Open thread 9/20/21
It’s the awning that surprised me.
A little stroll down memory lane. I was at the Colosseum in 2018. There was a huge downpour, and right afterward I took this selfie and put it on the blog:
The New Neo
A blog about political change, among other things
I visited in the 1980s before the partial wooden floor was added and again in 2006 when it was in place.
The gladiators fought whales???
Did they flood with water the “playing field?”
Did the gladiators have to swim and fight or were they tossing spears at the whales from boats a la Moby Dick?
How did the even capture the whales without killing them?
Tough to believe they fought whales.
The only thing certain is that eventually the Roman Empire ceased to exist.
A Whale of a time in the Old Coliseum tonight.
Spring of 1969, my wife and I bought tickets to see the Coliseum late in the afternoon, hardly anyone else around and there was a slight drizzle, we had raincoats and an umbrella so we spent a fair amount of time looking around from the viewing area. I had no idea at the time what all of the underground structure was because I thought we should be looking at a level area like a football field and later I read enough to understand what an incredible structure we were visiting. We were living in Germany where I ended up doing three years of my Army time and we used Europe on $5 a day for our travels and it usually cost about $10 per day each but we did have a lot of fun staying in little hotels, using public transportation and eating where the regular people ate. When we started running out of money we would find a Chinese restaurant and order number four, sweet and sour pork, good cheap food no matter what country we were in.
The strongest memory of that evening was our trip back to the hotel, we were unable to get a taxi so I asked one of the horse drawn carriage drivers if he could take us, he spoke English and said sure because he was getting ready to quit for the evening. We ended up riding in the carriage stuck in heavy traffic full of smog and pollution from those old 1960’s cars and two cycle oil burning motor scooters and the horse started to panic, it was rearing up and having bad problems dealing with being unable to move on out of the mess. After a bit I paid the driver and we walked the last half mile so the driver could take the horse a different direction and that’s my story about that day in Rome.
Great story, OldTexan! What a fun adventure with your wife!
OldTexan, we have our memories of our travels. Just wonder if we all will be able to travel again. Although at our age it is getting a bit more difficult.
The US Navy was gracious enough to allow me to walk through the Parthenon in 1970.
For anyone curious as to how the Romans hunted and captured the animals fought by the bestiarii in the Colosseum, and where the animals were kept prior to their release in the arena, here’s a 9-minute video about the subject:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0I2VKFe7yI&ab_channel=toldinstone
The Romans were hardly unique in their indifference to animal suffering related to blood sports; they were like most humans across history in that regard. It was not until the nineteenth century that societies for the prevention of cruelty to animals were started in Western Europe (the RSPCA was founded in 1824) and North America (the ASPCA began in 1866).
My wife and I were in Rome in the 2001. A couple weeks ahead of 9/11. We spent an entire day from 8:00AM to a bit after midnight walking the whole of central Rome. The colosseum was a different day.
_____
Panic in Detroit (joke) and Wall Street. About a 1.9% drop so far. And the reason? From Briefing.com
Markets are global now.
PA Cat:
Judaism has long forbidden cruelty to animals. See this.
Despite the downpour, were you not entertained?
Neo–
The same is true of Christianity; a number of early theologians protested against the slaughter of animals as well as humans in the Colosseum (and provincial amphitheaters); Basil of Caesarea in the fourth century and Augustine in the fifth preached sermons about the duty of humans to provide proper care for animals and not to abuse them for amusement. I have no doubt that this attitude of concern derived from Judaism. Unfortunately, most people in the Dark Ages either did not know the teachings of Judaism and Christianity in regard to animal welfare (read Peter Brown some time about the superficiality of conversions in large parts of Western Europe after the fall of the Western Roman Empire), or ignored them. And after the barbarian and later Viking invasions, things really went downhill fast. I think it is telling that the nineteenth-century friends of animals decided to form permanent organizations and to enlist the support of civil government.
Bilwick:
The downpour itself was greatly entertaining, because prior to that we were waiting in line in terrible heat.
PA Cat:
I didn’t mean to suggest for a single moment that the Romans cared what the Jews said or followed it in any way. And although I have no problem understanding that Christian leaders continued to preach the Jewish regard for animals, I don’t think it was an integral and basic part of commandments for daily living, as it was for observant Jews. Or was it?
Neo–
In some parts of the Empire, in both the Greek-speaking East and the Latin-speaking West, humane treatment of animals was taught as a basic part of Christian living– but there was no enforcement of the teaching by civil authorities, and some bishops were more diligent than others in instructing their flocks. The major difference is that Christians did not adopt kosher methods of animal slaughter. I still think that it was the raids of the Huns and the Vikings from the fourth century onward that reintroduced cruelty to animals into Europe. Both the Huns and the Vikings practiced animal as well as human sacrifice, and a terrorized human population would have become habituated to animal suffering.
Neo,
My limited Catholic training as a child didn’t include any basics on animal treatment, though the story of St. Francis was well known and appreciated.
Of course in the Midwest, 4H and teaching the youth on the proper care of farm livestock was the order of the day.
My wife does pet care and has assisted a local Protestant minister with his blessing of the animals day, as well.
It’s a pity that Pope Francis has focused more on climate change and other Marxist dogma, rather than the purported deeds of his namesake Saint Francis. I think he has given a trifle bit of lip service to “caring for all creation” but that’s about it.
TommyJay–
You may already know this, but Benedict XVI is a cat guy– when he was still a professor of theology at Regensburg, he would go into the cemetery near the cathedral after Mass and preach to the cats who lived in the cemetery. From an article about Benedict’s love of cats: “What’s more, it would appear the affection was mutual. For almost 20 years previous to his election as pontiff, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger lived just east of the Vatican in the Roman neighborhood of Borgo Pio. He was said to have enjoyed strolling along the historic avenues, interrupted only by stray cats who would run to greet him.” Photos of Benedict with cats at the link:
http://petslady.com/articles/vatican_kitties_pope_emeritus_benedict_xvi_cat_lover_62232
I was raised in a Catholic church consisting primarily of immigrants from eastern Europe; Czechs, Poles, Slavs… Cruelty to animals was considered nearly akin to cruelty to humans and this extended to animals slaughtered for our consumption. Wasting meat was a grave sin.
I know humans can distort almost anything to nefarious purposes; most slaveholders in the U.S. were Christian, after all, but I can’t see how anyone can read the gospels and come away thinking animal cruelty is copacetic. “Lamb” has to be the most common analogy Jesus uses in his parables; comparing humans to lambs and people as God’s flock frequently, and the extremes a shepherd should go to in order to ensure the safety of all his flock. Genesis teaches man was given dominion over the beasts of the land, sea and air, and is instructed to take care of them, not abuse them.
Again, I know people often ignore religious tenets or twist them, but no marginally serious Christian could pretend to think the proper care of animals is not central to humanity.
I’m just thinking about this more; the high percentage of paintings and stained glass windows depicting Jesus living in harmony with animals, carrying lambs… It seems like every other parish garden has a statue of St. Francis with a coterie of animals. I can’t think of a Cathedral ceiling that does not have some depiction of animal life living in harmony with humans depicted on it. Noah and his ark…
No offense, TommyJay, but your childhood Catholic training must have been extremely minimal; as in leaving out about 1/3 of the parables, the Books of Genesis and Deuteronomy and the synoptic Gospel accounts of Christ’s nativity in Matthew and Luke.
Ace has a post up on San Francisco mayor, London Breed partying maskless at a night club, ignoring her own mask regulation. The lead singer in the band in the video is quite off key. I wonder if he does not have a monitor and is unable to hear himself over the band? Or, maybe he’s mic’ed through the club’s P.A. and the band is playing directly through their amps?
PA Cat,
I did not know that.
Nor this, which I left out the previous bit on St. Francis.
On 29 November 1979, Pope John Paul II declared Francis the patron saint of ecology.[42] On 28 March 1982, John Paul II said that Francis’ love and care for creation was a challenge for contemporary Catholics and a reminder “not to behave like dissident predators where nature is concerned, but to assume responsibility for it, taking all care so that everything stays healthy and integrated, so as to offer a welcoming and friendly environment even to those who succeed us.”
By 1979 Pope John should have know where the politics of “ecology” and “the environment” were going. I’m sure there is more detail to it than I know, but Pope John should have just stuck to “the patron saint of animals” and left it at that.
____
Since the Neo’s topic is to some extent about great Italy tourism spots, I’d thought I’d also mention that my visit to Saint Francis’ fortress town of Assisi in the 80’s was quite special. My brother was playing tour guide and we decided to visit a number of fortress towns. I particularly remember the view of the town from a distance with the setting sun casting a yellowish tinge to the pinkish stone work. These two photos give a hint of that, but I’m afraid they don’t do it justice.
https://backiee.com/static/wpdb/wallpapers/1920×1080/171670.jpg
https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/panorama-of-the-town-and-the-basilica-of-assisi-in-umbria-italy-picture-id623258732
Rufus,
I don’t have a great recollection of any of it, truth be told, but in my experience while most sermons were derived from the bible, the catechism was our “rule book” which is where this conversation started. In Sec. 2, para. 4, the catechism speaks of “His Creation.” Even there, there isn’t much if any material about animals specifically.
So I believe that the catechism doesn’t really get into caring for animals, but then we weren’t exactly in seminary school either.
Rufus T. Firefly:
The point I was trying to make – and the link has some of the details – is that in Judaism there are extremely specific rules to follow regarding the treatment of animals. For example, kosher animals are supposed to be killed in ways that, at least for the times in which the techniques were developed, were supposedly methods that caused the animals the least suffering. If something went wrong and the animal suffered unduly, you were not supposed to eat that animal. Also, there was and is a rule that if you are hungry and about to eat and haven’t fed animals (pets or livestock) that are hungry, you must feed the animals first.
In addition , even before the ten commandments (and the rest of Leviticus) were handed down, there were supposedly the Noahide laws for all of mankind, which I previously wrote about in this post. Note number six:
So kindness to animals was considered extremely basic and the rules were quite detailed (there were many more of them, for Jews) and quite strict.
Also, my bringing up the Jewish point of view about the treatment of animals, and the rules governing it, was in response to and contrast to not present-day Western nations (dominated by Christianity, at least until recently) but to the ancient Romans and also to pre-nineteenth century European countries as mentioned in this comment by PA Cat.
With regard to St. Francis and his love for God’s creatures, I always enjoyed the legend of St. Francis and the Wolf of Gubbio. The town of Gubbio is in Umbria and about the year 1220 an unusually large and fierce wolf appeared in the area. The wolf began by attacking livestock and soon began attacking people. St. Francis was then living in Gubbio. Hearing of the wolf’s depredations, he announced that he was going to confront the beast. The townspeople implored him not to risk his life by doing so. Nevertheless he went out to find the wolf. Some of the braver townsfolk followed him (at a safe distance) to see what would happen
When the Saint approached the wolf’s lair it rushed out to attack him. Francis stood, raised his hand and commanded the wolf to make peace in the name of God. To the amazement of the onlookers, the wolf submitted; crouching before the feet of the Saint. St. Francis told the wolf that he should no longer attack men or their beasts and that in turn men would no longer hunt the wolf. The wolf put his paw into the hand of Francis to show he accept these terms. St. Francis then turned to the townsfolk who were watching and told them that since the wolf had agreed to live at peace with them they were now responsible for feeding the wolf. According to the story, they did so for some two years until the wolf died of natural causes.
“According to tradition, Gubbio gave the wolf an honorable burial and later built the Church of Saint Francis of the Peace at the site. During renovations in 1872, the skeleton of a large wolf, apparently several centuries old, was found under a slab near the church wall and reburied inside.” (Wikipedia).
How much of this is true? I have no idea. But I like the story because it shows a different aspect of St. Francis. Not just someone who preached to birds and bunny rabbits but a man who sought out a man eating beast to make peace with it. And I also like the realism of Francis telling the townspeople that now that the wolf had agreed make peace with them they were responsible for feeding it. It was still a wolf after all!
John F. M.,
That is new to me also. Nice.
My notion of Saint Francis was always more of the bird and bunny rabbit variety. In fact I’ve got a nice wood carving I inherited from my parents of Francis with bird in hand, and two at his feet.
Honorable Exceptions Excepted:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azazel
Chinese/Koreans: What’s all this nonsense about?
*chows down on some squirming non-specific still warm piece of raw goodness*
Although should be noted that the Japanese didn’t eat beef due to Buddhist strictures against animal suffering until the Meiji Restoration when the Meiji Emperor (no giant, I’ve seen his and his wife’s clothing at the Meiji Shrine) ceremoniously hoed down on a steak to set an example to his people to beef themselves up so as to be able to better withstand the Pale-faced Beef-eating Big Nosed Barbarians.
Walking through the supermarket I’ll hear a satisfying *thonk* from time to time. Another grumpy-looking fish from the tanks has lucked out. Wet Markets are a bit more Mel Brooks Spanish Inquisition. Got nothing on what you’ll see on any given street in the Islamic World during Eid-al-Adha.
The Old Gods were thirsty for blood. Ye Venerable Collector of Prepuces, was no exception until the Lawyers (apparently the Chickens couldn’t meet their fees though) on one side and the Christian Heretics on the other side got seriously on His case and did a Retcon Job. Every now and then you’ll get some bog-ignorant Christian Fundamentalist Dispensationalist asking naively why (possession being 9/10 of the law) they don’t just rebuild the Temple… Apart from the various vested interests (not all of them Islamic) just imagine the optics — not quite Apocalypto, but I don’t think PETA would be amused.
Will be interesting to see if this report turns out to be correct, or an exaggeration of outright falsehood.
“Pope Francis just closed the doors to the Vatican for those who without the vaccine passport. I remember in the Bible when Jesus turned away the people who didn’t have a leprosy vaccine… Oh wait.”
Why that man had to become a Jesuit and not an accordion player in a Buenos Aires brothel, I don’t know. I won’t ask what the Jesuits did to deserve him, as is arguable that they got off lightly given their numerous misdeeds.
Anyway, for your listening pleasure, the Papal March, courtesy of Astor Piazzolla:
https://youtu.be/Ux95YdBeAhE?t=811
Meanwhile in Colorado, Home of the Based Hispanics, Conservative Family Values are making a comeback:
https://media.gab.com/system/media_attachments/files/085/534/789/original/754f25231650bf4a.jpeg
Does everyone realize that “Trump screwed up COVID” has become the default excuse for ANYTHING Biden does wrong? And, of course, that default position is based on a lie because Trump didn’t do an especially awful job of handling the pandemic. At least not if you’re judging the U.S. against other countries and Trump’s actions against what U.S. health officials recommended.
There’s an entire generation of Democrats for whom “But Trump screwed up COVID” is going to be their response to any idiocy, incompetence, or malevolence on their side.
Mike
Reminds me of something I had once seen in a movie regarding someone else’s Roman Holiday.
I guess we are lucky that you cannot smell the scenes in a movie.
Speaking of which … Just imagine what it would have been like in the Colosseum as 50,000 vicious, unwashed, and sweaty members of the Roman mob, gleefully performed “the wave” in the baking afternoon sun.
Probably puts a new and much needed spin on that Pompeii “erotica”, too.
On second thought, don’t imagine it.
“Does everyone realize that “Trump screwed up COVID” has become the default excuse for ANYTHING Biden does wrong?”
Good point.
Let’s be fair: the Swamp was completely evil and made Covid worse. They made bad recommendations and added a lot of misery to a lot of peoples’ lives.
Trump got schlonged. His sense of danger deserted him. He needed to be able to look into their souls, realize they were WRONG and take action accordingly.
Part of the Orthodox Christian teaching on the role of animals in the creation generally is implied by Psalm 103 about the creation and the glorification of the Lord therein, with which we begin most every Vespers service. (It is Ps. 104 in the Western usual numbering.) There are some other moments in the Psalms at which certain things are mentioned about the animals.
I didn’t know your eyes were walnut brown and so close-set.
The Reactionary Case Against Pretty Much Everything Ever Said Here by Everyone:
https://www.takimag.com/article/27390/
“…The reason the right always loses to the left is that the right is trying to defeat moral claims with facts. This can never happen. Often, the appeal of the moral claim is that it seems to fly in the face of reality. Faith requires sacrifice, and there can be no greater spiritual sacrifice than to hold on to a belief in the face of reality. In this regard, the right’s arguments serve only to strengthen the moral certainty of the left.
Montesquieu observed that political systems have a spring, a spiritual engine that motivates the people in it. Aristocracy relies on honor, for example. Republican systems rely on virtue, the dedication to the system over self-interest. Liberal democracy was not a thing in Montesquieu’s time, so he did not address it, but it is clear that morality is the engine of this peculiar form of social organization.
As a result, all political arguments are moral arguments. They are about the “right thing” in terms of public morality, not the right thing in empirical terms. Forcing people to wear bizarre face coverings has no public-health value, but it does tell the world that the people imposing it care about the world. It is a way for them to say, “This is who we are, and we care about the safety of everyone.”
The implication should be clear. If there is to be an alternative to the prevailing orthodoxy, it must make better moral claims. If the conservative mind is incapable of framing right-wing arguments in moral terms, then there can be no such thing as a conservative in a liberal democracy. They are condemned to be nothing more than a shadow that follows the progressive around from cause to cause.”
Major punch pulled here in last para. The trick is to *impose* a new morality upon our enemies. I’m sure it won’t hurt a bit.
Zaphod on September 20, 2021 at 9:04 pm said:
Ah yes. The oppression of tradition. Which tradition though, it is hard to say.
Wouldn’t it be nice if we were older, and we wouldn’t have to wait so long … “
Zaphod,
Do you have any insight into Evergrande blowing up $300 billion in debt? Is this the beginning of a giant house of cards collapsing?
As Sen. Everett Dirksen once said, “A hundred billion here, a hundred billion there, pretty soon you’re talking about real money.” What’s a factor of a hundred between friends?
@TommyJay:
Too Big to Fail? I honestly don’t know.
Disclaimer: Everyone here knows that I’m not a big fan of the Gordon Chang / Epoch Times type spin that China / CCP Rule / Chinese Economy or some combination of these will collapse Any Minute Now. I think it’s Wishful Thinking and a gigantic bolus dose of Cope-ium — favorite medication of the Western Right.
One thing to consider is that China built out real and mostly useful infrastructure with its financial bubble. The West has not done this. So at least they got something out of it. Of course the Chinese misallocated capital. Who doesn’t? The point is to misallocate it in less bad ways — which they did cf. USA. China doesn’t spend its imaginary funny money on affirmative action for Lesbian Transsexuals and on importing Third World Savages to make the daily lives of the rest of its oppressed normal people worse. Instead China spends its bubble money on stuff which mostly makes the daily life of its people better provided they’re not Uighurs .. and on ships and submarines not officered by Lesbian Transsexuals. I mean that’s just Nazi.
If you look at 2008 US Financial Crisis, virtually none of the guilty were punished, and many have thrived since. This is because Wall Street Owns a big chunk of Washington. And the rest is owned by foreigners :). In China, the guiding principle of the CCP is that *IT* and nobody else is the sole repository of real power. Bits of it can be corrupted… individuals can be bought… but the institution is very jealous of its ultimate power.
So, I think that the decision on what happens with Evergrande will come down to calculus of pure power politics. What they do will be to iterate toward the final decision. It will take a while to figure out how much pain the general public are in the mood to tolerate from a collapse and collateral sequelae… if looks too risky for a controlled demolition, then they’ll just bail it out. Really they can afford to — or do you fancy making your own insulin pumps in Detroit with Majority Black Owned Businesses leading the way? I mean just about everything you need comes from China. You’re going to pay for the bail-out, like it or no.
With the best will in the world, the financial system could implode of course. That’s why I say I don’t know. Complexity has a mind of its own.
One thing to consider is that Western pension managers have been buying up lots of this red hot junk for years now. I’d talk about how ‘Investor Relations’ works, but the prudes in these parts would just complain that I’m making stuff up. Let’s just say that some very dull folks of limited ability have been shown some Very Good Times their own abilities and own *personal* money would never have merited.
With any luck, a few guilty parties will get the death penalty… The Chinese Public like to see that their Betters cannot go too far off piste without consequences.
Politically may be less anger against CCP given that even if Evergrande busts there’s still tangible stuff left behind that people can use. And they can point that stupid whitey bought lots of their paper and helped pay for it. That’s how I’d propagandise it.
Zaphod,
That was interesting. My anecdotal, and not statistical disagreement would be that there could be a large amount of real estate or buildings that are essentially worthless. Based on video’s I’ve seen, some of that stuff would not come close to saleable even in California.
Ok.
One last open thread entry; this, concerning a piece of equipment I had helpfully mentioned some months ago – having heard somewhere or other that they were outstanding deals and pieces of workmanship.
At least for those interested in that kind of thing. Which I am not. Never having owned one or shot one or anything like that. In fact I am very afraid of this kind of stuff and completely disapprove of them, so help me Joe.
In fact a Cheetah is probably some kind of wild animal, isn’t it?
But for those who have an unreasoning fear of burglars, or rapists, or being burned alive while trapped in their homes by a chanting mob, they may wish to look into getting one of these and keeping it on a leash and well fed. Just in case.
But whatever you do – DO NOT SHARE WITH YOUR LIBERAL IN-LAWS. Even if they beg. I’m holding you to this, and placing you on your honor. Seriously.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMNRhOFCFCM
@TommyJay:
There’s some pretty awful stuff out in Chinese Flyover Countries (Tier 3 Cities, and lower… Yes… Chinese officially rank their cities — nobody pretends everywhere is equally good). Much ‘development’ away from the bright lights involved local officials land-grabbing in collusion with developers and slapping up any old thing to justify the steal.
But when you get down to it, they’re all doing what your Carnegies and Stanfords did back in the day — it wasn’t pretty. Doubtless there were some British Fogeys took a double dose of the Cope-ium and pointed to the Panic of 1907 or one even earlier and said Bah Humbug.. and paid no attention at all to the Great White Fleet. And look who Owned C20 in the end. Those scummy ass brazen bullshitting inexplicably rich vulgar Americans of 1890.
A Chinese can get on a high speed train in Guangzhou and be in Chongqing or Shanghai a few hours later. His parents would have had to spend one or two days in hard class seats on a slow train to do it… if they could have afforded it. More than enough of the bubble infrastructure is more than good enough.
Always, beware Cope-ium. All the Chinese government and media have to do is to show them candid clips from US TV reporting in the last 24 months to convince them that they’ve never had it so good.
@DNW:
One especially should not share with liberal in-laws the location of any and all spring guns in the herbaceous borders.
I’m a little worried because YouTube keeps putting this;
Israeli Spy/Assassination Pistol – Beretta Model 71/ [ Mad Lads ] Mossad + Sayeret Matkal stories
https://youtu.be/OLufq-CA7bM
In my sidebar — and I don’t follow many gun channels apart from Gun Jesus and Hickok45.
Thing is, it’s not highly-aligned with what the voices in my head are telling me. Of course could be that my tinfoil hat was hacked while I was in the shower…
Since this thread has gone off on a tangent about Totalitarian Bubble Economies, let’s revisit the Secret Police of one of these Kleptocracies:
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2021/09/a-devastating-critique-of-fbi.html
And their sartorial splendor. A picture is worth a thousand words. So please click through.
@TommyJay:
Entertaining Twitter thread with a guy quoting Morgan Stanley opinion on wonderfulness of Evergrande a few years back.
https://twitter.com/jackycwong/status/1439785771104305154
But we all know that Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and all the others are a bunch of amoral prostitutes. So not really news.
Here’s a thread about Ghost Cities:
https://twitter.com/scoopercooper/status/1439403508613238785
It’s bad… But I don’t know that it’s so bad that it’s going to pull the rabbit out of the hat and make your rapidly rising peer level competitor that’s not bogged down by Blacks and Mexicans and Trannies and Fentanyl and Oxy. Contin and a joke of an educational system ruled over by geriatric kleptocrats disappear in a puff of smoke.
Not gonna be good for the Chinese. Almost as certainly won’t be any good for you. Don’t pin your hopes on it. Clean House At Home (™).
Gerard vanderleun:
My beady little eyes.
On the Importance of Privacy:
https://thezman.com/wordpress/?p=25139
“…Even if we put mating aside, the creation of a private domain separate from the public domain is an obvious peacekeeper. In a small group, disputes can be solved by the leader imposing his will on the group. Once you get past a certain number, that is impossible and small disputes could easily become big disputes. The private domain is where Grog can tell the missus what he really thinks of Trog, without creating a feud with him and possible drawing in the whole community.
Another point in favor of the essentialness of privacy in large societies is the fact that authoritarians always seek to violate privacy. The communists, for example, would listen in on citizens and rummage through their lives. For this reason, the Founders put in the Bill of Rights the “right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures.” What constituted reasonable in this context was a direct threat against the security of society.
As a narrow tool of terror, violating the privacy of citizens is effective, but very expensive to maintain, which is one lesson of the Soviets. It is not just the practical cost of mass spying, but the cost to social trust. In a world where anyone can be a conduit for the state to listen in on your life, the willingness to trust strangers drops to zero. The only people you can trust are blood relatives and associates who have everything to lose by violating your trust. Criminal gangs did well under communism.
There is another angle to privacy. Privacy is the key to one’s identity. It’s why militaries march recruits around naked so much in their initial training. Criminal gangs, like some motorcycle clubs, will do the same thing to prospective members. Take away a person’s privacy and they can no longer stand apart from the rest. It’s hard to hold yourself distinct from others when they know even the most intimate things about you, which is why authoritarians love violating the privacy of others.
This may be one key to understanding why modern America appears to be having a nervous breakdown. The microprocessor revolution has had many consequences and not all of them have been good. It has made it cheaper and easier for authoritarians to pry around in the lives of others. Everyone lives in a world where they are tracked by agents of the state, who also act from private interests. They are even trying to tease out our thoughts from our internet activity.
Not only has technology made it easier for the state to violate your privacy, but it also has weaponized the worst elements in every society. People who call themselves “extremist researchers”, for example, are just busybodies encouraged to violate the privacy of their fellow citizens. For most of human settlement, there were rules to keep this type under control, because they endanger social cohesion. The gossip is a greater threat to the whole than any criminal, because they undermine social trust.
There are many things that are causing American society to crumble, but one big one is the inversion of privacy. The lives of citizens are put on display, but the facts of public life are routinely hidden in waves of lies. Activist organizations like CNN threaten to ruin private citizens if they refuse to be props in their charades, but also tirelessly work to prevent the public from knowing the truth about public policy. The collapse of privacy is turning America into a large-scale prison camp.”
Interesting developments in Melbourne Australia, Land of Lockdowns:
https://pushingrubberdownhill.com/2021/09/20/australian-construction-workers-riot/
The CFMEU really are not very nice genteel folk… Involved in all kinds of Jimmy Hoffa type stuff since well not forever but since their predecessor militant construction union got shut down years back for being too bolshie.
But strange times make for strange bedfellows. Domestic tyranny and overreach won’t be taken down by latte-sipping middle class people.
And I love that these guys scare the living crap out of the Affirmative Action Police and the Bug People who make the rules. Fills me with joy.
There’s a bit of detail missing from this: A few weeks ago there was a prog media beat up on the CFMEU leader, one Setka (Croatian Mafia) trying to Me Too him and bring in a softer gentler more Managerialist Bugperson Dan Andrews Amenable leadership… I suspect that’s one reason that Setka initially stood up to his own protesting workers — the heat had been put on him from higher up the Power Pyramid. Just a theory though.
Zaphod:
One thing that didn’t change when I switched from left to right was my distrust of the FBI.
However, the Feebs have really outdone themselves the past five years.
@AesopFan:
Re yesterday’s OpenThread, here’s a picture of glowies, I think from Saturday’s protest (scroll to end of article):
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2021/09/18/whoopsie-too-funny-overzealous-dc-stormtroopers-accidentally-target-undercover-fed-dressed-like-antifa-then-had-to-pretend-like-they-were-arresting-him/#more-217170
Tommy Jay: In the 1961 biopic about Saint Francis (starring Bradford Dillman as the saint), the closing scene is Francis’ funeral procession. A flock of birds fly overhead in formation, as if they were an honor guard. I’m a non-believer, but that scene always moves me deeply; perhaps because my mother was a believer and taught me about the saint’s special relationship with our feathered friends.