An excellent elaboration on “The Michael Scott Theory of Social Class”
Too Many Needles This hits home big time.
To return to information overload: this means treating your “to read” pile like a river (a stream that flows past you, and from which you pluck a few choice items, here and there) instead of a bucket (which demands that you empty it). After all, you presumably don’t feel overwhelmed by all the unread books in the British Library – and not because there aren’t an overwhelming number of them, but because it never occurred to you that it might be your job to get through them all.
The Implications of the 6th of January - Reactions I love the take that Trump = The Mule from Asimov’s Foundation books
Substack: The Magazine
Maybe I’m an idiot, but…
It feels like almost every week I’m encountering a new and interesting voice on Substack. And, considering they are a paid platform, what is perhaps most amazing is how much I am able to access from those voices for free. But I also have the sense that this is still a pretty small corner of internet discourse that I’m reading. How many people in total actually are actually subscribed to Substack newletters/blogs? This says over 500,000 (so maybe 550,000?) How many people have no idea what it is? I bet a whole lot.
Here’s a huge growth opportunity. Publish a free magazine that can be stocked at coffee shops, waiting rooms, etc. Tailor it to the geographic region by using the free content that is most popular in that region. Maybe even get some advertizers to help with the cost of the magazine? And then make sure you communicate, “If you like this aricle, check out the rest of this guy’s stuff at XXXX.substack.com”.
As the US become more polarized and intitutional voices become more extreme, more and more space is open for thoughtful and moderate ideas. I think Substack is well positioned to capitalize on that space, but they need publicity and exposure, and even if it seems anachronistic, I think that this would be an excellent way for them to gain it.
Fantastic bit by Russell Moore on the nuances of “cancel culture”
Biggie does Lovecraft
Chronicles of Narnia Reading Order
Around the time when the Narnia movies were produced, the publishers of the works (HarperCollins) made the disastrous decision to re-order the series in a new edition. HarperCollins decided that the series would be best read in chronological order of their events — so beginning with The Magician’s Nephew, and proceeding through The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe; The Horse and His Boy; Prince Caspian; The Voyage of the Dawn Treader; The Silver Chair; and The Last Battle. I highly recommend NOT reading the books in this sequence.
C.S. Lewis originally wrote and published the books in the following sequence: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe; Prince Caspian; Voyage of the Dawn Treader; The Horse and His Boy; The Silver Chair; The Magicians Nephew; The Last Battle. This sequence is far superior for the following reasons:
- C.S. Lewis has written that his first vision of Narnia in his imagination was the lamp-post in the snow and the faun passing by it (an image described early in The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe). This was what sparked his creation of that world, and as one reads The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, it’s clear that part of his task in that story is to introduce his readers to Narnia. It contains such details as why some animals talk and some don’t; it contains a number of homely and comforting moments of hospitality and welcome, which function not just to make the characters comfortable in the moment but to make the reader comfortable in the new world he is exploring. It is a far superior entrance to the world of Narnia to The Magicians Nephew.
- The original publication order has some groupings that are broken up or mangled by the new publication order. The arc of the first three books is “The Pevensies in Narnia”. The arc of the last three books is “The Beginning and the End of Narnia”. The Horse and His Boy sits between them as a tale of Narnia not focused on grand goings-on but on the smaller-scale workings of Aslan. The groups lend cohesion to the series.
- The Pevensies are the main protagonists of the series, so it makes no sense to begin with one of the stories where they are not featured (The Magicians Nephew).
- The Magician’s Nephew contains details that explain some of the mysteries from earlier in the series. As one reads it, the significance of those details is immediately apparent and it is a real joy for those details from earlier in the series that seemed arbitrary to suddenly have meaning. If you read The Magicians Nephew first, those details have no significance because you don’t know what they connect to, and then the mystery of those details in the previous books are ruined because you already have the explanation at the time that you read them.
After having read the series in its original order, I definitely think these can be some pleasure had by re-reading them in chronological order, but for one’s first exposure to the world and stories of Narnia, the original publication order is by far the superior experience.
Portraits of U.S. Presidents, modernized
you aren’t the shit you like
Good analysis on police reform. The problem as I see it is that the right, which is broadly friendly toward the institution of the police, is broadly hostile to the idea of the government spending more money, while the left, which is broadly friendly toward the idea of the government spending more money is broadly hostile toward the institution of the police.
The Seditionists Need a Path Back Into Society - The Atlantic
When day comes, we ask ourselves, where can we find light in this never ending shade?
The loss we carry, a sea. We must wade.
We’ve graved the belly of the beast.
We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace.
In the norms and notions of what just is, isn’t always justice.
And yet the dawn is ours before we knew it. Somehow we do it.
Somehow we’ve weathered and witnessed a nation that it isn’t broken, but simply unfinished.
We, the successors of a country and the time where a skinny Black girl descended from slaves and raised by a single mother can dream of becoming president only to find herself reciting for one.
And yes, we are far from polished, far from pristine, but that doesn’t mean we are striving to form a union that is perfect.
We are striving to forge our union with purpose.
To compose a country, committed to all cultures, colors, characters, and conditions of man.
And so we lift our gaze, not to what stands between us, but what stands before us
We close the divide because we know to put our future first, we must first put our differences aside.
We lay down our arms so we can reach out our arms to one another. We seek harm to none and harmony for all.
Let the globe, if nothing else say, this is true.
That even as we grieved, we grew.
That even as we hurt, we hoped.
That even as we tired, we tried that will forever be tied together victorious.
Not because we will never again know defeat, but because we will never again sow division.
Scripture tells us to envision that everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree and no one shall make them afraid
If we’re to live up to our own time, then victory won’t lie in the blade, but in all the bridges we’ve made.
That is the promise to glade the hill we climb.
If only we dare it’s because being American is more than a pride we inherit.
It’s the past we step into and how we repair it.
We close the divide because we know to put our future first, we must first put our differences aside
We’ve seen a force that would shatter or nation, rather than share it.
Would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy.
And this effort very nearly succeeded, but while democracy can be periodically delayed, it can never be permanently defeated in this truth.
In this faith we trust for while we have our eyes on the future, history has its eyes on us. This is the era of just redemption.
We feared it in its inception.
We did not feel prepared to be the heirs of of such a terrifying hour, but within it, we found the power to author a new chapter.
To offer hope and laughter to ourselves.
So while once we asked, how could we possibly prevail over catastrophe?
Now we assert how could catastrophe possibly prevail over us?
We will not march back to what was, but move to what shall be a country that is bruised.
But whole benevolence, but bold, fierce, and free.
We will not be turned around or interrupted by intimidation because we know our inaction and inertia will be the inheritance of the next generation.
Our blenders become their burdens, but one thing is certain.
If we merged mercy with the mights into might with right, a night then love becomes our legacy, and change our children’s birthright.
So let us leave behind a country better than one.
For there was always light. If only we’re brave enough to see it.
We were left with every breath, my bronze pounded chest.
We will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one.
We will rise from the gold limbed hills of the West.
We will rise from the wind swept to Northeast where our forefathers first realized the revolution.
We will rise from the lake when cities of the middle Western States.
We will arise from the sun baked South.
We will rebuild, reconciled and recover and every known nook over a nation.
And every corner called our country.
Our people diverse and beautiful will emerge, battered and beautiful.
When day comes, we step out of the shade of flame and unafraid, the new dawn balloons, as we free it.
For there was always light.
If only we’re brave enough to see it.
If only we’re brave enough to be it.
The Return of the "Great Man"
My understanding is that many (most?) historians disavow the “great man” theory of history and hold the belief that larger social forces make a far greater difference in historical events than individuals do. I can’t see how you can hold that point of view during the Trump Era. Here are some thoughts I have about this wild time.
Trump is singular. His characteristcs that make him so include: his jedi-level mastery of media, both old and new, including his open desire to gain influence by inflaming negative polarization. His complete shamelessness with regards to moral integrity. His will to bend reality by fiat and willingness to attempt to do so. His complete disinterest in governance.
Trump was not inevitable. People like the expression that Trump is not a disease, but a symptom of a disease, and I don’t contest that in the least. But as Covid has certainly taught us this year, the range of symptoms that a disease brings about can vary wildly. While Trump certainly now has something of a death-grip on the Republican Party, this was not exactly the case during the republican primaries in 2016. He did not win with a majority, but with a plurality of the Republican popular vote. If the choice had simply been Trump vs. Rubio (to split the difference between Kasich and Cruz) Rubio certainly might have run away with it.
What if’s? Rubio certainly might have lost against Hillary, and some might argue that 4 years with her at the wheel would have made Trump inevitable in 2020, but there has been some pretty solid reporting claimed that Trump never actually intended to become president, but just wanted to use the campaigns to boost his profile. So if Hillary had won in 2016 we might have had any number of Republican candidates this time around, Marco Rubio might try again, or Ted Cruz, or even J.D. Vance or Tucker Carlson. Even of those more populist candidates, point number 1 of Trump being a singular figure would hold.
Trump has fed fringe groups to they point where they have gained critical mass and can run on their own. Again, there are certainly other forces that have lent energy to Q-Anon, white Christian nationalism, and the radical left, and maybe they would have reached critical mass at some point anyway, but Trump emphatically removed the question. I believe that all of these movements will be much harder to combat and defeat by virtue of Trump’s presidency than would have been the case otherwise.
So what? The biggest lesson I would take in summary is the way that leadership really matters. I do think that the elite denigration of the “Great Man” theory of history may filter down to a popular ambivalence about the particulars of one’s leaders and an overemphasis on broader social and structural realities. To be sure, these realities are very important, but I think that a greater balance is necessary. As our society has become more complex the role of government in our lives has become greater, and In a representative democracy we have a tremendous responsibility when we choose our leaders. I actually am somewhat encouraged that the democratic party has made what I see to be a responsible choice in nominating and electing Joe Biden, flawed as he is. I hope that the Right can take a lesson from them.
essential reading for skeptics (and others)
Four Seasons Total Landscaping: The Full(est Possible) Story
frivolity
it’s all just arms and noses