There are so many great substacks and I'd love to be able to subscribe to all of them! Unfortunately, one can't. I did not renew my subscription to Greenwald and probably won't renew the Taibbi subscription, only because they are already so successful and I'd rather support smaller substacks. Both are still great writers and I'll have to be content with the free articles.
I will say (gently nudging you) that some substacks manage to crank out 2-3 articles a week while you can go MIA for weeks and weeks, even more than a month! This may be a factor when it comes to pruning subscription lists. Your essays are wonderful and I don't doubt they require significantly more time than the typical output from other substacks, but perhaps try to keep a weekly community thread going?
Inflation is real and I have doubts that we're past the worst of it as some hope (or better, promote). Inflationary cycles can be vicious. Like many, I'm hunkering down to ride out the storm, curtailing expenses as needed. But so far no panic. But the reporting around inflation is also symptomatic of the remarkable change in how news are reported by institutional presses. Can you imagine the NYT not reporting on the Dutch farmer strikes 20 years ago? Of course not! But the strange silence only points to one thing: there is a narrative that cannot be questioned otherwise you risk undermining it. Big State knows best. Never allow any sympathy for different views. The irony is that the protests are coming from what should be naturally sympathetic groups for the progressive left - the working classes. But it's also a reminder that the progressive left has always despised the working classes for not being progressive enough and preferring pesky things like wanting to be left alone.
I agree with almost everything you write Thomas but I want to register my vote not to pressure N.S. Lyons into writing more frequently. Some of my favourite substack writers are clearly diluting the quality of the articles by posting too often and succumbing to intellectual exhaustion. I think our friend on this substack should stick to his guns, and allow his deeply considered, rich articles to gestate as long as necessary.
I would second Chris Coffman's comment. Take your time, N.S. and maintain the high level of thoughtfulness and analysis that you have shown so far. Some of the substacks and blogs I read sympathetically (which will remain nameless)suffer from excessive repetition, and dead horse beating. Don't do that.
Thanks, I'll try not to! I would actually love to write more, simply because I enjoy it, but alas I still work a full time job and can usually only write on nights and weekends. So I can't yet compete with the Greenwalds, Taibbis, and Weiss's who write for a living and in some cases have some staff to help.
I think I agree, yet a month ago, when I cleaned out my 'stacks, I found that I cancelled several authors I really like, but who weren't very active (Abigail Schriber is one example.) Yet, I also found that I cancelled several I liked who were too much, including Greenwald, Taibbi and a few others. I'm happy now with my inbox, it's much more affordable, and I find I enjoy reading more since I can keep up. I also find myself commenting more deeply, but not as much, and the sense of community I have is quite nice. Is that a silver lining?
Good stuff as always. Dee’s article is quite depressing on several levels. It makes me wonder if technology is shaping our nihilism and self-obsessions, or if it’s the other way around. Would a well-grounded society even dream up Facebook, where every social pathology can be placed on the national bulletin board to be seen?
Katherine Dee's article was the only one I read from beginning to end. As I read it I became frustrated by what I perceive as the superficiality of the way she thinks about fundamental causes of the mass shootings which have become so commonplace in contemporary society.
I posted this in her comments section:
I think Katherine Dee misses the root of the problem altogether. It has to do with the spiritually dead culture which humanity has embraced over the past four centuries or so, roughly since the so-called Enlightenment.
I'd need several hours to expound this idea fully, and I don't have the time or energy to do so now. Instead I refer you to this monumentally important book:
The Psychology of Totalitarianism, by Mattias Desmet.
This book is about more than totalitarianism itself, in case you're puzzling over the title. Desmet presents powerful, cogent historical and psychological explanations for the overwhelming sickness (including psychological / emotional / mental sickness) which manifests itself in so many ways in contemporary societies.
In a godless or spiritually empty universe, of course nihilism is rampant! Of course people suffer from crippling existential angst! In this sterile, empty reality (the default of contemporary life around the world) it's surprising there aren't even more mass killings than there currently are. I predict that the frequency of mass killings will continue to increase, until humanity radically changes its relationship to the cosmic forces which created the universe, including us. Of course life feels cruel and intolerable if one believes that it's meaningless, especially if one has been subjected to abuse or torture.
I don't have other media subcriptions to compete for my dollars, so I'm keeping my Substacks. Most valuable to me are the ideas: irresistable, transformative, and challenging (not to mention the excellent writing).
I cannot look to 'old media' to live an inspired or informed life.
The current challenge: How to keep up with it all!
I did unsubscribe from some sub stacks and probably will do the same for a few more. Yours and Paul Kingsnorth I will keep for sure. I have also removed all streaming apps from my TV. I will also be changing gym membership to something cheaper. All discretionary spending is under scrutiny and most will be cancelled. I also drive a lot less, combining errands whenever possible.
Shellenberger's article highlights the simple minded ignorance of our high progressive priests of technocracy. For those of us that argue that the best response to global warming is wealth generation and innovation, we are told that this is a naive and selfish perspective, as the impact will disproportionately fall on Third World countries. Do you know what really negatively impacts poor countries? Immediate poverty brought on by regressive economic and industrial policies!
Well that is the big question. My view remains that a reformation of liberalism is needed, in which it's atomizing anthropological project of a limitless individual is jettisoned, but its theoretical commitments to pluralism and limits on state power are retained. How exactly that can best be accomplished, I am not sure.
“All of this is, in my view, more evidence that the chasm between the ‘Virtuals’ and the ‘Physicals’ I wrote about in ‘Reality Honks Back’ is the most important political divide in the much of the world today.”
There’s another chasm to rival that, not as manifest yet, but will show itself as things distill. There is a spirit behind / within the Virtuals with an agenda capable of subduing the Physicals, an inhuman or antihuman consciousness, with a trademark weapon greater than “information and narrative control” – not quite time to be deployed yet: physical pain and fear. The stuff of pure dystopias.
And there is a contrary spirit sympathetic to the Physicals, yet is also able to wield powerful narrative and information persuasion (not control) on the same field of global conflict – to wit, such as Substack's The Upheaval and The Abbey of Misrule display, to name only two among others – while the spirit that shall stand victorious behind that camp has not yet risen clearly. One of its sayings is, “The burden of Art, especially Poetry, is the establishment – and defense – of human reality.”
It remains that what human reality is is a hotly contested matter. The dust has not yet settled on this field.
Thank you for your referral to Leighton Woodhouse’s excellent Substack. But, the following is a response to Katherine Dee’s article on mass shootings, as well as some of your other references, e.g. Patrick Deneen, Yoram Hazony, and other critics of Liberalism.
I’m certainly appalled by the extremism of the left, the woke left. But many of those in the heterodox community—especially the most thoughtful and scholarly— who share my point of view, seem to be coalescing around the answer to the following question: What is the root cause of X in the modern world (X = anything bad)? The answer: Liberalism/The Enlightenment!
And, the logical corollary: what is the solution to all our current social problems? Answer: God! Religion!
I don’t buy it. Liberalism is the root cause of Marxism? The Holocaust? Mass shootings? Colonialism? White Supremacy? Climate change? Nihilism?
X chronologically or historically precedes Y, therefore X is the cause of Y! QED! Um, logic doesn’t work that way, sorry.
Invariably, after a hurricane devastates some part of the country, some pastor on the religious right will say that the cause of the destruction is God’s wrath. Those on the secular left who religiously follow The Science will say with great certainty that the cause is climate change.
I’m a great admirer of many arguing against the most destructive trends of the left. Jonathan Chait eloquently argues that humans evolved to be religious, to NEED the communal glue that has historically held functioning societies together. Douglas Murray has noted that large multi-racial, multi-ethnic secular societies are a comparatively recent sociological experiment, and that we don’t know yet whether they will succeed. Good points. But, both men are atheists. Chait regularly attends synagogue. Why?
It seems that members of the intellectual elite who say that humans need to believe in God don’t really need to believe in God themselves. That belief is for the Masses, the Underclass, the poor schmucks who didn’t go to college. The members of the Overclass who studied philosophy know very well that every argument for the existence of God cannot be supported by logic. There is no rational basis to believe in God’s existence.
Our rationality and our use of language makes us unique among animal species. If God (pronouns: He, Him, His, sorry!) exists He must have a very good sense of humor: our defining characteristic, our number one tool for dealing with the world is incapable of proving His existence!😂
I do believe that most humans have a “God-sized hole” that needs filling. But millions and millions of people have evolved, adjusted, whatever, to function just fine by filling that hole with non-God things. And thrive, become reasonably happy. Most don’t become Marxists, mass murderers, or any of the other pathologies currently blamed on Liberalism and the Western Enlightenment.
Perhaps one of the reasons for our current discontent is that capitalism and neo-liberalism, despite its many flaws, has almost miraculously reduced world-wide famine and poverty in just the last quarter century. This is just a fact. People who had previously had to spend all their waking hours and all their energy just on getting enough to eat, now have more leisure to think about their discontent, about how to fill the emptiness in their God-sized hole in the 21st century. Previously the only emptiness they had to worry about was in their stomachs. I count this a GIGANTIC improvement! In this I agree with Steven Pinker.
But some of those freed from grinding poverty will become nihilists, drug addicts, mass shooters, terrorists. With billions of people in the world, how could that NOT be the case?
A previous article here directed me to the writings of conservative intellectual Yoram Hazony. I was going to read one of his books, but then I chanced upon Michael Shermer’s interview with him. Shermer asked him in amazement why he had had nine children. Hazony said something like it was because Scripture commanded him to “be fruitful and multiply”. I didn’t listen to the rest of the interview. No thank you, Mr.Hazony. You may have some interesting ideas about nationalism, but if Scripture is your primary inspiration, I think I’ll pass.
If recession hasn't started in the US already, it surely can't be far off. And the rest of us can't be that far behind. I still fully intend to keep up my subscription to this substack and a few others, unless my personal situation changes drastically. While I'd love to see content from you more often, I understand that quality research and writing take time which you don't have in abundance. If it's a call between quality and quantity, I'll clamour for the former.
Yeah, the Tolkien fans can be brutal. ;)
A great list of reading suggestions. I hadn't heard a thing about the developments in Chile. The Netherlands is getting no mainstream coverage here that I've seen. Sri Lanka is getting some.
I'm sure those subscribers citing economic anxieties are sincere. I look around the streets of America at all the pick up trucks, SUVs and Jeeps and wonder how ordinary Americans can even afford to drive to work these days. But don't let it dishearten you! Keep producing such amazing, culturally rich, geo-political analysis. Fight the good fight!
I'm looking forward to your forthcoming essay on Lewis and Tolkien, two writers with as clear as view as Orwell and Huxley on times such as ours, and unlike Orwell and Huxley, the serious sides of Lewis and Tolkien are not nearly as well known as they deserve to be--I'm sure you'll do justice to the Weltanshauungen, and I can't wait!
I'd also like to offer you an Advance Reader Copy of my new novel A Prince Among Men, it's topical believe me, if you'd be willing to have a quick look email me at coffman@alameda.net.au and I'll send you the NetGalley link.
I'm unsubbing because I'm logging off from all internet except e-mail for the next 90 days but will resub in September - I'm an American living in Brussels, wife is flemish - I clumsily read DeMorgen (one of the two main flemish language newspapers) most mornings with my horrible Dutch and google translate - there has been almost nothing about the Dutch Farmer protests - - you ask around, nobody has even heard of it - you can drive to where these protests are in under 4 hours - I've seen more in US media - its weird - there is, as you would imagine, a lot of trade between Belgium and Holland, especially agricultural - I really have no reason why it isn't more visible here...
I'll also note that most these farmers are subsidized by their government and the EU up the WAZOO (~$800 per cow per year) - The EU could simply cut their subsidies and a lot of these diary and cattle farmers would go out of business/mass consolidation...
Now that's an interesting point! Are these physicals in much better shape than they would be without the virtuals running point for them in the first place?
In fairness to the EU (not something I'll often be found saying), I'm not sure there are many countries whose agriculture isn't subject to the whims of state subsidy. Even Virtuals need to eat - at least until they iron out the kinks and upload their consciousnesses entirely.
There are so many great substacks and I'd love to be able to subscribe to all of them! Unfortunately, one can't. I did not renew my subscription to Greenwald and probably won't renew the Taibbi subscription, only because they are already so successful and I'd rather support smaller substacks. Both are still great writers and I'll have to be content with the free articles.
I will say (gently nudging you) that some substacks manage to crank out 2-3 articles a week while you can go MIA for weeks and weeks, even more than a month! This may be a factor when it comes to pruning subscription lists. Your essays are wonderful and I don't doubt they require significantly more time than the typical output from other substacks, but perhaps try to keep a weekly community thread going?
Inflation is real and I have doubts that we're past the worst of it as some hope (or better, promote). Inflationary cycles can be vicious. Like many, I'm hunkering down to ride out the storm, curtailing expenses as needed. But so far no panic. But the reporting around inflation is also symptomatic of the remarkable change in how news are reported by institutional presses. Can you imagine the NYT not reporting on the Dutch farmer strikes 20 years ago? Of course not! But the strange silence only points to one thing: there is a narrative that cannot be questioned otherwise you risk undermining it. Big State knows best. Never allow any sympathy for different views. The irony is that the protests are coming from what should be naturally sympathetic groups for the progressive left - the working classes. But it's also a reminder that the progressive left has always despised the working classes for not being progressive enough and preferring pesky things like wanting to be left alone.
I agree with almost everything you write Thomas but I want to register my vote not to pressure N.S. Lyons into writing more frequently. Some of my favourite substack writers are clearly diluting the quality of the articles by posting too often and succumbing to intellectual exhaustion. I think our friend on this substack should stick to his guns, and allow his deeply considered, rich articles to gestate as long as necessary.
I would second Chris Coffman's comment. Take your time, N.S. and maintain the high level of thoughtfulness and analysis that you have shown so far. Some of the substacks and blogs I read sympathetically (which will remain nameless)suffer from excessive repetition, and dead horse beating. Don't do that.
Thanks, I'll try not to! I would actually love to write more, simply because I enjoy it, but alas I still work a full time job and can usually only write on nights and weekends. So I can't yet compete with the Greenwalds, Taibbis, and Weiss's who write for a living and in some cases have some staff to help.
I think I agree, yet a month ago, when I cleaned out my 'stacks, I found that I cancelled several authors I really like, but who weren't very active (Abigail Schriber is one example.) Yet, I also found that I cancelled several I liked who were too much, including Greenwald, Taibbi and a few others. I'm happy now with my inbox, it's much more affordable, and I find I enjoy reading more since I can keep up. I also find myself commenting more deeply, but not as much, and the sense of community I have is quite nice. Is that a silver lining?
Good stuff as always. Dee’s article is quite depressing on several levels. It makes me wonder if technology is shaping our nihilism and self-obsessions, or if it’s the other way around. Would a well-grounded society even dream up Facebook, where every social pathology can be placed on the national bulletin board to be seen?
Katherine Dee's article was the only one I read from beginning to end. As I read it I became frustrated by what I perceive as the superficiality of the way she thinks about fundamental causes of the mass shootings which have become so commonplace in contemporary society.
I posted this in her comments section:
I think Katherine Dee misses the root of the problem altogether. It has to do with the spiritually dead culture which humanity has embraced over the past four centuries or so, roughly since the so-called Enlightenment.
I'd need several hours to expound this idea fully, and I don't have the time or energy to do so now. Instead I refer you to this monumentally important book:
The Psychology of Totalitarianism, by Mattias Desmet.
This book is about more than totalitarianism itself, in case you're puzzling over the title. Desmet presents powerful, cogent historical and psychological explanations for the overwhelming sickness (including psychological / emotional / mental sickness) which manifests itself in so many ways in contemporary societies.
In a godless or spiritually empty universe, of course nihilism is rampant! Of course people suffer from crippling existential angst! In this sterile, empty reality (the default of contemporary life around the world) it's surprising there aren't even more mass killings than there currently are. I predict that the frequency of mass killings will continue to increase, until humanity radically changes its relationship to the cosmic forces which created the universe, including us. Of course life feels cruel and intolerable if one believes that it's meaningless, especially if one has been subjected to abuse or torture.
I agree, being a Bible believing Christian. I think Satan is busy and few seem to notice him.
That was my response to Dee's article not to Lyon's. I got much out of both articles!
I don't have other media subcriptions to compete for my dollars, so I'm keeping my Substacks. Most valuable to me are the ideas: irresistable, transformative, and challenging (not to mention the excellent writing).
I cannot look to 'old media' to live an inspired or informed life.
The current challenge: How to keep up with it all!
I did unsubscribe from some sub stacks and probably will do the same for a few more. Yours and Paul Kingsnorth I will keep for sure. I have also removed all streaming apps from my TV. I will also be changing gym membership to something cheaper. All discretionary spending is under scrutiny and most will be cancelled. I also drive a lot less, combining errands whenever possible.
Things are still blessed. If I have to start unsubscribing to my sub stacks you will be one of the last N.S. ;-)
Shellenberger's article highlights the simple minded ignorance of our high progressive priests of technocracy. For those of us that argue that the best response to global warming is wealth generation and innovation, we are told that this is a naive and selfish perspective, as the impact will disproportionately fall on Third World countries. Do you know what really negatively impacts poor countries? Immediate poverty brought on by regressive economic and industrial policies!
Everyone I read right now is bringing up Lewis, Tolkien, and Orthodoxy. Been a fascinating couple of years.
Really looking forward to what Lyons has to say about it!
Liberalism seems to be on the ropes here. But what do you see as the realistic alternative?
Well that is the big question. My view remains that a reformation of liberalism is needed, in which it's atomizing anthropological project of a limitless individual is jettisoned, but its theoretical commitments to pluralism and limits on state power are retained. How exactly that can best be accomplished, I am not sure.
So I read Katherine Dee’s piece on mass shootings. Quite brilliant and I didn’t find it depressing.
“All of this is, in my view, more evidence that the chasm between the ‘Virtuals’ and the ‘Physicals’ I wrote about in ‘Reality Honks Back’ is the most important political divide in the much of the world today.”
There’s another chasm to rival that, not as manifest yet, but will show itself as things distill. There is a spirit behind / within the Virtuals with an agenda capable of subduing the Physicals, an inhuman or antihuman consciousness, with a trademark weapon greater than “information and narrative control” – not quite time to be deployed yet: physical pain and fear. The stuff of pure dystopias.
And there is a contrary spirit sympathetic to the Physicals, yet is also able to wield powerful narrative and information persuasion (not control) on the same field of global conflict – to wit, such as Substack's The Upheaval and The Abbey of Misrule display, to name only two among others – while the spirit that shall stand victorious behind that camp has not yet risen clearly. One of its sayings is, “The burden of Art, especially Poetry, is the establishment – and defense – of human reality.”
It remains that what human reality is is a hotly contested matter. The dust has not yet settled on this field.
Thank you for your referral to Leighton Woodhouse’s excellent Substack. But, the following is a response to Katherine Dee’s article on mass shootings, as well as some of your other references, e.g. Patrick Deneen, Yoram Hazony, and other critics of Liberalism.
I’m certainly appalled by the extremism of the left, the woke left. But many of those in the heterodox community—especially the most thoughtful and scholarly— who share my point of view, seem to be coalescing around the answer to the following question: What is the root cause of X in the modern world (X = anything bad)? The answer: Liberalism/The Enlightenment!
And, the logical corollary: what is the solution to all our current social problems? Answer: God! Religion!
I don’t buy it. Liberalism is the root cause of Marxism? The Holocaust? Mass shootings? Colonialism? White Supremacy? Climate change? Nihilism?
X chronologically or historically precedes Y, therefore X is the cause of Y! QED! Um, logic doesn’t work that way, sorry.
Invariably, after a hurricane devastates some part of the country, some pastor on the religious right will say that the cause of the destruction is God’s wrath. Those on the secular left who religiously follow The Science will say with great certainty that the cause is climate change.
I’m a great admirer of many arguing against the most destructive trends of the left. Jonathan Chait eloquently argues that humans evolved to be religious, to NEED the communal glue that has historically held functioning societies together. Douglas Murray has noted that large multi-racial, multi-ethnic secular societies are a comparatively recent sociological experiment, and that we don’t know yet whether they will succeed. Good points. But, both men are atheists. Chait regularly attends synagogue. Why?
It seems that members of the intellectual elite who say that humans need to believe in God don’t really need to believe in God themselves. That belief is for the Masses, the Underclass, the poor schmucks who didn’t go to college. The members of the Overclass who studied philosophy know very well that every argument for the existence of God cannot be supported by logic. There is no rational basis to believe in God’s existence.
Our rationality and our use of language makes us unique among animal species. If God (pronouns: He, Him, His, sorry!) exists He must have a very good sense of humor: our defining characteristic, our number one tool for dealing with the world is incapable of proving His existence!😂
I do believe that most humans have a “God-sized hole” that needs filling. But millions and millions of people have evolved, adjusted, whatever, to function just fine by filling that hole with non-God things. And thrive, become reasonably happy. Most don’t become Marxists, mass murderers, or any of the other pathologies currently blamed on Liberalism and the Western Enlightenment.
Perhaps one of the reasons for our current discontent is that capitalism and neo-liberalism, despite its many flaws, has almost miraculously reduced world-wide famine and poverty in just the last quarter century. This is just a fact. People who had previously had to spend all their waking hours and all their energy just on getting enough to eat, now have more leisure to think about their discontent, about how to fill the emptiness in their God-sized hole in the 21st century. Previously the only emptiness they had to worry about was in their stomachs. I count this a GIGANTIC improvement! In this I agree with Steven Pinker.
But some of those freed from grinding poverty will become nihilists, drug addicts, mass shooters, terrorists. With billions of people in the world, how could that NOT be the case?
A previous article here directed me to the writings of conservative intellectual Yoram Hazony. I was going to read one of his books, but then I chanced upon Michael Shermer’s interview with him. Shermer asked him in amazement why he had had nine children. Hazony said something like it was because Scripture commanded him to “be fruitful and multiply”. I didn’t listen to the rest of the interview. No thank you, Mr.Hazony. You may have some interesting ideas about nationalism, but if Scripture is your primary inspiration, I think I’ll pass.
More writing that may well describe the Virtuals:
https://theconvivialsociety.substack.com/p/from-common-sense-to-bespoke-realities
If recession hasn't started in the US already, it surely can't be far off. And the rest of us can't be that far behind. I still fully intend to keep up my subscription to this substack and a few others, unless my personal situation changes drastically. While I'd love to see content from you more often, I understand that quality research and writing take time which you don't have in abundance. If it's a call between quality and quantity, I'll clamour for the former.
Yeah, the Tolkien fans can be brutal. ;)
A great list of reading suggestions. I hadn't heard a thing about the developments in Chile. The Netherlands is getting no mainstream coverage here that I've seen. Sri Lanka is getting some.
Great recommendations, thanks! Already read the Howland piece and it's brilliant indeed.
I'm sure those subscribers citing economic anxieties are sincere. I look around the streets of America at all the pick up trucks, SUVs and Jeeps and wonder how ordinary Americans can even afford to drive to work these days. But don't let it dishearten you! Keep producing such amazing, culturally rich, geo-political analysis. Fight the good fight!
I'm looking forward to your forthcoming essay on Lewis and Tolkien, two writers with as clear as view as Orwell and Huxley on times such as ours, and unlike Orwell and Huxley, the serious sides of Lewis and Tolkien are not nearly as well known as they deserve to be--I'm sure you'll do justice to the Weltanshauungen, and I can't wait!
I'd also like to offer you an Advance Reader Copy of my new novel A Prince Among Men, it's topical believe me, if you'd be willing to have a quick look email me at coffman@alameda.net.au and I'll send you the NetGalley link.
I'm unsubbing because I'm logging off from all internet except e-mail for the next 90 days but will resub in September - I'm an American living in Brussels, wife is flemish - I clumsily read DeMorgen (one of the two main flemish language newspapers) most mornings with my horrible Dutch and google translate - there has been almost nothing about the Dutch Farmer protests - - you ask around, nobody has even heard of it - you can drive to where these protests are in under 4 hours - I've seen more in US media - its weird - there is, as you would imagine, a lot of trade between Belgium and Holland, especially agricultural - I really have no reason why it isn't more visible here...
I'll also note that most these farmers are subsidized by their government and the EU up the WAZOO (~$800 per cow per year) - The EU could simply cut their subsidies and a lot of these diary and cattle farmers would go out of business/mass consolidation...
Now that's an interesting point! Are these physicals in much better shape than they would be without the virtuals running point for them in the first place?
I don't know but if you cut EU Farm subsidies The Upheavel would be more on par with Sri Lanka then what we see now in Holland, etc.
In fairness to the EU (not something I'll often be found saying), I'm not sure there are many countries whose agriculture isn't subject to the whims of state subsidy. Even Virtuals need to eat - at least until they iron out the kinks and upload their consciousnesses entirely.