Suddenly, this book seems less crazy. One of the main characters is a professor who touts the "ecology of fear."
Our white Christian nationalist leaders also get the side benefit of creating communities of fear and hopelessness among all non-white Americans. #ItHasHappenedHere
He'd be a great Bessent. He wouldn't even need to change his costume from Zorg. 😁
Monbiot and Hutchison's proposal to create public wealth, as opposed to private wealth might be a good starting point. In the U.S., I'd like to see the first step of #Medicare4All or some other universal access program. Healthcare can no longer be left to the vagaries of "the market."
One more data point to confirm my thesis that "AI" represents the last gasp of capitalism. When the bubble finally pops we will have a choice to make: move further toward democratic socialism or stay with the austerity playbook and continue to privatize all public spaces.
In "It Can't Happen Here" the chief conceit of Buzz Windrip and Bishop Prang's political rise to power is that they are defending "the forgotten man." Lewis incorporated this idea because he understood that political and religious conmen always target the egos of men. #ItHasHappenedHere
Masculinity, a perennial concern, from ideas of being tested in battle to various other displays of testosterone. All these roads eventually lead to Johnny Knoxville's Jackass.
Neil Postman talks about the introduction of grading in the late 18th century via West Point. It strikes me as an attempt quantify something that might be better left to those who can qualitatively evaluate performance. The Enlightenment has not always had great ideas. 😁
If no one shows up at a Nuremberg-style rally is it still a rally? #ItHasHappenedHere
Let's remember this same guy failed to see the potential of the internet, releasing Windows 95 without any built-in dial-up utility. #TechHype
One of my favorite books is below. He provides an interesting tri-partite history of technology: eotechnic, paleotechnic, and neotechnic. The latter is all about electrification and the tools created from its use. He also mentions "biotechnic" once but never details. He got melancholy by 1960s. 😁
I prefer Polanyi's take to the Austrian fiction of pristine capitalism. The whole idea of a self-regulating market is an absurdity.
Fitzhugh went even farther than Hammond. I reject Hammond's "mudsill" thesis, which seems to me an idea embedded in modern meritocratic thinking. No one should want to live in Huxley's Brave New World (1932). I also reject Fitzhugh's suggestion that all workers should be slaves. 😈
Robert Gordon explains why innovation cannot be relied on for future widespread economic growth. He makes a depressingly compelling case. Neither AI (LLMs or any other AI-related tech) nor cryptocurrencies are going to massively disrupt the market like oil or electricity did in the 20th century.
The next best thing to getting rid of capitalism altogether is implementing #UBI and #MEDICARE4ALL. UBI would: 1. Reduce the austerity power of capital over labor 2. Reduce the amount of bureaucracy required to provide for basic needs 3. Make people more mobile or more able to remain near family
Read this book in a graduate school seminar on WWI. People thought a war inevitable and that it would be short-lived. The surprise came after the war in the form of "the lost generation." Marshal Foch got Versailles right: "This is not Peace. It is an Armistice for twenty years."
Never shout "Praise the Lord!" in the midst of Bible-thumping cannibals. 😈
Recently got into the work of Gramsci, the idea of bourgeois cultural hegemony as a buttress to the embedded violence and coercion of capitalism. Piketty calls these "narratives of inequality." The left and the right in the U.S. share one of these narratives rooted in the idea of "merit."
The Epstein Class is welcoming to all who lack a moral compass. These people prize "networking" over building real relationships, understanding that circling the wagons to protect their common economic interests often exceeds their petty internal squabbles. A pox upon them all!
Remember the good old days when these were just parodies of American life and government? 😔 #ItHasHappenedHere
Let's all get shredded for God! A rage-inducing container of creatine comes with every paid registration. Come on, guys, show those women what they're missing even if they aren't interested! Afterall, what choice will they have in our future theocracy?
@jasonread.bsky.social Roaming my library and saw this. I know your specialty is Spinoza, but I thought of you. How about Spinoza as a cyborg? 😁
We talk alot about oligarchy and a dictatorial Whitehouse ("unitary executive") but these two books help us understand how two institutions, SCOTUS and The Fed, enable the authoritarian state and weaken democracy. #ItHasHappenedHere
@theonion.com Screwworm Enters Texas Senate Race, Placing Ken Paxton in Third Place Screwworm says flesh eating claims were consensual but admits he has done a lot of growing up the last few years. Promises to never eat human flesh, if elected.