I liked the ’50s.
I started to come of age in the early ’50s and married in the late ’50s.
Girls and young women dressed to achieve a touch of style, and to create a little mystery, which provoked a lot of interest.
I don’t see much mystery or style these days.
Unfortunately, all too true.
Says Elon Musk–
“Western Civilization is doomed, unless the core weakness of suicidal empathy is recognized and actions are taken that are hard, but necessary for survival”
Frey defeats Fateh in Minneapolis. Praise the Lord!
This AM Frey led by 42%-32%, but that triggered an automatic run-off with ranked-choice voting. The Strib indicated that Frey had enough second choice votes to hang on and win. I haven’t seen the final numbers yet.
Snow,
That’s an interesting take, by Elon. A couple decades ago, I came to the conclusion that valuing or adopting conservative life principles and understanding the value of a free market economy were a very hard sell to the average man or woman. The corollary to that idea is that Western Civilization is doomed.
It seems that there are two ways to come by that constructive appreciation. One, is because your parents raised you that way, and probably it stuck because the child witnessed some the positive aspects of it at various times. Secondly, a person or adult can actually understand some of the large group mechanisms at work, a la Friedrich Hayek. To borrow a hackneyed phrase, the second appreciation is like expecting folks to become “rocket scientists.” It will be a rarity.
My first impression of the Musk quote is that it is true because, in part, there is an army of people trying to convince all of us that is the one correct way to think and feel. If we could somehow shrink that army down to a small or fringe level, maybe Western Civ. is salvageable. But even then, what’s the alternative selling point? Rocket science and the circularity of good parenting.
Re: 50s style
I unreservedly recommend Whit Stillman’s first film, “Metropolitan,” about a young upper-class set coming to terms with the end of the 50s style and morés.
Stillman is that rarest of birds, an unabashedly conservative modern film director.
Looks like a festive night for the Young Republicans club.
Jim Melcher, it’s pretty sad to have to celebrate Frey’s re-election, although Fateh would have been far worse.
I watched Mamdani’s acceptance speech last night. I can see how he would appeal to low information/ low history types.
I recommend people watch it just to see him in action.
I caught only part of Winsome Earl Sears concession speech. I hope to watch the whole thing when I have the time. What I did see was very impressive.
Tommy jay— The mindset of Westerners in past centuries—rooted in Christianity, certain of the superiority of their civilization, and quite willing to defend themselves with extreme violence—was the result of their past history. They were tough cookies.
In contrast our current mindset —also the result of our immediate past history—is, for far too many, post-Christian, always doubting and without any certainties, largely removed from the actual realities of life, full of learned guilt about our success, squeamish in the extreme, ahistorical, and far too willing to “understand the “other,” to cut him some considerable amount of slack, give him the benefit of the doubt, and all too eager to “coexist,” and to “give peace a chance.”
Thus, we are ripe to be overrun, and ground into the dust by today’s “barbarians.”
Our country has lasted, now, for some 250 years.
Roman civilization lasted a thousand years in the West, and another thousand years in the East as the Byzantine empire.
The Romans, I observe, were realistic, extremely tough, often brutal, and quite willing to use extreme force to defend their country, their Empire, and their interests.
Could it be that this approach was the key to the longevity of their civilization?
Four years ago I thought Winsome Earl was a potential star. Disappointing.
When I left Virginia 13 years ago, after 35+ years in residence, the political metamorphosis was underway. The incumbency of Kaine (only Schumer and Schiff are sleazier IMO, but opinions may vary) and Mark Warner in the Senate was evidence. Now Virginia’s political landscape is not something I would recognize.
Can you instantly tell a Bug-eyed Austin-Healy from a TR-3? If so, you’re probably from the ’50s.
I second huxley. I’ve not watched that film in several years. It’s a good Christmas movie – probably about due for a viewing.
Elon Musk– “Western Civilization is doomed, unless the core weakness of suicidal empathy …”
We generally accept “empathy” as goodness, so over extended empathy is proving to be the issue. A modern example might be our overly generous, responsibility ignoring, welfare state programs and policies.
But my initial thought tracked along two different versions of the Golden Rule, invoking two different levels of empathy:
1) do onto others as you would have them do onto you [related to the tit for tat stance of game theory?]
2) love your neighbor as yourself [ something much more demanding of Christians (and Jews?), not so easily practiced as it tends towards that “suicidal” aspect.
Might this also be related to Nietzsche’s ideas that Jesus and Christianity were too “soft” for the real world? [I am probably out over my skis on this one — and do not have it quite correct].
R2L–In the case of Islam “do unto others” doesn’t work, if you adopt a policy of deliberate ignorance, turn your head, and neither want nor have an actual, fact based idea of how Islam and Muslims operate, and what–over the last 1,400 years–Islam and Muslims have “done unto others.”
Snow on Pine, yes, I am fairly familiar* with the ideology of Islam, based on resources such as Robert Spencer, Bill Warner, Raymond Ibrahim, Ibn Warraq, Frank Gaffney, Bernard Lewis, et al. Islam has a “goldenish rule” that applies to fellow Muslims but can be fully abrogated or ignored when dealing with non-believers (non ummah).
And GB reminds us periodically about their concept of taqiyya.
My comment at 11:19 was intended to consider some subtleties in the “Western” version of the rule.
*I do not claim to be a deep student or expert, however.
I loved this video! I remember the 50s and 60s so well. Born in 1946, married in 1966. Wore the little white gloves to church, even Sunday School. These young women look beautiful, and they look happy. They embraced being female. No one ever thought of dying their hair blue or piercing their noses. Such a lovely time that was.
A modern example might be our overly generous, responsibility ignoring, welfare state programs and policies.
==
The large scale welfare programs are (1) Social Security, (2) Medicare, (3) Medicaid, (4) public education. The clientele would be the elderly, the adjudicated disabled, the ill, and families with school age children. These programs need some adjustments to remove certain beneficiaries (illegal aliens and people defined as ‘disabled’ due to fuzzy psychiatric diagnoses) and need to be structured so that the ratio of public expenditure on them to total personal income flow in the economy at large is fixed. (That would include, for example, cohort-specific retirement ages so the ratio of Social Security beneficiaries to workers bounces around a set point, annually-adjusted deductibles on Medicaid and Medicare, &c).
==
As for the smaller programs, some are ill-considered (TANF, housing subsidies, SNAP and other nutrition subsidies, and subsidized utility bills), some are poorly structured (Obamacare subsidies, higher education finance), and some poorly administered (EITC),
==
The grossest example of ‘responsibility ignoring’ in welfare policy would be the regime in school discipline, brought to you by the graduates of this nation’s ‘schools of education’ buttressed by our hopeless courts. It’s another aspect of the phenomenon you see in the criminal justice system, where you have insider cabals conspiring against the public interest.
Leave a Reply
HTML tags allowed in your
comment: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>
I liked the ’50s.
I started to come of age in the early ’50s and married in the late ’50s.
Girls and young women dressed to achieve a touch of style, and to create a little mystery, which provoked a lot of interest.
I don’t see much mystery or style these days.
Unfortunately, all too true.
Says Elon Musk–
“Western Civilization is doomed, unless the core weakness of suicidal empathy is recognized and actions are taken that are hard, but necessary for survival”
Frey defeats Fateh in Minneapolis. Praise the Lord!
https://www.startribune.com/minnesota-election-results-2025/601507804
This AM Frey led by 42%-32%, but that triggered an automatic run-off with ranked-choice voting. The Strib indicated that Frey had enough second choice votes to hang on and win. I haven’t seen the final numbers yet.
Snow,
That’s an interesting take, by Elon. A couple decades ago, I came to the conclusion that valuing or adopting conservative life principles and understanding the value of a free market economy were a very hard sell to the average man or woman. The corollary to that idea is that Western Civilization is doomed.
It seems that there are two ways to come by that constructive appreciation. One, is because your parents raised you that way, and probably it stuck because the child witnessed some the positive aspects of it at various times. Secondly, a person or adult can actually understand some of the large group mechanisms at work, a la Friedrich Hayek. To borrow a hackneyed phrase, the second appreciation is like expecting folks to become “rocket scientists.” It will be a rarity.
My first impression of the Musk quote is that it is true because, in part, there is an army of people trying to convince all of us that is the one correct way to think and feel. If we could somehow shrink that army down to a small or fringe level, maybe Western Civ. is salvageable. But even then, what’s the alternative selling point? Rocket science and the circularity of good parenting.
Re: 50s style
I unreservedly recommend Whit Stillman’s first film, “Metropolitan,” about a young upper-class set coming to terms with the end of the 50s style and morés.
Stillman is that rarest of birds, an unabashedly conservative modern film director.
Looks like a festive night for the Young Republicans club.
Jim Melcher, it’s pretty sad to have to celebrate Frey’s re-election, although Fateh would have been far worse.
I watched Mamdani’s acceptance speech last night. I can see how he would appeal to low information/ low history types.
I recommend people watch it just to see him in action.
I caught only part of Winsome Earl Sears concession speech. I hope to watch the whole thing when I have the time. What I did see was very impressive.
Tommy jay— The mindset of Westerners in past centuries—rooted in Christianity, certain of the superiority of their civilization, and quite willing to defend themselves with extreme violence—was the result of their past history. They were tough cookies.
In contrast our current mindset —also the result of our immediate past history—is, for far too many, post-Christian, always doubting and without any certainties, largely removed from the actual realities of life, full of learned guilt about our success, squeamish in the extreme, ahistorical, and far too willing to “understand the “other,” to cut him some considerable amount of slack, give him the benefit of the doubt, and all too eager to “coexist,” and to “give peace a chance.”
Thus, we are ripe to be overrun, and ground into the dust by today’s “barbarians.”
Our country has lasted, now, for some 250 years.
Roman civilization lasted a thousand years in the West, and another thousand years in the East as the Byzantine empire.
The Romans, I observe, were realistic, extremely tough, often brutal, and quite willing to use extreme force to defend their country, their Empire, and their interests.
Could it be that this approach was the key to the longevity of their civilization?
Four years ago I thought Winsome Earl was a potential star. Disappointing.
When I left Virginia 13 years ago, after 35+ years in residence, the political metamorphosis was underway. The incumbency of Kaine (only Schumer and Schiff are sleazier IMO, but opinions may vary) and Mark Warner in the Senate was evidence. Now Virginia’s political landscape is not something I would recognize.
Can you instantly tell a Bug-eyed Austin-Healy from a TR-3? If so, you’re probably from the ’50s.
I second huxley. I’ve not watched that film in several years. It’s a good Christmas movie – probably about due for a viewing.
Elon Musk– “Western Civilization is doomed, unless the core weakness of suicidal empathy …”
We generally accept “empathy” as goodness, so over extended empathy is proving to be the issue. A modern example might be our overly generous, responsibility ignoring, welfare state programs and policies.
But my initial thought tracked along two different versions of the Golden Rule, invoking two different levels of empathy:
1) do onto others as you would have them do onto you [related to the tit for tat stance of game theory?]
2) love your neighbor as yourself [ something much more demanding of Christians (and Jews?), not so easily practiced as it tends towards that “suicidal” aspect.
Might this also be related to Nietzsche’s ideas that Jesus and Christianity were too “soft” for the real world? [I am probably out over my skis on this one — and do not have it quite correct].
R2L–In the case of Islam “do unto others” doesn’t work, if you adopt a policy of deliberate ignorance, turn your head, and neither want nor have an actual, fact based idea of how Islam and Muslims operate, and what–over the last 1,400 years–Islam and Muslims have “done unto others.”
Snow on Pine, yes, I am fairly familiar* with the ideology of Islam, based on resources such as Robert Spencer, Bill Warner, Raymond Ibrahim, Ibn Warraq, Frank Gaffney, Bernard Lewis, et al. Islam has a “goldenish rule” that applies to fellow Muslims but can be fully abrogated or ignored when dealing with non-believers (non ummah).
And GB reminds us periodically about their concept of taqiyya.
My comment at 11:19 was intended to consider some subtleties in the “Western” version of the rule.
*I do not claim to be a deep student or expert, however.
I loved this video! I remember the 50s and 60s so well. Born in 1946, married in 1966. Wore the little white gloves to church, even Sunday School. These young women look beautiful, and they look happy. They embraced being female. No one ever thought of dying their hair blue or piercing their noses. Such a lovely time that was.
A modern example might be our overly generous, responsibility ignoring, welfare state programs and policies.
==
The large scale welfare programs are (1) Social Security, (2) Medicare, (3) Medicaid, (4) public education. The clientele would be the elderly, the adjudicated disabled, the ill, and families with school age children. These programs need some adjustments to remove certain beneficiaries (illegal aliens and people defined as ‘disabled’ due to fuzzy psychiatric diagnoses) and need to be structured so that the ratio of public expenditure on them to total personal income flow in the economy at large is fixed. (That would include, for example, cohort-specific retirement ages so the ratio of Social Security beneficiaries to workers bounces around a set point, annually-adjusted deductibles on Medicaid and Medicare, &c).
==
As for the smaller programs, some are ill-considered (TANF, housing subsidies, SNAP and other nutrition subsidies, and subsidized utility bills), some are poorly structured (Obamacare subsidies, higher education finance), and some poorly administered (EITC),
==
The grossest example of ‘responsibility ignoring’ in welfare policy would be the regime in school discipline, brought to you by the graduates of this nation’s ‘schools of education’ buttressed by our hopeless courts. It’s another aspect of the phenomenon you see in the criminal justice system, where you have insider cabals conspiring against the public interest.