Funny poll. The only thing we all agree on is that adultery is wrong, lab testing on animals isn't great, cloning them is bad, and cloning humans is even worse. The funniest one is polygamy, which independents approve of more than either major party. (On a side note, the word "adultery" is kind of funny when you think about it, since true "adults" wouldn't engage in it.)
Indonesia: Strict gender roles allow men and women to cooperate instead of compete. Cross-sex relations can be much more harmonious when neither side has to worry about the other usurping their role.
Ancient gender roles: Like an ancient tribe, Israel is the one modern country that faces constant existential threat. Israel drafts women into the military. Do they do it because they're feminist and progressive and fighting the patriarchy by making women carry M-16's? No! They do it because they have to, because an island of 10M Jews surrounded by 200M angry Muslims needs all hands on deck just to survive.
Educated liberal women are far too comfortable. They're fuming mad about the minor constraints of Natural Law sex-roles, but have forgotten that without Natural Law they will be left in Jungle Law, which is a uniquely bad place for women and girls.
"I don’t know if we’ll ever get back to a time when politics isn’t at the center of public life." Our politics have become to theologicalized at this point that I don't see this happening. Or rather, I only see it happening when we face a severe existential crisis. We're not arguing about tax rates; we're arguing about whether men can get pregnant. Democracy: great at means (how to we achieve this good outcome?); terrible at ends (what is good?).
I always think about what Selco Begovic said happened when Yugoslavia collapsed and the Bosnian War began. Everyone reverted to traditional gender roles, women weren't DC Comics/Marvel-caliber superheroes (neither were men), and they were still expected to offer something besides being a woman.
In fact, the norm that men are supposed to help women with tough labor and come to their defense just because they're women is a product of patriarchy. If women want a less patriarchal society, they cannot make any kind of demands on men unless they're willing to take on additional responsibilities and do so without making a fuss about it.
Today, even the slightest pushback against feminism is considered patriarchy. It's all so tiresome.
I just know that long ago I realized the UNSPOKEN fundamental assumption and agreement underlying what we now call "liberalism", or "woke" if you prefer, is "I won't say anything about your rotten behavior if you don't say anything about my rotten behavior". It's basically a "permission slip" for the worst tendencies in human beings with no built-in corrective mechanism, so it's hardly surprising that over time that's exactly what it produces.
John Stuart Mill's Harm Principle ("my rights only atop at your nose") necessitates this. It makes defending social norms or standards of virtue impossible, since your social norm will inevitably get in the way of my behavior.
Since Mill is the philosophical basis of modern America, solving "woke" is going to be a lot harder than most realize.
The fact that most people are worried about being labeled a "Karen", busybody, Buzz Killington shows you what our society's dominant norms actually are.
Woke cannot be solved without some sort of cataclysmic event which necessitates a wholesale reordering of society. Typically, the Fourth Turning provides this event. I'm not sure any longer if this Fourth Turning will provide such a catalyst nor what it'd be. Maybe the Fourth Turning model applied to a different time for a different kind of society?
Strauss / Howe are very focused on generational turnover, as opposed to larger economic / social / technological conditions. I'm a political economist by training; I just don't buy it. It works for a pithy saying like, "hard times create strong men...." etc, but real historical cycles aren't that clean. The pattern has more temporal variability than Howe admits and the conditions can easily span multiple generations. That's why I gravitate to Turchin. His cycles are a very similar, but his stage triggers are more socioeconomic and less generational. Even if you think Howe's 4th Turning is here, Turchin's (or Noah Smith who insists it's his) elite overproduction theory explains why.
It's weird though, since historically, I tend to be a "great man" believer as opposed to the social forces view. In this particular area though, I skew toward the latter.
That's interesting. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Something interesting about the elite overproduction theory is that it might've started much, much earlier than people think. You could argue that it began as far back as the 1980s.
As with every single story reported by the cartel media, the Kohen Kartier Wiley story is a bit short on details. But let's stipulate that the death of a child is a nightmare, period. Was there bad judgement on the part of the shooter? It appears that way. But I was not there. I did not have to make a decision in 1.5 seconds. I do not know who else was potentially in danger if the person operating the car decided to use it as a weapon. But none of that diminishes the fact that this is a tragedy. So let's agree to that.
But let's agree that more and more, members of certain communities have adopted the position that they can do whatever they want.
And let's acknowledge that members of those communities kill each other in vastly larger numbers than police do.
Let's do a count on the number of black children who have died by gun fire coming from the barrel of a gang banger's gun. And while we are at it, let's step back, witness the inexplicable behavior of SO MANY leftists (who for example want to smash the patriarchy but wear headscarfs in solidarity with a culture that treats women like livestock) and ask ourselves, can we really have a conversation with these people?
Covid introduced me to a large number of formerly liberal white women who did a hard right rudder when they learned that the state was going to inject their kids against their will. Some of them became students in firearms classes I teach, so it CAN happen.
But damn, it sure seems like the odds are against it.
The expectation that police conduct results in perfect outcomes in situations which are inherently chaotic is ridiculous especially when the situation itself is the fault of someone other than the police. It should be the other way around: people should be expected to conduct themselves properly and not commit crime. Only in America is the expectation reversed.
Funny poll. The only thing we all agree on is that adultery is wrong, lab testing on animals isn't great, cloning them is bad, and cloning humans is even worse. The funniest one is polygamy, which independents approve of more than either major party. (On a side note, the word "adultery" is kind of funny when you think about it, since true "adults" wouldn't engage in it.)
Indonesia: Strict gender roles allow men and women to cooperate instead of compete. Cross-sex relations can be much more harmonious when neither side has to worry about the other usurping their role.
Ancient gender roles: Like an ancient tribe, Israel is the one modern country that faces constant existential threat. Israel drafts women into the military. Do they do it because they're feminist and progressive and fighting the patriarchy by making women carry M-16's? No! They do it because they have to, because an island of 10M Jews surrounded by 200M angry Muslims needs all hands on deck just to survive.
Educated liberal women are far too comfortable. They're fuming mad about the minor constraints of Natural Law sex-roles, but have forgotten that without Natural Law they will be left in Jungle Law, which is a uniquely bad place for women and girls.
"I don’t know if we’ll ever get back to a time when politics isn’t at the center of public life." Our politics have become to theologicalized at this point that I don't see this happening. Or rather, I only see it happening when we face a severe existential crisis. We're not arguing about tax rates; we're arguing about whether men can get pregnant. Democracy: great at means (how to we achieve this good outcome?); terrible at ends (what is good?).
I always think about what Selco Begovic said happened when Yugoslavia collapsed and the Bosnian War began. Everyone reverted to traditional gender roles, women weren't DC Comics/Marvel-caliber superheroes (neither were men), and they were still expected to offer something besides being a woman.
In fact, the norm that men are supposed to help women with tough labor and come to their defense just because they're women is a product of patriarchy. If women want a less patriarchal society, they cannot make any kind of demands on men unless they're willing to take on additional responsibilities and do so without making a fuss about it.
Today, even the slightest pushback against feminism is considered patriarchy. It's all so tiresome.
I just know that long ago I realized the UNSPOKEN fundamental assumption and agreement underlying what we now call "liberalism", or "woke" if you prefer, is "I won't say anything about your rotten behavior if you don't say anything about my rotten behavior". It's basically a "permission slip" for the worst tendencies in human beings with no built-in corrective mechanism, so it's hardly surprising that over time that's exactly what it produces.
John Stuart Mill's Harm Principle ("my rights only atop at your nose") necessitates this. It makes defending social norms or standards of virtue impossible, since your social norm will inevitably get in the way of my behavior.
Since Mill is the philosophical basis of modern America, solving "woke" is going to be a lot harder than most realize.
The fact that most people are worried about being labeled a "Karen", busybody, Buzz Killington shows you what our society's dominant norms actually are.
Woke cannot be solved without some sort of cataclysmic event which necessitates a wholesale reordering of society. Typically, the Fourth Turning provides this event. I'm not sure any longer if this Fourth Turning will provide such a catalyst nor what it'd be. Maybe the Fourth Turning model applied to a different time for a different kind of society?
Consider what just happened in Venezuela. It may come from a direction no one is anticipating.
I'll be honest, Max, I've never really bought Howe's theory. Peter Turchin is my cataclysmic dystopian of choice.
What do you find problematic about Howe's theory?
Strauss / Howe are very focused on generational turnover, as opposed to larger economic / social / technological conditions. I'm a political economist by training; I just don't buy it. It works for a pithy saying like, "hard times create strong men...." etc, but real historical cycles aren't that clean. The pattern has more temporal variability than Howe admits and the conditions can easily span multiple generations. That's why I gravitate to Turchin. His cycles are a very similar, but his stage triggers are more socioeconomic and less generational. Even if you think Howe's 4th Turning is here, Turchin's (or Noah Smith who insists it's his) elite overproduction theory explains why.
It's weird though, since historically, I tend to be a "great man" believer as opposed to the social forces view. In this particular area though, I skew toward the latter.
That's interesting. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Something interesting about the elite overproduction theory is that it might've started much, much earlier than people think. You could argue that it began as far back as the 1980s.
As with every single story reported by the cartel media, the Kohen Kartier Wiley story is a bit short on details. But let's stipulate that the death of a child is a nightmare, period. Was there bad judgement on the part of the shooter? It appears that way. But I was not there. I did not have to make a decision in 1.5 seconds. I do not know who else was potentially in danger if the person operating the car decided to use it as a weapon. But none of that diminishes the fact that this is a tragedy. So let's agree to that.
But let's agree that more and more, members of certain communities have adopted the position that they can do whatever they want.
And let's acknowledge that members of those communities kill each other in vastly larger numbers than police do.
Let's do a count on the number of black children who have died by gun fire coming from the barrel of a gang banger's gun. And while we are at it, let's step back, witness the inexplicable behavior of SO MANY leftists (who for example want to smash the patriarchy but wear headscarfs in solidarity with a culture that treats women like livestock) and ask ourselves, can we really have a conversation with these people?
Covid introduced me to a large number of formerly liberal white women who did a hard right rudder when they learned that the state was going to inject their kids against their will. Some of them became students in firearms classes I teach, so it CAN happen.
But damn, it sure seems like the odds are against it.
The expectation that police conduct results in perfect outcomes in situations which are inherently chaotic is ridiculous especially when the situation itself is the fault of someone other than the police. It should be the other way around: people should be expected to conduct themselves properly and not commit crime. Only in America is the expectation reversed.
Great column today, really outstanding.