Hello everyone, I’m making this subscriber thread visible to all readers so that I can get out a few announcements at the same time, but the comments will remain subscriber only. The first announcement is in fact that I’m going to begin making the comments on almost all posts subscriber only from here on out, including the free ones. This is not just because it will make a nice subscriber benefit, but because the scale of the open comment posts have quickly started to grow beyond my ability to keep track and moderate away the OnlyFans bots and genuine nutters. I think the community will be better off for it.
Thanks for bringing attention to the food crisis. I had heard only slight rumblings about this.
Also, your statement: "Well, if “old-school liberals” are going to survive the decade they’re going to need to figure out why this has in fact happened, and fast." strikes me as humorous and sad at the same time. Those "old-school liberals" worked very hard to produce what we have today. They simply didn't foresee its logical conclusion.
My theory is that liberals were very optimistic (like current techno-optimists) about human nature and thought that their ideas were ushering in a new age of magnanimity and equality. Instead, they ushered in an age of totalitarian-minded people who believe that if equality isn't happening, then we must make it happen by any means necessary.
Thank you for making comments subscriber only. It makes good sense.
I am looking forward to your article on the consequences of the Russia / Ukraine war on China’s behavior going forward. This is the a critical issue that I’ve been thinking about as Xi is not an ordinary thinker. I don’t believe it’s as simple as him taking Taiwan. He is thinking much bigger over a very long time frame.
“Well, if “old-school liberals” are going to survive the decade they’re going to need to figure out why this has in fact happened, and fast."
I don’t think we should hold our breath.
As a conservative living in left coast liberal land (a 80% liberal college town), I have a self-awarded PHD in old-school-liberal attitudes and behaviors. I hate to generalize along political or ideological lines because yes, certainly there are as many nuanced opinions within the old-school-liberal community, but there is a core of duck talking/walking that helps establish some benchmarks.
From my perspective there exists a core of social and/or economic malcontentedness within the old-school-liberal psyche. Even if seemingly financially and socially successful a deficit of self-confidence or self-worth percolates. It is Peterson’s Human Dominance Hierarchy stuff. My old-school-liberal friends see the little woke monsters as assisting, rather than harming, their old-school-liberal hold on political, social and economic dominance. My old-school-liberal friends are more worried about the wife of the successful conservative home builder contractor gaining a seat on the local School Board or City Council than the risk of having their career canceled because they uttered the wrong phrase at the campus where they work.
I used to count on some of my old-school-liberal friends to join me in opposition to social justice activists attempting to bully the City Council into adopting harmful policies. Today they either stay silent or they join the wokeist student crowd to demand that we, for example, reduce the funding to the police department.
I am really quite frustrated and disgusted with my old-school-liberal friends. I don’t know if their media feeds during the Trump era broke them, or if an extremists gene was always percolating and ready to take over. But clearly they are blowing it. They are making a deal with the devil in supporting these postmodern critical theory campus radicals. It may already be too late. The current SCOTUS nominee would not define what the word “woman” meant. How then will she defend a woman’s rights… a cornerstone of interest for my old-school-liberal friends?
I came back to say - this subscriber thread is my favourite Substack feature. A marketplace of erudition, ideas, jokes and not a little doom mongering. Perfect. I usually save it for wine o'clock on Saturday.
Very interesting piece. I’ve been a long term hater of that fascist racist Wilson. He started these troubled patterns. We are heading for the rapids, maybe a cliff.
The Takeover of America’s Legal System was a great read.
It’s very scary that the left has infested (1) the students, (2) the Universities, (3) the law firms, (4) the prosecutors and (5) the judges. It appears to be Game Over.
I think we all can do ourselves a great service by staying out of the legal system and being good citizens. Thus avoiding the stench that emanates from within.
TY for opportunity to comment. My own personal OPINION (italics) is that of the issues You presented, the most important ones are that brought up by Paul? Kingsnorth. Aren't they. I'm not minimizing Ukraine to the geopolitical effects of it. Not by any means.
But if Western Civilizations utterly collapses, as more than one sign points to? Will read M. Kingsnorth's articles later today, most likely. But from the quotes, I think it pretty safe to say You can bank on what he "says."
Again, if Democracy craters itself, what matter if any other country was gonna do same or not?
TY for Your writings, M. N.S. Lyons. Been a great pleasure, and look forward to the future.
I am late to this thread as I just joined. But re "The West’s ongoing decline has caused its elites to lose faith in their cultural inheritance, and this loss of faith has now reached pathological proportions. As a result, the leading lights in Western society - the cultural elites, and sometimes the political and economic elites too - are dedicated not to upholding the cultural forms they inherited, but to turning them on their heads, or erasing them entirely… "
I am reminded of the infamous quote from Sir Edward Gray in 1914 in the run up to WWI: "The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our life-time."
I have to admit to having the same feelings in recent years. That the lamps are going out all over Western Civilization. I still struggle to understand why the West came to hate itself so much. It's obviously not the whole west or even most people in the West, but those who control the institutions and thus the dialogue, do, and therein lies the problem. We've gone from the "West is great but imperfect and we just need to fix the few imperfections but the overarching principles are still brilliant" to "the West is the origin of all our sins and we'd be better off had the West never emerged" in a remarkably short time.
At the same time I remind myself there is always an inherent human attraction to doom and gloom and perhaps we are risking giving up too easily because we secretly yearn for doom and gloom? Who knows!
My New Year's resolution was to stop growing vegetables (other than asparagus and rhubarb). Everything that has happened since then makes it clear that my desire to escape returning to my childhood as an unpaid garden slave for my parents will need to remain unfulfilled. Also, I've just topped up my stock pile of flour, seeds, dried pulses, canned tomatoes and canned fish. I didn't actually have dystopian future complete with famine and roving bands of cannibals on my bingo card for 2022. It may yet happen. And I'm in the UK.
I'm guessing you use Pocket to save links and whatnot. They're changing their login policy so curious what you'll migrate to? Ive been looking at Evernote.
Subscriber Community Thread (#6)
Thanks for bringing attention to the food crisis. I had heard only slight rumblings about this.
Also, your statement: "Well, if “old-school liberals” are going to survive the decade they’re going to need to figure out why this has in fact happened, and fast." strikes me as humorous and sad at the same time. Those "old-school liberals" worked very hard to produce what we have today. They simply didn't foresee its logical conclusion.
My theory is that liberals were very optimistic (like current techno-optimists) about human nature and thought that their ideas were ushering in a new age of magnanimity and equality. Instead, they ushered in an age of totalitarian-minded people who believe that if equality isn't happening, then we must make it happen by any means necessary.
What do you think?
Thank you for making comments subscriber only. It makes good sense.
I am looking forward to your article on the consequences of the Russia / Ukraine war on China’s behavior going forward. This is the a critical issue that I’ve been thinking about as Xi is not an ordinary thinker. I don’t believe it’s as simple as him taking Taiwan. He is thinking much bigger over a very long time frame.
Good stuff.
“Well, if “old-school liberals” are going to survive the decade they’re going to need to figure out why this has in fact happened, and fast."
I don’t think we should hold our breath.
As a conservative living in left coast liberal land (a 80% liberal college town), I have a self-awarded PHD in old-school-liberal attitudes and behaviors. I hate to generalize along political or ideological lines because yes, certainly there are as many nuanced opinions within the old-school-liberal community, but there is a core of duck talking/walking that helps establish some benchmarks.
From my perspective there exists a core of social and/or economic malcontentedness within the old-school-liberal psyche. Even if seemingly financially and socially successful a deficit of self-confidence or self-worth percolates. It is Peterson’s Human Dominance Hierarchy stuff. My old-school-liberal friends see the little woke monsters as assisting, rather than harming, their old-school-liberal hold on political, social and economic dominance. My old-school-liberal friends are more worried about the wife of the successful conservative home builder contractor gaining a seat on the local School Board or City Council than the risk of having their career canceled because they uttered the wrong phrase at the campus where they work.
I used to count on some of my old-school-liberal friends to join me in opposition to social justice activists attempting to bully the City Council into adopting harmful policies. Today they either stay silent or they join the wokeist student crowd to demand that we, for example, reduce the funding to the police department.
I am really quite frustrated and disgusted with my old-school-liberal friends. I don’t know if their media feeds during the Trump era broke them, or if an extremists gene was always percolating and ready to take over. But clearly they are blowing it. They are making a deal with the devil in supporting these postmodern critical theory campus radicals. It may already be too late. The current SCOTUS nominee would not define what the word “woman” meant. How then will she defend a woman’s rights… a cornerstone of interest for my old-school-liberal friends?
I came back to say - this subscriber thread is my favourite Substack feature. A marketplace of erudition, ideas, jokes and not a little doom mongering. Perfect. I usually save it for wine o'clock on Saturday.
Very interesting piece. I’ve been a long term hater of that fascist racist Wilson. He started these troubled patterns. We are heading for the rapids, maybe a cliff.
The Takeover of America’s Legal System was a great read.
It’s very scary that the left has infested (1) the students, (2) the Universities, (3) the law firms, (4) the prosecutors and (5) the judges. It appears to be Game Over.
I think we all can do ourselves a great service by staying out of the legal system and being good citizens. Thus avoiding the stench that emanates from within.
Have you meet Wesley Yang? Does know you?
TY for opportunity to comment. My own personal OPINION (italics) is that of the issues You presented, the most important ones are that brought up by Paul? Kingsnorth. Aren't they. I'm not minimizing Ukraine to the geopolitical effects of it. Not by any means.
But if Western Civilizations utterly collapses, as more than one sign points to? Will read M. Kingsnorth's articles later today, most likely. But from the quotes, I think it pretty safe to say You can bank on what he "says."
Again, if Democracy craters itself, what matter if any other country was gonna do same or not?
TY for Your writings, M. N.S. Lyons. Been a great pleasure, and look forward to the future.
I am late to this thread as I just joined. But re "The West’s ongoing decline has caused its elites to lose faith in their cultural inheritance, and this loss of faith has now reached pathological proportions. As a result, the leading lights in Western society - the cultural elites, and sometimes the political and economic elites too - are dedicated not to upholding the cultural forms they inherited, but to turning them on their heads, or erasing them entirely… "
I am reminded of the infamous quote from Sir Edward Gray in 1914 in the run up to WWI: "The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our life-time."
I have to admit to having the same feelings in recent years. That the lamps are going out all over Western Civilization. I still struggle to understand why the West came to hate itself so much. It's obviously not the whole west or even most people in the West, but those who control the institutions and thus the dialogue, do, and therein lies the problem. We've gone from the "West is great but imperfect and we just need to fix the few imperfections but the overarching principles are still brilliant" to "the West is the origin of all our sins and we'd be better off had the West never emerged" in a remarkably short time.
At the same time I remind myself there is always an inherent human attraction to doom and gloom and perhaps we are risking giving up too easily because we secretly yearn for doom and gloom? Who knows!
My New Year's resolution was to stop growing vegetables (other than asparagus and rhubarb). Everything that has happened since then makes it clear that my desire to escape returning to my childhood as an unpaid garden slave for my parents will need to remain unfulfilled. Also, I've just topped up my stock pile of flour, seeds, dried pulses, canned tomatoes and canned fish. I didn't actually have dystopian future complete with famine and roving bands of cannibals on my bingo card for 2022. It may yet happen. And I'm in the UK.
I'm guessing you use Pocket to save links and whatnot. They're changing their login policy so curious what you'll migrate to? Ive been looking at Evernote.