Tag: Society

Member Post

David Foster
David Foster
1491
 

I’ve read a lot of books this year–a few of the highlights below: Lydia Bailey, by Kenneth Roberts. A historical novel focused on the late 1700s and early 1800s. The (American) protagonist encounters the free speech suppression of the Alien and Sedition Laws, the Haitian revolution, and the war against the Barbary pirates.  My review. […]
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Member Post

David Foster
David Foster
24130
 

In Thomas Pynchon’s novel Gravity’s Rainbow, one of the characters explains a ‘European-style gangster hit’, which he says consists of three shots: head, heart, and stomach. Yes, that should definitely ensure the target’s demise. It strikes me that this comprehensive approach to high-certainty murder provides a pretty good analogy for what is going on in […]
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Towards a Restoration Workers’ Return

Quickz
Quickz
70161579
 

This is my first Member Post, and it started as a quick comment. I soon realized it was getting at something I have wanted to explore a tad deeper, so I have brought it here for your reading pleasure. Thoughts and feedback are highly appreciated. Thank you Ricochet, and thank you dear reader.

Near the end of the most recent Law Talk with Richard Epstein and John Yoo, (#145 The Housewarming Party), Prof. Yoo discussed a recent dissent by Judge Laurence Silberman. Yoo spoke to the change in Silberman’s rulings/philosophy and GOP/Conservatism as one that has become more “populist, anti-institution.” I couldn’t agree more – though perhaps not for the reasons that the culinary savant Yoo may think.

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Member Post

David Foster
David Foster
12
 

This SF novel from 1954 has uncomfortable relevance to our present era. It is set in the then-future year of 1990.  The United States is still nominally a democracy, but the real power lies with the social engineers…sophisticated advertising & PR men…who use psychological methods to persuade people that they really want what they are supposed […]
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Member Post

David Foster
David Foster
24
 

Many American businesses seem to now feel it is incumbent on them to take positions on the political issues of the day, even at the cost  of alienating a substantial number of their customers. There is a historical precedent for this–the British actress Fanny Kemble, visiting the US circa 1830 observed with amusement a store […]
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Bubble-Wrapped Americans: How the US Became Obsessed with Physical and Emotional Safety

Ammo.com
Ammo.com
117
 

Bubble-Wrapped Americans: How the U.S. Became Obsessed with Physical and Emotional Safety“In America we say if anyone gets hurt, we will ban it for everyone everywhere for all time. And before we know it, everything is banned.” — Professor Jonathan Haidt

It’s a common refrain: We have bubble-wrapped the world. Americans in particular are obsessed with “safety.” The simplest way to get any law passed in America, be it a zoning law or a sweeping reform of the intelligence community, is to invoke a simple sentence: “A kid might get hurt.”

Almost no one is opposed to reasonable efforts at making the world a safer place. But the operating word here is “reasonable.” Banning lawn darts, for example, rather than just telling people that they can be dangerous when used by unsupervised children, is a perfect example of a craving for safety gone too far.

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Member Post

I am Jack's Mexican identity
I am Jack's Mexican identity
4013
 

Recently a couple of articles on recent or impending scientific breakthroughs were posted in the PIT. I thought it might be interesting to get members’ takes on one of them, and what it might mean for future society, both in general and in specifics. The first involved a physicist who claims to have proved mathematically […]
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Quote of the Day: Society and Government

Seawriter
Seawriter
1011
 

“Society is produced by our wants, and government by wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher. Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil.” – Thomas Paine

The only quibble I have with this quote is that some time since the beginning of this millennia, the government has ceased to restrain our vices, but now seems to encourage them. Government still creates distinctions, and still serves as a punisher. However, more and more it punishes those who still seek to restrain their own vices. And government is no longer in its best state.

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Member Post

Seawriter
Seawriter
209
 

“When facts become secondary to emotion, truth dies. And a society that doesn’t value truth cannot survive.” – Ben Shapiro It does not seem to matter what the crisis de jour, political flashpoint, or cultural conflict is — immigration, education, terrorism, gun rights, vote fraud, whatever. It always seems to center on appeal to emotions, […]
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Member Post

David Foster
David Foster
138
 

I recently read an intriguing book concerned with the exponential advances in technology and the impact thereof on human society.  The author believes that the displacement of human labor by technology is in its very early stages, and sees little limit to the process.  He is concerned with how this will affect–indeed, has already affected–the […]
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Quote of the Day: Society and Government

Seawriter
Seawriter
1410
 

“Society is produced by our wants, and government by wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher. Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil.”  – Thomas Paine

Yesterday a Ricochet contributor was arguing Washington could do better than gridlock. My first thought was that while it could, it did better than gridlock only rarely. That is because, as Thomas Paine notes, government is generally a negative.

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Member Post

MWilcox
MWilcox
510
 

Abraham Lincoln once said “If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide.” He was right, and in the west, we have created a monster that is killing our society from the inside out. The killer […]
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Member Post

Jerome Danner
Jerome Danner
186
 

On International Women’s Day, while others may have been marching or whatever, I had the pleasure to talk history with a young woman, who is a historian and a professor of history. It was a lovely discussion (for me as a fan of the subject of history) as we spoke about her dissertation, which is […]
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Member Post

Jerome Danner
Jerome Danner
3314
 

Whatever happened to peaceful protest?  Did it die with the likes of Dr. Martin Luther King? It saddens me that each time Donald Trump has a rally somewhere, many aggressive people show up looking for a fight.  That took place again in San Jose.  People use, as an excuse, their dislike for him as a […]
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Friedersdorf’s Challenge to SSM Supporters

Tom Meyer, Common Citizen
Tom Meyer, Common Citizen
4814
 

1931_Frankenstein_img28Conor Friedersdorf has a long piece challenging Same-Sex Marriage proponents to answer whether they think the uproar over Memories Pizza is justified:

The question I’d ask those who want to use non-state means to punish mom-and-pop businesses that decline to cater gay weddings is what, exactly, their notion of a fair punishment is.. If their Yelp rating goes down by a star does the punishment fit the “crime”? Is there a financial loss at which social pressure goes from appropriate to too much? How about putting them out of business? Digital mobs insulting them and their children? Email and phone threats from anonymous Internet users? If you think that any of those go too far have you spoken up against the people using those tactics?

He adds this zinger at the end:

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