Jeez, another one already! How time flies...my tab bar still has some of last week's selections. This is fast becoming one of the essential series on here. Does anyone else get the feeling that we're cresting to a consummate peak right now? A sort of idyllic moment where everything feels vibrant and exciting and essential, a small untouched corner of the internet, bristling with authenticity and interesting digressions. A lighthouse at the edge of the map, away from the creeping madness of the world. Such things don't last, you know. It's only a matter of time. Close your eyes, breath it in, exhale, and enjoy it while it lasts. These elysian days are surely numbered, we might as well enjoy them while they last.
Wow, what an honor. Thank you for such high praise John. There's a huge amount of quality here, both in your commentary and the original works. Love to see it.
Thank you for keeping at this, Jeddak Carter. To echo other sentiments across the past few weeks, it's one of those jobs that became necessary, but required a degree of regular sacrifice that few (if any?) seemed willing to make.
Thanks for the links, John, but I must say that Briggs' headline beats anything else I've ever seen on substack!!!!! Priceless!!!! If I weren't undead already, I'd be dying over here!!!! 😂 😂 😂
'Pagan' is just urbanite hatred, it means hick hillbilly aka 'backwards' ruralite. Much like communism christianity spread quickly in the cities but slowly elsewhere... and if Zeus is the god of the abrahamics the term becomes even more worthless. All dissidents are pagans, with the DEI being our new theocracy. Much like the medieval catholics it demands total submission... lay down and DEI. To those who are (not) about to DEI, we dissidents salute you.
Meek = disciplined warrior, a powerful yet humble figure who only uses violence when necessary. Conan would make for a good example of meekness
''Who is more noble in the grand scheme of life, he who is incapable of violence, or he who is capable, but abstains? If you are too weak to do harm, is your abstention from it attributable to the goodness within you?''
If you are interested in paideia, check out David Hicks. Norms and Nobility is short but meaty, maybe the only good book on education that I have ever read. Here's a short essay from him, on page 34:
Jun 5, 2023·edited Jun 5, 2023Liked by John Carter
We can turn any philosophies on their heads. But the dualistic Philosophy of Descartes has spawned an epidemic of materialism, effete dualism, bad science and hubristic techno biology. We have used Descartes to misunderstand ourselves.
Wow! So much good stuff in here! Thanks for compiling all this!
<<"Has that pesky racial IQ gap gone away thanks to improvements in the standard of living? Steve Sailer takes a look at data from the absolutely massive Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study in Mind The Gap and finds that … no, no it hasn't. Blacks remain stubbornly 1 standard deviation below whites; Asians continue to be ⅓ of a standard deviation higher than whites. Shocking, I know. Eventually liberals are going to have to admit they've been wrong about this for the last few generations. C'mon guys - stop being science deniers. I want my society back.">>
This reminds me of why free-speech platforms like Substack are so valuable. The Left's war against reality can only work when they limit the conversation to mindless regurgitations of wokeist talking points. Here we have an elephant in the room, causing all kinds of chaos and destruction in our culture, and the only politically correct options we're supposed to have all involve putting more elephants into more rooms. The Left wants a reckoning on race. Okay, let's have it. Because if we don't acknowledge and account for unpleasant realities, the backlash will only get worse, the longer it is delayed. Right now, I think we can still salvage things and push for enforcing good, race-neutral standards, but by preventing that from happening, the Left will only guarantee that real racists (the likes of which they have not had to seriously contend with in decades) will gain control of the conversation. Of course, the Left would rather hold onto power than have a productive conversation about anything, which is why free speech platforms are so important, because without a productive conversation, we'll have only unproductive ones, which will ineluctably lead to a brutal backlash. And this pattern holds across a large number of issues, not just race.
Denethor despaired because he saw only what the Enemy showed him (I think Gandalf says that after Denethor's death, but I may misremember). The lesson isn't that Denethor chose despair or gave up, but that death on the pyre - choosing his own time and manner of dying - became the only act of freedom and defiance he could see.
So, never let your enemy define your choices.
Ragnarök comes, it is certain. Yet Allfather fights with all his cunning against it. What is the kenning in there?
That only the living and the free fight; to fight is to be free and to live. That your flocks and herds may die, that your friends and family may die, that you also may die - it matters not. Doom over dead man's name does not die.
(Yep, paraphrasing from Hávámal, verse 77 in Erik Brate's transcription. Doom in Old Norse and also modern swedish may be understood as judgement, doom, fate, and verdict all in one - which important to understand the text. All of the Edda and the rest of the surviving materials are written as kennings; layer upon layer of meaning using very few words. By studying them, you water wisdom with the sweat of effort, making wisdom grow.)
Whoeth! Reading all these would take a month's worth of my spare time. But I will read a few.
And I did just read the one on consumption of marijuana. I call bullshit. Marijuana in regular use is harmful, most definitely. But it doesn't render people submissive. The character "The Dude" in "The Big Lebowski" is utterly unlike every longtime pot smoking political activist that I have ever met, and I have met a LOT. Common symptoms of excessive longterm pot smoking include anger, conspiracy theorizing, and not being able to shut up and let anyone else talk.
Traditionally, the U.S. military establishment hated marijuana for good reasons. Stimulants, including nicotine, are useful for sustaining concentration. Alcohol is a useful stress reliever and memory dampener. A good drinking binge after a horrible experience is probably useful against PTSD. And alcohol also encourages bravery by dampening fear.
Marijuana, on the other hand, does not produce the same reckless behavior as alcohol, and it does something far, far, worse from the point of view of someone training soldiers: marijuana reduces the ability to put of with bullshit. The laziness associated with marijuana use is really more refusal to work for The Man, than work per se. They can still do self-motivated work. During my days of on the ground political activism, many of the best workers were serious potheads.
And do note that during the days of America's industrial decline, there was one American industry that continued to dominate the world -- to the point that the world complained just like we used to complain about Japanese imports and now complain about Chinese imports. That industry is the entertainment industry, which is dominated by potheads.
And, by the way, Elon Musk has been known to toke. He isn't lazy and has been know to buck the system. And there is also evidence that George Washington partook. He was separating the male and female hemp plants on his farm.
And finally, the Levites of the Old Testament were probably some pretty serious stoners. The priestly ointment included "qanah besem", which gets translated as "sweet cane" or "sweet calamus", but the Strong's pronunciation of the original sound suspiciously like cannabis. Those Levites were very un-Dude like.
---
Something other than pot is poisoning us. SSRIs have an effect more similar to Plato's passive diet. Both increase serotonin levels. Prozac DOES make people more Dude like. At least older people. Some evidence that the teenage brain can overcompensate and go into murderous rampage mode.
Jeez, another one already! How time flies...my tab bar still has some of last week's selections. This is fast becoming one of the essential series on here. Does anyone else get the feeling that we're cresting to a consummate peak right now? A sort of idyllic moment where everything feels vibrant and exciting and essential, a small untouched corner of the internet, bristling with authenticity and interesting digressions. A lighthouse at the edge of the map, away from the creeping madness of the world. Such things don't last, you know. It's only a matter of time. Close your eyes, breath it in, exhale, and enjoy it while it lasts. These elysian days are surely numbered, we might as well enjoy them while they last.
Wow, what an honor. Thank you for such high praise John. There's a huge amount of quality here, both in your commentary and the original works. Love to see it.
Thank you John, it's an honor to be featured. Enjoying all of the other pieces you've highlighted here as well - it's a great service you're doing.
Thank you for keeping at this, Jeddak Carter. To echo other sentiments across the past few weeks, it's one of those jobs that became necessary, but required a degree of regular sacrifice that few (if any?) seemed willing to make.
Honored as always. And always impressed with the amount of effort you put into these roundups
Thanks for the links, John, but I must say that Briggs' headline beats anything else I've ever seen on substack!!!!! Priceless!!!! If I weren't undead already, I'd be dying over here!!!! 😂 😂 😂
'Pagan' is just urbanite hatred, it means hick hillbilly aka 'backwards' ruralite. Much like communism christianity spread quickly in the cities but slowly elsewhere... and if Zeus is the god of the abrahamics the term becomes even more worthless. All dissidents are pagans, with the DEI being our new theocracy. Much like the medieval catholics it demands total submission... lay down and DEI. To those who are (not) about to DEI, we dissidents salute you.
Meek = disciplined warrior, a powerful yet humble figure who only uses violence when necessary. Conan would make for a good example of meekness
https://identitydixie.com/2020/02/11/the-meek-shall-inherit-nothing-%EF%BB%BF/?sfw=pass1685804117
''Who is more noble in the grand scheme of life, he who is incapable of violence, or he who is capable, but abstains? If you are too weak to do harm, is your abstention from it attributable to the goodness within you?''
Thanks again John.
Do you have more pictures of that blonde?
I love your round-ups. They always give me such good suggestions for what to read next.
If you are interested in paideia, check out David Hicks. Norms and Nobility is short but meaty, maybe the only good book on education that I have ever read. Here's a short essay from him, on page 34:
https://web.archive.org/web/20230605230126/https://issuu.com/circeinstitute/docs/_current-web
We can turn any philosophies on their heads. But the dualistic Philosophy of Descartes has spawned an epidemic of materialism, effete dualism, bad science and hubristic techno biology. We have used Descartes to misunderstand ourselves.
Great piece. I really like your weekly write ups. They continue to get better every week.
Thanks so much for the shout out. Now I wish I’d thought of calling academic activism “problematic.” LOL.
Wow! So much good stuff in here! Thanks for compiling all this!
<<"Has that pesky racial IQ gap gone away thanks to improvements in the standard of living? Steve Sailer takes a look at data from the absolutely massive Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study in Mind The Gap and finds that … no, no it hasn't. Blacks remain stubbornly 1 standard deviation below whites; Asians continue to be ⅓ of a standard deviation higher than whites. Shocking, I know. Eventually liberals are going to have to admit they've been wrong about this for the last few generations. C'mon guys - stop being science deniers. I want my society back.">>
This reminds me of why free-speech platforms like Substack are so valuable. The Left's war against reality can only work when they limit the conversation to mindless regurgitations of wokeist talking points. Here we have an elephant in the room, causing all kinds of chaos and destruction in our culture, and the only politically correct options we're supposed to have all involve putting more elephants into more rooms. The Left wants a reckoning on race. Okay, let's have it. Because if we don't acknowledge and account for unpleasant realities, the backlash will only get worse, the longer it is delayed. Right now, I think we can still salvage things and push for enforcing good, race-neutral standards, but by preventing that from happening, the Left will only guarantee that real racists (the likes of which they have not had to seriously contend with in decades) will gain control of the conversation. Of course, the Left would rather hold onto power than have a productive conversation about anything, which is why free speech platforms are so important, because without a productive conversation, we'll have only unproductive ones, which will ineluctably lead to a brutal backlash. And this pattern holds across a large number of issues, not just race.
Denethor despaired because he saw only what the Enemy showed him (I think Gandalf says that after Denethor's death, but I may misremember). The lesson isn't that Denethor chose despair or gave up, but that death on the pyre - choosing his own time and manner of dying - became the only act of freedom and defiance he could see.
So, never let your enemy define your choices.
Ragnarök comes, it is certain. Yet Allfather fights with all his cunning against it. What is the kenning in there?
That only the living and the free fight; to fight is to be free and to live. That your flocks and herds may die, that your friends and family may die, that you also may die - it matters not. Doom over dead man's name does not die.
(Yep, paraphrasing from Hávámal, verse 77 in Erik Brate's transcription. Doom in Old Norse and also modern swedish may be understood as judgement, doom, fate, and verdict all in one - which important to understand the text. All of the Edda and the rest of the surviving materials are written as kennings; layer upon layer of meaning using very few words. By studying them, you water wisdom with the sweat of effort, making wisdom grow.)
Whoeth! Reading all these would take a month's worth of my spare time. But I will read a few.
And I did just read the one on consumption of marijuana. I call bullshit. Marijuana in regular use is harmful, most definitely. But it doesn't render people submissive. The character "The Dude" in "The Big Lebowski" is utterly unlike every longtime pot smoking political activist that I have ever met, and I have met a LOT. Common symptoms of excessive longterm pot smoking include anger, conspiracy theorizing, and not being able to shut up and let anyone else talk.
Traditionally, the U.S. military establishment hated marijuana for good reasons. Stimulants, including nicotine, are useful for sustaining concentration. Alcohol is a useful stress reliever and memory dampener. A good drinking binge after a horrible experience is probably useful against PTSD. And alcohol also encourages bravery by dampening fear.
Marijuana, on the other hand, does not produce the same reckless behavior as alcohol, and it does something far, far, worse from the point of view of someone training soldiers: marijuana reduces the ability to put of with bullshit. The laziness associated with marijuana use is really more refusal to work for The Man, than work per se. They can still do self-motivated work. During my days of on the ground political activism, many of the best workers were serious potheads.
And do note that during the days of America's industrial decline, there was one American industry that continued to dominate the world -- to the point that the world complained just like we used to complain about Japanese imports and now complain about Chinese imports. That industry is the entertainment industry, which is dominated by potheads.
And, by the way, Elon Musk has been known to toke. He isn't lazy and has been know to buck the system. And there is also evidence that George Washington partook. He was separating the male and female hemp plants on his farm.
And finally, the Levites of the Old Testament were probably some pretty serious stoners. The priestly ointment included "qanah besem", which gets translated as "sweet cane" or "sweet calamus", but the Strong's pronunciation of the original sound suspiciously like cannabis. Those Levites were very un-Dude like.
---
Something other than pot is poisoning us. SSRIs have an effect more similar to Plato's passive diet. Both increase serotonin levels. Prozac DOES make people more Dude like. At least older people. Some evidence that the teenage brain can overcompensate and go into murderous rampage mode.