People are sheep. It all comes down to the question of who is leading them, and where. You remained non-political throughout your article, but the reality is that we have one political party that consistently strives to erase the conception of good vs. evil. All cultures have a collective name for those who are marching them down the road to oblivion. We, of course, have one too: "Finding Satan: Satan is easy to find once you know where to look for him": https://daveziffer.substack.com/p/finding-satan
And who would the leaders of the party of "Satan" be? Well, likely they are drawn from a group that literally has no conception of good vs. evil. We generally don't understand psychopaths, who constitute about 1% of the population and who comprise a much larger fraction of our leaders. Psychopaths are dangerous because of their deadly combination of traits: 1) they have no conscience - they are literally incapable of regarding themselves as having done anything "wrong"; 2) with literally no conception of right vs. wrong, they can lie with total sincerity and conviction - they seem more sincere when lying than normal people do when telling the truth; 3) they have charisma, which causes normal people to like, trust, and even revere them; and 4) their sole mission in life is to advance themselves, usually at the expense of others. To understand psychopaths (and Democrats) more, read: “Without Conscience”: A Book That Changed My Life: https://daveziffer.substack.com/p/without-conscience-a-book-that-changed
I’ve been hearing warnings such as this for many years. They resonate. They strike me as legitimate. The observations with which you open your essay are bellwethers of more badness to come.
The fall of Rome, as I understand it, was a centuries-long descent.
Will the decline of the West & of America take that long? Most importantly, can we reverse course? In fact, have we hit the inflection point?
When rules are meant to stifle rather than to mark the border of acceptable actions the government is repressive. I subscribe to the theory that as long as it's not illegal and does no harm to anyone else, you're free to do what you want. There are responsibilities that go along with this, however, and they're necessary. If there is a result from your actions, you own it. There is no defense to responsibility for your own actions.
Exposing these "ferals" to a boot camp atmosphere will do more to instill them with pride of country and respect for the law than any prison time will.
It's hard for me to think of any broadly held mores, taboos, or virtues, across American society. It's a Nike world: just do it.
We're happily and without care motoring along the Gibbons-Burke roadmap to destruction.
People are sheep. It all comes down to the question of who is leading them, and where. You remained non-political throughout your article, but the reality is that we have one political party that consistently strives to erase the conception of good vs. evil. All cultures have a collective name for those who are marching them down the road to oblivion. We, of course, have one too: "Finding Satan: Satan is easy to find once you know where to look for him": https://daveziffer.substack.com/p/finding-satan
And who would the leaders of the party of "Satan" be? Well, likely they are drawn from a group that literally has no conception of good vs. evil. We generally don't understand psychopaths, who constitute about 1% of the population and who comprise a much larger fraction of our leaders. Psychopaths are dangerous because of their deadly combination of traits: 1) they have no conscience - they are literally incapable of regarding themselves as having done anything "wrong"; 2) with literally no conception of right vs. wrong, they can lie with total sincerity and conviction - they seem more sincere when lying than normal people do when telling the truth; 3) they have charisma, which causes normal people to like, trust, and even revere them; and 4) their sole mission in life is to advance themselves, usually at the expense of others. To understand psychopaths (and Democrats) more, read: “Without Conscience”: A Book That Changed My Life: https://daveziffer.substack.com/p/without-conscience-a-book-that-changed
I’ve been hearing warnings such as this for many years. They resonate. They strike me as legitimate. The observations with which you open your essay are bellwethers of more badness to come.
The fall of Rome, as I understand it, was a centuries-long descent.
Will the decline of the West & of America take that long? Most importantly, can we reverse course? In fact, have we hit the inflection point?
Excellent article. Thank you.
When rules are meant to stifle rather than to mark the border of acceptable actions the government is repressive. I subscribe to the theory that as long as it's not illegal and does no harm to anyone else, you're free to do what you want. There are responsibilities that go along with this, however, and they're necessary. If there is a result from your actions, you own it. There is no defense to responsibility for your own actions.
Exposing these "ferals" to a boot camp atmosphere will do more to instill them with pride of country and respect for the law than any prison time will.