In general the EU and its constituent peoples are happy with high taxes, I am not. The EU tends to give more credence to the idea of income confiscation, I do not. The EU believes that jamming a third-party middleman, a bureaucrat who is interested in profits only to the extent that people can work for the companies that earn them, into almost every financial transaction does no harm to economies and helps citizens, I do not. I think the EU would tend to agree with Americans like Sanders and AOC that the existence of billionaires is immoral, I do not.
I’d read an essay by them or on their works, but I’m not parting with my own US$ in return for their books. Maybe a library checkout, but not a purchase.
If your gut tells you to loathe the CCP, this book is for you. Just finished it. The last two chapters say a lot about Taiwan, Chinese democracy in Taiwan…Tribal not ideological…and much more. It is old, 2005, but worth it.
Just ordered these from Bezos:
Li was interviewed in the Empire of Lies book.
And this, from the George Will article I posted about the other day:
Fire in the Canebrake is a must read. IMHO it kicks the shit out of Capote’s In Cold Blood. Like it’s not even close. Her presentation of the factual data is smooth and ice cold, matter of fact. Period. It’s an unbelievable story with an unbelievable end. I didn’t cheat and read up on it any more after the G Will article.
Half-way through The Butcher’s Wife.
So onto the new article, not book, but definitely worth a read:
Let’s step away from the moment’s heat and look at things from an outsider’s point of view. Aristotle is a helpful guide. Not only did the ancient Greek philosopher think deeply about the numerous civil wars that took place in the tumultuous world of ancient Greece, but he also grasped a profound point that’s easily lost on us: civil wars don’t show up like some surprising and alien virus attacking an otherwise healthy body. Civil war takes place because familiar forces wear down the healthy civic bonds that hold citizens together until some crisis finally triggers action.
That’s what makes reading Book V of the Politics so unnerving. When we consider the seven long-term causes Aristotle identifies as having the potential to transform otherwise peaceful citizens into would-be factionalizers, it’s startling to find that so many of the well-known proclivities of our contemporary ruling class are exactly those that Aristotle thought would undermine political cohesion and make civil war more likely.
Changing the Political Landscape Through Demographics
Unjust Distribution of Wealth
Unjust Distributions of Honor
Arrogance
And arrogance is a big one according to the dead guy.
Now you would hope that our own American upper class would at least be wise enough to be discreet in its arrogance for the sake of social harmony. But, astonishingly, we live in a time when our credentialed class flaunts it.
Watch any of the popular comedy or news shows designed to flatter college graduates who are desperate to prove their membership in the managerial professional class. They openly mock the general populace for its stupidity. They whole-heartedly laugh at the backward manners of fly-over country. They celebrate casting cherished icons in pee or feces or flames. They know full well these acts will cause pain in those for whom those symbols have meaning. Making people feel humiliated is the cruel goal of their humor and art.
Fear
*Contempt
Superiority
And he ends on this uplifting note:
If Aristotle is right that these are the sorts of things that make civil war more likely, why shouldn’t we be worried? Why aren’t we challenging our cozy assumptions that things couldn’t get worse?
And now I have. It’s light reading, fun pokes at the left and the right. Chapter 1 is Conservatives and Immigration.
Saw this article this morning and thought hmm…still getting it wrong.
Last week the president took an important step to help Americans who have been put out of work by the virus. He signed a Proclamation to guarantee that the millions of Americans seeking to return to the workforce are first in line to fill the jobs coming back online.
The Proclamation temporarily halts, through the end of the year, entry into the U.S. of certain temporary foreign workers, and extends the President’s suspension on certain immigrant visas.
The Proclamation also directs the Department of Labor to make long-term reforms and enhancements to the H-1B visa program, a program that was intended to supplement the U.S. workforce with exceptional, high-skilled foreign workers, but which has often been misused as a source of cheap foreign labor.
This is the old, They’ll take our jobs" trope. Tamny writes about the modern disdain on the right for immigration, yet, he suggests the the ambition that immigrants bring with them to succeed is often what has elevated the USA. Think Steve Jobs. People coming to the US come to maximize their talents, be they auto mechanics from Iraq or engineers from India.
I find the ambition part to be similar to people who go overseas and live and work for decades. Not everyone will pack it up and go to Taiwan and teach, get married to a local gal or guy, start a school, open a bar and restaurant or a law firm or a consulting business. When you limit immigration you are essentially cutting off a groundswell of ambition to do better, the ahem capitalize on the open and free market…which duh, the right holds high and golden. Also, where they come from doesn’t matter, so let’s welcome folks from shithole countries. You can’t tell who will do well. Tamny essentially says, let the market decide.
He also says that the best way to lower illegal and legal immigration is to tank the economy. He ends with Legalize Work especially low skilled seasonal work. Give them the documents to move freely across the southern primarily border and again duh, they won’t bring their entire three generation extended family with them.
No sweat. His dad was an immigrant, but Jobs was put up for adoption right after he was born, so he probably didn’t get much of that immigrant influence in any case.
Have been re-reading “We Have Been Harmonised” by Kai Strittmatter.
Pretty gripping read, prescient even.
It is refreshing to see a West-based China expert be so clear-eyed regarding the growing threat of the CCP, while also (briefly) pointing out what a godsend to the CCP (and other authoritarian regimes) this Trump admin has been so far.
