Enjoying the view from Limbo
Political thought which begins from the premise that the primary purpose of government is to restrict freedom for the good of society has chosen to reduce adults to children, hence effectively equating the universal good with safety and comfort, and thus setting the stage for an inevitable rebellion in the name of liberty. Political thought which begins from the premise that the purpose...
Scientific method.– Not judging a book by its cover should not entail denying the existence of covers. Covers are the given. They are experience. To ignore them, let alone to deny them outright, is to confuse sophisticated illusions with depth. Diminishing returns.– If you want to depress yourself, reflect first on the number of people who start out in youth full of energy...
I had the following exchange the other day with a thoughtful student who is currently in the process of working out how to orient her life in ways that involve the least spiritual compromise. I reproduce it here with only minor cosmetic editing. Do you like money? I like it as much as I don’t like living on a park bench. But I...
It has been revealed that Viktor Orbán’s foreign minister, Péter Szijjártó, was in regular and surreptitious contact with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, specifically tasked with undermining EU policies toward Vladimir Putin’s regime and feeding inside information about high-level European strategy meetings to the Kremlin. Furthermore, according to prime minister-elect Péter Magyar, in the hours after the Orbán government suffered a crushing electoral...
Here, from Axios, is the funniest headline I have read this year, or perhaps ever: Scoop: US suggests Cuba complicit in helping Russia fight Ukraine. No, of course, when I say this is the funniest headline of the year, I am not referring to the usual news media illiteracy that has become so commonplace that we barely notice it anymore. For does not...
The Trump administration has spent much time and energy in recent months desperately trying to prop up Viktor Orbán in Hungary, in yet another obvious self-revelation of the truth of what Trump likes to call “The Russia Hoax.” Hungary was occupied and decimated for decades by a brutal, expansionist Russian dictatorship which supported a series of Hungarian puppet regimes to oppress the people...
America Descending / Ideas and Reflections / World Politics
by Daren Jonescu · Published April 8, 2026 · Last modified April 15, 2026
Here is a breaking news headline from CBS News: “Trump agrees to two-week ceasefire with Iran, delaying large-scale attack.” And from the accompanying story: President Trump said Tuesday he has agreed to a “double sided CEASEFIRE” with Iran, less than two hours before his deadline for Iran to either cut a deal with the U.S. or face massive strikes on its power plants. “I agree to suspend...
America Descending / World Politics
by Daren Jonescu · Published April 6, 2026 · Last modified April 15, 2026
The United States of America, in its hapless Keystone Kops war of whim against Iran, had two alternatives for pursuing its non-mission, based on the real-life demonstration of modern warfare being played out for all the world over the past four years. She could have chosen the Ukrainian model — innovative, adaptive, cost-efficient, resourceful, sleek, dogged, and backed by a nation fully engaged...
There is no country on Earth today with a more reasonable and moderate governmental structure than the United States of America, and yet there is no country on Earth today with a more irrational and immoderate head of state than the United States of America. Can a representative republic with a constitution that meticulously entrenches strict limits on federal government authority transform itself...
The Ring of Gyges.– The modern world is running a live test version of Glaucon’s brilliant challenge to Socrates in Book II of The Republic. The amoral thrill of being able to violate, invade, and steal everyone’s life, privacy, and property with impunity is now within reach of all of us, and above all, within the legislative reach of every government, and of...
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