The question is what changes to the mode of production were brought by the technological advance. I think fatty tuna sushi became popular due to early refrigeration
I haven't read him. but the competence in it is so rare these days that the understanding has been reduced to being on the spectrum of yoga and pilates vs. its history as a much deeper classical art
Xenophon's Cyropedia talks about Persians becoming centaurs when they get horses but Strauss has some esoteric reading about the centaur being some flawed creature, meant to symbolize a combination of the medes and persians i don't know.
Machiavelli (who strauss calls an evil teacher of evil) references Chiron who, unlike the most centaurs, was wise. Machiavelli says the prince should be like that or understand that Man himself is like that, part beast and part man.
1) inconsistent argument: Frodo is just as mediocre as Rincewind.
2) I don’t respect the bald claim that all chosen ones are bad, or the implicit claim that we can somehow avoid them. Universals always have exceptions. If we’re being “real” here about our agential change, we must admit that species evolve by natural selection we might say genetic chosen ones. And anyway I do think there are some special people so sue me.
3) consider the names of Peter Thiel’s companies: palantir, mithril. Thiel, I’m sure ironically, named his companies after objects possessing exactly that moral ambiguity that the author claims does not exist in Tolkien’s world. Thiel is telegraphing it straight to you via Tolkien: do not trust me, I will use these objects for my own gain.
4) Discworld can afford to be light and playful because it was written in easy times. In one preface, Tolkien wrote that all the world’s great powers would obviously have tried to turn the ring into a weapon if it really existed.
there are certainly some parallels with what's happening today but analogies are always difficult. i could be wrong but i really don't think of this administration as murderous in the way that Nazi Germany was.
Of course, the biggest asterisk beside the analogy is the lack of warmongering. Like, kind of the most important part, and Trump is acting more like Woodrow Wilson in that respect. Didn't Woodrow Wilson once say that the US isn't a melting pot but a garbage can?
The “problem” with youth isn’t intelligence, it’s that early twenties you are at your most confidently ideological and you’re most willing to break things. I bet the average age of a terrorist is pretty low too.
The danger of the vision is the power of the vision, fix what’s broken in the bureaucracy, it’s not being fascist it’s just easier to ask forgiveness than permission!
It’s funny because right after Trump was elected there was an ft article about all the metrics that showed that poor people were doing worse in real terms. One ft author uses one index to prove one point another uses others to prove another point. I’ve noticed that divide in particular between ft standard sub (40/mo) and ft premium (80/mo)
How much must I pay to not get consistently bullshat?
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