more omnipresent State power....
From the “truer words were never spoken” file, a few wise aphorisms from the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius: Yes, keep on degrading yourself, soul. But soon your chance at dignity will be gone. Everyone gets one life. Yours is almost used up, and instead of treating yourself with respect, you have entrusted your own happiness to the souls of others. (II.6) The best...
A few weeks ago, RedState, one of perhaps only two popular American conservative news sites to have maintained a healthy presence of non-cult-friendly opinion on Donald Trump’s presidency, underwent a sudden pro-Trump purge, firing most of its writers associated with Trump criticism, including some of its more popular writers, and all of its best ones. Here is a brief report on the result:...
by Daren Jonescu · Published May 20, 2018 · Last modified May 24, 2018
Apropos of a discussion of Plato’s intentions in his depiction of Socrates, and specifically the notable ways that Plato’s Socrates differs both from Xenophon’s contemporaneous depiction and from the historical figure later Socratic philosophers, such as the Stoics, had in mind, a friend who views Plato with some skepticism confronted me with this provocative question: Is Plato a philosopher or an artist? Is...
Three events of this weekend, quite unrelated to one another, but all, in their various ways, indicative of the critical state of decline in which modernity finds itself today. Glenn Beck, having shown the courage of his convictions throughout the 2016 presidential primaries, and having suffered significant financial pain for his troubles, has finally, it seems, buckled under the pressure and come as...
Death by Education / World Politics
by Daren Jonescu · Published May 18, 2018 · Last modified May 20, 2018
China is rounding up Uyghur Muslims and forcing them into internment camps for “political education,” i.e., indoctrinating submission to the Communist Party. Some will choose to turn a blind eye to China’s oppressive means, out of animus toward Islam. Some will note that this policy is consistent with China’s general aims of eliminating all religion. I wish to focus on our convenient hypocrisy....
I’m stunned, stunned I tell you! After six weeks of surrendering all their nuclear weapons and infrastructure in meek submission to the massive hands and best words of Mr. Alpha Nobel, North Korea has apparently forgotten who is Daddy around here and started issuing ultimatums again, threatening to cancel their big TV “summit” with the pretend leader of the so-called free world. It...
A teenager is just an adult minus the knowledge born of independent experience, the respect for humanity born of observing how hard independence can be, the appreciation for history and tradition born of years of sober listening and reading, the moral character born of thousands of good choices made in difficult conditions, and the wisdom born of much failure, disillusionment, and hard work....
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