Vivid recently reminded us of the painful, bloody lesson of history taught by Hitler’s seizure of power in 1933. I responded, noting: [I]sn’t it interesting that the Reichstag Fire crisis isn’t a standard part of our general education package. It almost makes one wonder why it is that the story of how the most universally Read More…
Lessons of History
Re-thinking the “Dark” Ages from 476 – c 1400 . . .
Food for sobering thought, on the myth of progress: It looks like we have some serious re-thinking to do. END
L&FP 44a: What is 2 + 2, Mr Smith? (1984 as demonstration of how first duties and first truths are inextricably intertwined)
1984 is a classic satirical novel on the nature of tyranny in the mass media driven, information age, totalitarian surveillance state. Accordingly, it is vital to appreciate the force of the Winston Smith on the Rack scene — yes, taken from the related movie — where the issue of the self-evident truth 2 + 2 Read More…
D-Day, Normandy + 77 years, let us remember
The invasion: Live radio feeds: We must not forget the price paid to recover liberty under law. END
L&FP 41: George Barna helps us to understand the worldviews chaos we must address
Barna has issued new survey results that paint a stunning picture of the bellwether United States, as an utterly confused, conflicted nation, with 88 percent defaulting to incongruous worldview components, with the single largest bloc being 39% inclined to “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.” Of course, actual full adherence is at the 1% level. Biblical theism comes Read More…
L&FP 40: Thoughts on [neo-?] Reidian Common Sense Realism
We live in a civilisation haunted by doubt and by hyperskepticism. One, where skepticism is deemed a virtue, inviting hyper forms in as champions of intellect. The result has gradually led to selective hyperskepticism that often uncritically takes the word of champions or publicists for Big-S Science, while doubting well founded but unfashionable analyses or Read More…
Should we recognise that “laws of nature” extend to laws of our human nature? (Which, would then frame civil law.)
Laws of Nature are a key part of the foundation of modern science. This reflects not only natural, law-like regularities such as the Law of Gravitation that promotes the Earth to the heavens (from being the sump of the cosmos) but also the perspective of many founders that they were thinking God’s creative, ordering providential Read More…
Judge Amy Barrett and positivist “constitutional jurisprudence” as usurpation, vs., the natural law (and the natural/original sense of a Constitution)
One of the almost amusing features of UD is to observe threads largely dodged by inveterate objectors (given the known, intense hostile scrutiny we face). One of those threads, recently, has been the discussion of Judge Amy Barrett and the hearings she faces. However, in the course of some discussion some themes were sounded that Read More…
A Sandia National Labs Whistleblower on Culture form Marxism imposition by HR Department
Yes, it’s real: And if this is being “mainstreamed” at Sandia National Labs, it’s going to be all but pervasive in Government and in the sort of corporations that typically get government contracts. Across today, DV, I intend to put up screen shots from his presentation, as points to ponder. As a start, clip 1: Read More…
Is the USA going over the edge as we speak?
Scott Adams, American cartoonist and commenter on events with a particular view to persuasion and narrative dominance seems to agree. Transcript of key comments: I think I’ve been telling you for some time the obvious way that these protests/riots/looting episodes were going to go. There was only one way that these would go under the Read More…
Vivid nails it on Critical theory & Cancel Culture
Longtime UD commenter Vividbleau: Eugene“Cancel culture (along with BLM, LGBTQ and other similar activism) is ultimately a creation of some think-tank, payrolled by Davos crowd. “ [Vivid:] Actually it’s Critical Theory and it’s sub theories ( Critical Race Theory, Critical Social Justice Theory, Critical Whiteness Theory, etc) that is responsible for “cancel culture” [–> we Read More…
How can we handle issues and make big decisions (such as on ID, response to pandemics, ethics & epistemology etc) in a deeply polarised age?
Seminal Christian thinker, Francis Schaeffer, often said that “ideas have consequences.” The issue of course, is that good/bad ideas have similarly good/bad consequences. So, we face a familiar dilemma, especially when a culture or community or civilisation is on a dangerous path: This helps us to focus the issue: we are looking at alternatives in Read More…
At 1776 + 244, is the American Revolution dead or dying?
The American Revolution was a catalyst that showed that a sustainable modern, representational, Constitutional Republic of significant “we the People” democratic character was feasible. It served as a beacon of hope for the world, nowhere better captured than in key words from the American Declaration of Independence, 244 years ago today: When . . . Read More…
June 6, 2020 was D-Day, Normandy + 76 years
A video: Of course, in a day of revisionism and anti-Westernism, it is sometimes said that this was not a decisive event for the course of WW2. It is pointed out that after Stalingrad and Kursk, Germany was on the retreat, never mind the huge disparity in casualties. That’s true. Instead, it was a Geostrategically Read More…
The folly of projecting group-stereotype guilt and the present kairos
The kairos concept is, in a nutshell, that there are seasons in life and in community, so that there are times that are opportune or even simply pivotal and trend-making. At such times, we are forced to decide, for good or ill. And yes, carry on with business as usual . . . especially on Read More…