John, This is easily your best piece yet -- poetic in the reading, profound in the substance, I cannot wait to read the second installment. Many thanks for thinking so deeply and conveying it so well.
Brilliant writing as usual. You keep knocking it so far out of the park that it's difficult to know what to say.
Your description of the loose coalition at the turn of the decade (2010) prompts me to share one of my best friend's work that has been in my mind lately.
This one is ten years old -- she goes to interview "Tea Party" folks during the Obama presidency.
Wonderful read as always! I'm hoping the anti-American elements of the alt-right (e.g. wignats) can be brought together with the anti-war left under the banner of Americanism. They would have to jettison the anti-American components of their beliefs, and I don't know how realistic that is to expect ideology being what it is. If it can be achieved, I don't think it will be something the managerial class is capable of contending with.
We see the emergence of a world forseen and warned of which after Covid-19 Terror turns to great power warfare over the Ukraine. Perhaps the Transhuman future blue print was set forth in Bernard Wolfe's Limbo. It’s the post-apocalyptic 1990’s, thanks to a late 70’s nuclear third world war brought on by the giant computers that had been delegated by humans to handle geopolitics. (They sound a little like the micro-trading computers that now handle the much of high finance.) It turns out that the computers weren’t any better at keeping the peace than humans were. https://thefinchandpea.com/2012/03/16/apocalypse-1952-bernard-wolfes-limbo/
Let me add the problems are not merely ones of consciousness or culture. This has also very much been about the transformation of the body: people are becoming chronically unhealthy, dependent on Big Pharma, and so increasingly also less autonomous: politically, socially, economically, and more.
For anyone concerned with rising trend of Polypharmacy, “the use of multiple medications by a patient,” I break down the most recent CDC data here:
Fascinating article. So focused on the accelerating mass madness of the left the last decade, the progress of the alt-right I have mostly ignored, so accustomed to thinking of conservatism as that which conserves nothing but the right of the wealthy to do as they like and the many to make a mess of the earth. I have been thinking a lot more about conservatism lately, the left having tilted toward a very deadly, vengeful authoritarianism, descending into race and gender barbarism to bring civilization to ruin, enslaving humanity to global corporatists.
As a kind of Neo-anarchist, a appreciate balance between the liberal and conservative in myself, and imagine that would make for a healthy society. I am most definitely not a collectivist, in any Marxist sense.
Keep up the good work. I recently discovered your writing, and I appreciate it.
I disagree a bit with the timeline, the discussion about disagreements got more intense with each wave of dissidents, 2016 first, and later 2020. It actually persists to this day but is getting more coherent. Nonetheless, well put summary of the history of the children of the ashes.
By far one of the best articles I’ve read in a decade. It covered everything concisely with relative brevity, excellent metaphors, astute observation, and passion.
I would put the gatekeeping of the right back to William F Buckley from the beginning of National Review. He outlawed the right from the beginning and promoted only a gentlemanly style of the right that would lose gracefully. He exiled other earlier Right forms,.
Ike and Nixon and Goldwater were not men of the Right.
John, This is easily your best piece yet -- poetic in the reading, profound in the substance, I cannot wait to read the second installment. Many thanks for thinking so deeply and conveying it so well.
Much of the time, I lack much hope for the future. Pieces like this help restore it for another day and another week.
Brilliant writing as usual. You keep knocking it so far out of the park that it's difficult to know what to say.
Your description of the loose coalition at the turn of the decade (2010) prompts me to share one of my best friend's work that has been in my mind lately.
This one is ten years old -- she goes to interview "Tea Party" folks during the Obama presidency.
Very cute and funny. Hope you enjoy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Sb8o1VaY7I
“There is an alternative to corporate media BS, and we’re it!”
—Peter Nayland Kusk
Wonderful read as always! I'm hoping the anti-American elements of the alt-right (e.g. wignats) can be brought together with the anti-war left under the banner of Americanism. They would have to jettison the anti-American components of their beliefs, and I don't know how realistic that is to expect ideology being what it is. If it can be achieved, I don't think it will be something the managerial class is capable of contending with.
GREAT essay (and not just because of the plug you gave me LOL)! I like the optimism tempered with a realistic view of events.
I hope this is Part 1?
We see the emergence of a world forseen and warned of which after Covid-19 Terror turns to great power warfare over the Ukraine. Perhaps the Transhuman future blue print was set forth in Bernard Wolfe's Limbo. It’s the post-apocalyptic 1990’s, thanks to a late 70’s nuclear third world war brought on by the giant computers that had been delegated by humans to handle geopolitics. (They sound a little like the micro-trading computers that now handle the much of high finance.) It turns out that the computers weren’t any better at keeping the peace than humans were. https://thefinchandpea.com/2012/03/16/apocalypse-1952-bernard-wolfes-limbo/
Your name is not John, its Word.
Let me add the problems are not merely ones of consciousness or culture. This has also very much been about the transformation of the body: people are becoming chronically unhealthy, dependent on Big Pharma, and so increasingly also less autonomous: politically, socially, economically, and more.
For anyone concerned with rising trend of Polypharmacy, “the use of multiple medications by a patient,” I break down the most recent CDC data here:
"Americans are taking more and more prescriptions drugs. How much more? Let's see the data!" https://americanexile.substack.com/p/americans-are-taking-more-and-more
Fascinating article. So focused on the accelerating mass madness of the left the last decade, the progress of the alt-right I have mostly ignored, so accustomed to thinking of conservatism as that which conserves nothing but the right of the wealthy to do as they like and the many to make a mess of the earth. I have been thinking a lot more about conservatism lately, the left having tilted toward a very deadly, vengeful authoritarianism, descending into race and gender barbarism to bring civilization to ruin, enslaving humanity to global corporatists.
As a kind of Neo-anarchist, a appreciate balance between the liberal and conservative in myself, and imagine that would make for a healthy society. I am most definitely not a collectivist, in any Marxist sense.
Keep up the good work. I recently discovered your writing, and I appreciate it.
I disagree a bit with the timeline, the discussion about disagreements got more intense with each wave of dissidents, 2016 first, and later 2020. It actually persists to this day but is getting more coherent. Nonetheless, well put summary of the history of the children of the ashes.
By far one of the best articles I’ve read in a decade. It covered everything concisely with relative brevity, excellent metaphors, astute observation, and passion.
We’ll done.
Thank you.
Just reread this. Such a great read.
I would put the gatekeeping of the right back to William F Buckley from the beginning of National Review. He outlawed the right from the beginning and promoted only a gentlemanly style of the right that would lose gracefully. He exiled other earlier Right forms,.
Ike and Nixon and Goldwater were not men of the Right.
sigh. another of you fine writers to add to my list of subscriptions.
I sometimes wonder when reading substack if this is what people felt like in the heyday of newspapers. I'm old but not that old.
I must say. I love you. But not in that kind of way....lol
Great essay. My simple double neuron soluble connection has been trying to think of exactly this.