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History Traveler
History Traveler
1 y

Ming shipwrecks illuminate maritime Silk Road
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Ming shipwrecks illuminate maritime Silk Road

After two years of excavation, more than 900 artifacts have been recovered from two Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) shipwrecks discovered in China’s southern island province of Hainan. Excavating the deep-sea shipwrecks has required pioneering technologies including 3D laser scanners and high-definition cameras to map the sites and stitch together full panoramic views of the wreck sites using photogrammetry techniques and state-of-the-art submersible mud pumping and blowing devices to do the actual digging. The two shipwrecks were discovered 4,900 feet deep on the northwest continental slope of the South China Sea in October of 2022. Dating to the Zhengde period (1506-1521), Ship No. 1 was carrying an enormous cargo of more than 100,000 porcelain, pottery, bronze, iron bamboo and wood artifacts intended for export. Archaeologists believe its departure point may have been Guangdong or Fujian provinces and its destination was the Malaysian center of trade Malacca. Ship No. 2 was going in the other direction, carrying timber from Malacca back to Guangdong or Fujian. It dates to the Hongzhi period, 1488-1505. Since their discovery, a total of 890 pieces of porcelain, pottery and copper coins have been recovered from Ship No. 1, including blue-and-white porcelain, green-glazed porcelain, white-glazed porcelain, blue-and-white-glazed porcelain, enamel porcelain and brown-glazed pottery. A total of 38 objects, including wood logs, porcelain, pottery, shells and deer antlers, have been recovered from Ship No. 2. Two archaeologists firsts were discovered on the wrecks: enamelware on Ship No. 1 and ebony wood on Ship No. 2, the first of their kind ever found in shipwreck archaeology. The shipwrecks and their rich, varied cargos shed light on the bustling activity on the Maritime Silk Road during the middle Ming Dynasty period. The archaeologists said the two ancient ships were travelling in different directions, and the wrecks were found less than 20km (12 miles) apart. They said it was the first time vessels returning and arriving had been found near each other, indicating they were travelling on an important trade route. “It helps us study the maritime Silk Road’s reciprocal flow,” Tang Wei, the director of the Chinese National Centre for Archaeology, said. The artifacts recovered from the shipwrecks are currently being recorded and conserved. The Hainan Provincial Department of Tourism, Culture, Radio, Television and Sports plans to publish complete photographic catalogues of all the finds and to put a selection of the findings on display in special exhibitions and museums.
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1 y

The Beast Consuming Civilization
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The Beast Consuming Civilization

Some years ago, I read a book titled The Sense of Being Stared At by Rupert Sheldrake. The title hints at one of the phenomena he describes within. Humans, like all mammals, have an innate sense when someone is looking at them even when turned away from the looker. In the animal kingdom, this sense is critical for survival. Prey animals and even predators must have a well-developed radar system to detect threats that could be in the bushes or lurking under the water, hiding, wanting to eat them. Those with less honed awareness end up as some creature’s lunch. Humans have this skill, too. Who hasn’t felt watched? The feeling is so compelling that it’s natural to turn around and have the unnerving experience of meeting the eyes of the person staring at them. Soldiers who are particularly good with this sense tend to be the ones others follow. The hyper-vigilant guy keeps his brothers alive. I bring all this up because I’ve been contemplating the unease everyone I know is telling me they feel. People are deeply unsettled. Something feels off and wrong. The list of the things so obviously weird and backward is long. We’ll get to them in a minute. It wasn’t until I read Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s most recent essay in The Free Press, though, that I connected the unease to a proposed psychological cause. She writes: For me it is all captured in the earliest memories of my youth: statues of Mohamed Siad Barre, our dictator, sprung up across Mogadishu, flanked by a trio of dark seraphim: Marx, Lenin, and Engels. This particular communist experiment plunged Somalia into bloodshed, mass starvation, and a 20-year period of suffocating tyranny. I recall my grandmother and mother smuggling food into our house. I also remember the whispering: we felt the state was omnipresent. It could hear everything. My father was thrown into prison. His friends—those other pioneers in pursuit of a democracy modeled on America—were either jailed like him or, in many cases, executed. [Emphasis added.] Hirsi Ali expresses a vague unease, one she recognizes from her home of origin, Ethiopia, as it succumbed to the influence of Russian communists. Once stable ground became shifting sands. What used to be able to be laughed about openly, talked about freely, expressed unselfconsciously was now whispered furtively in one’s own home. The sense of being watched, that hair-on-the-neck-raising feeling of prey being observed, was now part of life. Hirsi Ali felt it in Ethiopia and now feels it in America. In Ethiopia, the state, corporations, friends, and family didn’t have the ability to “spy” continuously on someone — it just felt that way. In the West in 2024, they do. If Americans feel a sense of unease, if they feel they’re being stared at, if they feel as though they’re being hunted, that they’re someone’s prey, it’s because that’s true. They are. Someone is on the other side of that phone, TV, computer, surveillance camera, search engine, social media platform, Ring doorbell camera, watching, listening, judging, gathering information, and waiting to use this knowledge either against people or for their own predatory interests. This observance is omnipresent. It is far bigger than the state, more powerful than Russian communists could ever imagine a few decades ago, and more invasive. This accumulated data has made a 3-dimensional image of every person and that image can be used in ways that the individual cannot control. That image is bought and sold, manipulated and edited, and distributed. Modern Westerners are like gazelles surrounded by hyenas. Circled and caught, it’s just a question of when the attack comes. Now, citizens are complicit with vast stealing operations (reparation), drug use, and human trafficking associated with porn, prostitution, pedophilia (libertinism), murder and terror (recompense), etc. They, along with corrupt politicians and unequal justice before the law puts the law-abiding granny in prison for singing at an abortion clinic and welcomes illegal criminal aliens into America and then excuses their rapes of children. It’s not just the criminals who hold sway. They’re being helped by citizens defending the indefensible. Together, this ever-changing beast destroys. In trying to understand this thing, Hirsi Ali describes being like a blind man touching part of an elephant for the first time, not understanding the whole of the animal; not grasping the magnitude of the animal. I think it’s impossible to fully grasp because it’s not an elephant all all. It’s not even a tiger. Both animals have a definitive shape and form. They have preferred prey and styles of grazing or hunting. This modern beast is without form and made of eyes that see all and ears that hear all. There is no escaping it. How can one not feel uneasy and exhausted when one is continuously being watched by predators? So what unites those seeking to destroy civilization? The answer is awkward to say in this secular age but it’s the truth. The uniting thread, the one that binds them all together, is disobedience to God. President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador said that his country was in a spiritual war and that that war had to be won first before the war against the gangs could be won. El Salvador has transformed far more quickly than most could imagine, but first, the beast made up of gangs of evil people and their associates, had to be dealt with. America’s beast does not look like El Salvador’s beast but the spirit of disobedience is the same. The spirit of disobedience hates the good structures that form the foundation of and protect the function of a moral civilization. The beast aims at self (male or female), marriage, family, church, the rule of law, and governance. It defiles by using media to deliver evil messages of murder, hate, resentment, revenge, and lust. It discourages and dismays through threats of violence and actual violence. As Bukele says, you need to have peace and freedom to live, to move freely, to speak, to have civilization. You cannot do that with fear and conflict and crime and war. The thread of all of these movements is anti-civilization. It’s against any form of authority except their own. When Hirsi Ali describes the subversion of institutions and the process by which it happened, she’s describing stories of many individuals, broken and angry, who plant their seeds in the fertile ideological soil of resentment and rebellion. Ultimately, as the great Bishop Fulton Sheen notes in his book Peace of Soul, the world turns to war. War is an outer manifestation of the conflicted spirit within. The Apostle Paul emphasized that we fight not against flesh and blood but against principalities and spirits. Bukele said that the transformation of El Salvador was a miracle that happened through prayer. He knew who his enemy was and who could fight for him, first. Once that happened, winning against the human enemies of civilization became inevitable. In Ephesians 2, Paul says, And you were dead in your offenses and sins, in which you previously walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all previously lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the rest. Separate from acknowledging a Higher Power and authority in one’s life, a person who seeks salvation in the flesh ends up very angry. The high of the empty sex, the crime, the violence ends. Reality crashes back in. Disobedience creates disorder. Wrath creates violence and crime. Lust damages the one consumed by it and the ones he consumes to satiate himself. All of it is driven by the prince of the power of the air who infects those in his grips with an evil, selfish spirit. That’s why political solutions can be put forward but if there isn’t a spiritual reckoning and a culture-wide one at that, and if the leaders are not God-fearing and praying men and women, any solution will be temporary and superficial. The beast must be dismantled spiritually first, and then one individual at a time — usually one changed and whole person, or one imprisoned and broken person at a time. It’s impossible to understand the beast because it’s ever-changing. Its spirit, though, is always the same. Where there is lust and wrath, there will be ugliness and disorder and lies, and yes, subversion and ultimately, murder and war. The West is under attack. The spirit is Satanic. To save civilization, the answer is prayer. [2 Chronicles 7:14] The answer is obedience to God. The post The Beast Consuming Civilization appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.
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New York Businesses Are Fleeing Wall Street. Blame Bad Policy.
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New York Businesses Are Fleeing Wall Street. Blame Bad Policy.

High taxes, high crime, and a brazenly corrupt legal system are all taking their toll on the Big Apple. Between July 2020 and July 2023, New York State led all 50 states in population loss in percentage terms at 2.65 percent with its population declining by 533,494 — a loss that can be attributed almost entirely to people leaving New York City. During the same three-year period, New York City suffered an even greater loss at 6.20 percent with a massive decline of 546,164 residents — slightly more than New York State as a whole. People are leaving New York City in droves, but so are businesses and capital. Bloomberg reported last year that for the three years, from 1st quarter of 2020 through 1st quarter of 2023, 158 investment firms with a whopping $993 billion of assets under management moved out of New York City to other states; 56 of these firms have relocated to Florida with others having moved to low-tax, business-friendly states such as North Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas. (READ MORE: Pollster Says Trump Has a ‘Legitimate Shot’ at Winning New York) A survey conducted in 2021 by the Partnership for New York City of “major employers” found that nearly a quarter of financial services firms plan to reduce their New York City workforce within five years. Several prominent Wall Street firms have transferred some of their operations out of New York in recent years, including Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Barclays, UBS, and AllianceBernstein. Two of the largest and most successful hedge funds, Icahn Capital Management under billionaire Carl Icahn (estimated $22 billion under management in 2023) and Elliott Management led by fellow billionaire Paul Singer (estimated $59 billion under management in 2023), both moved their businesses out of New York to Florida. Why Leave the Big Apple? One major factor for the flight out of New York City is taxes. New York State has a highly progressive income tax for individual taxpayers ranging from 4.0 percent to 10.9 percent with its top marginal tax rate the third highest in the United States. But it’s worse for New York City residents who suffer an additional city income tax ranging from 3.078 percent to 3.876 percent. The top marginal individual income tax rate for New York City residents is 14.776 percent, the highest combined state and local income tax rate in the nation. The Tax Foundation conducted an analysis of the business tax climate for each state in 2024. Its analysis ranked New York 49th out of the 50 states with only New Jersey ranking worse. Escalating crime is also causing residents and businesses to leave. Over the past decade, the city has been run by two consecutive far leftwing Democrat mayors: Bill de Blasio and Eric Adams. Their weak-on-crime positions have been exacerbated by the consecutive tenures of two highly political Democrat district attorneys for New York County: Cyrus Vance, Jr. and Alvin Bragg. District Attorney Alvin Bragg was elected in November 2021 with substantial financial help from radical socialist billionaire George Soros who donated $1 million to the Color of Change PAC, which supports the defund-the-police movement and backed Bragg’s campaign. (READ MORE: Nostalgia Is Coming Back to New York City) Over the past five years, assaults and homicides in the city’s subway system are at historic highs as indicated by recent data reported by Bloomberg. A new motivation for businesses to leave the city is the two politically-driven lawfare cases against Donald Trump in New York — one initiated by New York State Attorney General Leticia James and the other by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.  Both cases have been severely criticized by well-respected legal experts, including Alan Dershowitz and Jonathan Turley, as abuses of the New York legal system. The cases have also been denounced by prominent members of the investment community, including Kevin O’Leary, who warned that there could be negative business consequences for New York and possibly even the United States as a national investment destination for global businesses. (READ MORE: Alvin Bragg Is as Corrupt as the New York Robber Barons) Could Texas Replace New York The negative factors affecting the investment environment in New York City have led to the investment community seeking geographic alternatives to the expensive and restrictive stock exchange duopoly of the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ on Wall Street.  Two of Wall Street’s biggest players, Black Rock and Citadel Securities, and more than 20 other investment groups are backing the establishment of a new stock exchange in Dallas, TX — the Texas Stock Exchange (TXSE). The proposed new stock exchange announced its plans recently: TXSE Group Inc. announced today that it plans to launch the Texas Stock Exchange (TXSE), headquartered in Dallas. TXSE will focus on enabling U.S. and global companies to access U.S. equity capital markets and will provide a venue to trade and list public companies and the growing universe of exchange-traded products. TXSE will be a fully electronic, national securities exchange that will seek registration with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. TXSE Group Inc. successfully completed its initial capital raise with participation from more than two dozen investors, including some of the largest financial institutions and liquidity providers in the world, such as BlackRock and Citadel Securities, as well as prominent business leaders from around the country. The liquidity providers backing TXSE Group Inc. represent a significant portion of the equity volume on U.S. lit exchanges and together comprise a majority of all U.S. listed retail volume. With approximately $120 million of capital raised, TXSE is expected to be the most well-capitalized exchange entrant to file a registration with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. TXSE’s planned launch comes as changes in the equity markets provide an opportunity for greater alignment and more competition. Corporate issuers and exchange-traded product sponsors are demanding more stability and predictability around listing standards and associated costs. TXSE intends to expand access to U.S. capital markets for all investors, while providing greater access and alignment for public companies and those seeking access to public capital. “Changes in equities trading markets are driving more volume to exchanges and more choices for issuers and sponsors,” said James Lee, founder and CEO of TXSE Group Inc. “TXSE will ultimately create more competition around quote activity, liquidity and transparency, resulting in more consistent and reliable markets that benefit investors, global issuers and liquidity providers alike.” The Wall Street Journal reported on the new Texas challenge to Wall Street on June 6: New York politicians, watch out. A new stock exchange based in Texas could soon challenge Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange—and the Empire State’s status as America’s financial capital…. For years public companies and brokers have complained about high fees at Nasdaq and the NYSE, but they’ve paid up for access to America’s deep capital markets. Even so, the duopoly’s fees have helped drive some 40% of trading volume off the two exchanges, resulting in less liquidity and worse pricing on the exchanges…. Nasdaq has mandated boardroom diversity quotas for companies that list shares on its exchange. Starting this year, they must have a woman, “underrepresented minority” or “LGBTQ+” member—or publicly explain why they don’t. Boards of bigger companies must include at least two “diverse” directors by the end of next year. Nasdaq’s goal is to shame companies into adopting the political left’s values. The duopoly enjoy nearly carte blanche authority to regulate corporate governance of listing companies, subject to the approval of the SEC. Nasdaq’s diversity diktat has raised concerns about what next could be required. Net-zero climate commitments? The Texas exchange is also a form of political arbitrage. New York Democrats have long taken Wall Street for granted, imposing punishing taxes and regulation. Progressives in Albany recently threatened to revive a long-dormant stock transfer tax to pay for their migrant and mass transit messes. Go ahead, make the Texas exchange’s day. This new development of a prospective Texas challenge to Wall Street is the free market at work seeking a solution to a problem. While it will take some time to know whether the upstart Texas Stock Exchange will succeed, it is notable that Wells Fargo, the third largest bank in the United States with over $1.7 trillion in assets, is investing almost $500 million into the construction of a new regional campus in Irving (12 miles west of downtown Dallas) with 850,000 square feet of office space for over 3,000 employees and expected to open by end of 2025. Steve Dewey is a retired federal financial regulator and managing director of the Bastiat Society of Washington, DC.  He is also the founder of GeoFinancial Trends, LLC, and writes on Substack. The post New York Businesses Are Fleeing Wall Street. Blame Bad Policy. appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.
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All About My Goose: A Terrifying Culinary Experience
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All About My Goose: A Terrifying Culinary Experience

I have never eaten a goose. Alive. Dead maybe, because Europe is now full of restaurants where you know exactly what you’re paying for, but you have no idea what you’re eating. Last night, I found myself walking into a restaurant that specializes in eggs. And it seemed to be all about geese. I mean everything on the menu had goose in it: From the pastries to the eggs. We were in a hurry. We were late for an appointment. And in those circumstances, that place felt like the goose that laid golden eggs, but with no goose and no gold. Earlier I had eaten a wonderful meal in a Basque cider house and the possibilities of improving on it by improvising were very limited. So I went in against my will, held at gunpoint by my companion. But I went in. Geese don’t keep me awake at night and I have no special soft spot for other people’s eggs. It’s enough to keep my own intact. The appearance of the place was not bad at all. It was empty. And that’s what you look for when your head hurts as much as mine did yesterday. An empty place. We wanted to talk about profitable businesses and then some journalism, and from the outside, that place seemed ideal. They were waiting for us on the other side of Madrid, and you always tend to think that in places where there is no one, they will serve you first. It is one of the many stupid ideas we all have about restaurants. We think that a place full of people guarantees good food. We imagine that if it has been open for 20 years, it must be of high quality. And we are convinced that everything advertised on television works, even if we know that this includes everything from the miracle bracelet against rheumatism to Joe Biden’s electoral candidacy. (READ MORE by Itxu Díaz: Gordon Sondland Returns to the Right Side of History) The experience was suggestive. It was very pleasant to eat in front of a huge screen where an everlasting documentary was being shown — about the farms where these birds are raised and the whole process by which the critter goes from being a critter to being food for humans. It was a priceless idea. As we dined, it was amusing to think that our goose burger just a few hours earlier could have been hopping along with many other little geese on that big screen, and running around the pasture happily. First with a head, then without. We took advantage to taste foie and discuss in detail the process of making goose foie, condimenting the conversation with romantic images of a beautiful sunset in the pasture, with two geese in love in the foreground, giving each other affectionate pecks. One of them, we thought, was liverless. The modern restaurants of New Europe baffle me. You never know exactly what belongs to the culinary realm and what is supposed to be aesthetically pleasing. One of the characteristics of this place was the extraordinarily small size of almost everything we were served. My companion had to search his plate for about half an hour to find his burger. We finally found it crouched behind a French fry. Mine was clearer. It was meat and a bunch of lamb’s lettuce or whatever you call those little plants that look like clover, but you eat them. Next to the lamb’s lettuce was a small fly. It had its legs up. The gaze fixed on the ceiling cleared any doubt about its rigor mortis. Its placement next to one of the leaves of lettuce did not seem coincidental. I didn’t dare ask if this was an unfortunate incident or if it was part of the chef’s creative genius. Perhaps an affectionate nod to the cover of my book, I Will Not Eat Crickets. (READ MORE by Itxu Díaz: Spring Is the Season of Love) Once the meal was over, we wanted to pay the bill at the bar so that we could leave that prison of delights as soon as possible, a culinary masterpiece, capable of connecting tradition with modernity and making the least animalistic diner weep with grief. Next to the beer tap, the cloud of small flies was so dense that it prevented us from seeing the waiter clearly. Once again, we were left wondering if, in such a modern, beautiful, and clean place, the flies were a snobbish touch, like the farm documentary, or if they had simply reserved that area of the bar to celebrate a birthday. It didn’t seem appropriate to ask the waiter because, for some time now, people in Madrid have been offended by everything. I remembered the fly on my plate and concluded that this, more than a birthday, could be a funeral. “The best ones always go first, but death is not the end,” I exclaimed, staring at the swarm of flies and holding my hand to my chest. The tear seemed a bit excessive for such a tiny insect, but I couldn’t hold back the emotion at the thought that not only had they lost a friend, but I had eaten her myself. Biodegradable incineration, I guess. Maybe I’ve opened up a business niche. (READ MORE by Itxu Díaz: The Polite European Right Missed the Point) After having supper, we went for supper. We were hungrier than before we had arrived. We indulged in one of these fast food restaurants where you can be happy in five minutes. My friend made up for it by ordering several sandwiches and a bunch of desserts. I at first refused to eat as a sign of protest, outraged to discover that the menu didn’t include goose. I don’t like to mix it up. But then, I blew the protest to hell, ordered six burgers, and happily exclaimed, “God bless America!” Then I said a prayer for the geese who had fallen in the line of duty at that restaurant during the past week and for their deceased family members. Translated by Joel Dalmau The post All About My Goose: A Terrifying Culinary Experience appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.
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Musk Allows Porn on X. It’s Time to Fight Back.
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Musk Allows Porn on X. It’s Time to Fight Back.

I believe it began with the school lockdowns of 2020. Many parents got their first good look at what kids were learning in school by peeking over their shoulders during online at-home classes. There was a national backlash, particularly against the perverse sexual ideology that had found its way into public school curricula long before. Since then, loving parents across the nation have run for school board seats and won; state legislators have passed laws protecting kids from gender ideology in the classroom; and concerned citizens have also set their sights on another, closely related threat: The Pornography-Social Complex. (READ MORE: The Pride Play) Take, for instance, the American Principles Project’s current campaign to protect kids through online age verification. The cause enjoys bipartisan support, and efforts like theirs have already led some states to require age verification on the part of online porn companies — the biggest of which has closed up shop in some regions, a chilling admission that their business model relied heavily on traffic from children. FACT: Apple and Google allow “adult” apps in their app stores, but they do NOTHING to stop kids from downloading them. We must empower parents to protect their kids online. That’s why we sent @GovCox a coalition letter endorsing age verification at the app store level. pic.twitter.com/xdAFArTxBf — American Principles (@approject) June 18, 2024 The porn industry is against the ropes. We have tasted victory, and we won’t back down. Then, this month, Elon Musk announced he would officially allow pornography on X (formerly Twitter). This is on a social media platform that for years has failed to stop its users from spreading videos of rape and child abuse. Importantly, X still lets minors open up accounts — as long as they’re at least 13. Capturing X is a major win for the Pornography-Social Complex, and it isn’t the first such achievement. The biggest app stores already carry pornographic apps and do nothing to verify the ages of the millions (including children) who download them. The biggest internet service providers already let online porn conglomerates keep their websites available to minors with no age verification. That’s to say nothing of the powerful political establishment that tries to defend both Big Porn and Big Tech (but I repeat myself) against any limits when it comes to reaching kids. Saving Eros from The Pornography-Social Complex Exposure to pornography robs the young of eros and with it the ability to relate not only to the opposite sex but to the whole world around them. Erotic love is not the seedy, shameful thing so many moderns have been fooled into thinking it is. Rather, eros is the fundamental stuff of our world. It’s the passionate devotion to true philosophy that drove Socrates to manfully sacrifice his life rather than bow to the gods of his city. (READ MORE: Pride Month, Leftism, and ‘The Ape of the Church’) It’s the civilization-defining desire of Aeneas for the prosperity of his family as he first tried desperately to embrace the ghost of his murdered wife, then went on to “preserve his love for their shared son” and progeny by founding the Roman people. God Himself used the language of marriage and eros in revelation. He is a “jealous” God, Scripture tells us. Those who stray from His laws are “harlots.” And He showed us His relationship to man in the Song of Solomon — an erotic love poem. Consuming pornography during our formative years obliterates our whole moral imagination and our sense of having a place in the cosmos. This brings me back to the Pornography-Social Complex: When you combine the dark power of pornography with the seeming omnipresence and algorithmic magic of the social media industry, what you get is a near-invincible monster. A demon that has already begun an almost completely inescapable assault on the souls of the next generation. If an entire generation lost eros that would spell the end of the Western world. Fighting Back Starts Now With his decision this month, Elon Musk has become the world’s biggest distributor of pornography. He has effectively declared war on the future of our civilization. However, by the time Musk crowned himself king of porn this month, it wasn’t seedy Los Angeles “filmmakers” or flamboyant magazine publishers he was beating out for the title. It was tech executives in Silicon Valley — men like Apple CEO Tim Cook and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg. These are people who’ve spent years inserting themselves into the mainstream. We consider them inoffensive, unobtrusive — boring even. They govern and shape a tremendous share of our way of life, but they do it stealthily: By occupying the same part of our minds as the guy in beige slacks who fixes the printer. The polo-shirt-wearing desk jockey who keeps the phones working. The IT support staff. (READ MORE: Isn’t It Pride Month?) That’s why I see a hidden providence in Musk’s tragic decision to promote pornography to children. Unlike other tech moguls, Musk is as shameless as Larry Flynt and as ostentatious as Hugh Hefner. From the perspective of the enemies of the Pornography-Social Complex, he has another happy fault. The tragic flaw that I believe will lead to Musk’s downfall (and the downfall of the whole complex) is this: Instead of inserting himself into the mainstream, he’s made a point of trying to insert himself into populist and conservative circles by posing as an anti-establishment, anti-leftist leader. He’s tried to present himself as “one of us” by spouting vague Nietzchean talking points like “Without freedom of speech, we are just slaves in the matrix.” Without freedom of speech, we are just a slaves in the matrix https://t.co/uH0OaMWmtK — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 5, 2024 But, with that clumsy misstep, Musk has put himself front-and-center in the American people’s newly-pitched battle against the “matrix” that is the Pornography-Social Complex. His primary audience is the very people newly awakened to threats against the innocence of children. And we will not be fooled. The post Musk Allows Porn on X. It’s Time to Fight Back. appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.
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Being Herd: Understanding How the Left Views Society
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Being Herd: Understanding How the Left Views Society

Understanding the political philosophy of the Left requires us to acknowledge its historical context. To put it another way, we can’t come to terms with the postmodern clown world without knowing what makes that kind of world go around. So, let’s look at the history of class — I don’t mean “Stay classy, San Diego.” I mean “despotic elitism.” Our Founding Fathers, astutely wary of the encroachment of English aristocracy, engaged in a perpetual discourse on social order. The Federalist v. Anti-Federalist debates, epitomized by figures like Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson, underscored this concern for preventing the resurgence of class divisions in the nascent United States. Even George Washington’s establishment of the Society of the Cincinnati elicited apprehension from men like John Adams, who feared the seeds of classism taking root. (READ MORE: If Trump Wins, the Far Left’s PTSD (Post-Trump Social Disruption) Is Coming) The specter of class gained a foothold early on in Western democracies and traces back to the remnants of Greek democracy, notably propagated by Plato. Plato made significant contributions to pre-Christian philosophical thought, particularly in the realm of metaphysics as a natural law to distinguish between good and evil. Although Aristotle’s approach was more pragmatic, the philosophical foundations established by both thinkers significantly supported further structures in the erection of Western Civilization, such as English law. Plato, a pupil of Socrates and a proponent of famous city-state governance, proposed a three-tier class system: The guardians (elites), auxiliaries (assistants to the elites), and the working class (laborers). Sir Karl Popper (1902-1994), one of our lesser-known geniuses and a man of Hebrew descent and Lutheran faith, was an eminent Austrian-British philosopher and public intellectual who studied Plato’s plan for revitalizing Athens and leading it toward a Utopian vision. Plato’s research encompassed an examination of both Sparta and Crete, identifying political structures that aligned with his concept of the sociology of the perfect state. In Popper’s influential work, The Open Society and its Enemies, he critically analyzes Plato’s political philosophy. In this quote from The Open Society, Popper speaks to the relationship of the Auxiliary (assistants to the elites, or what I call, the flunkies) to the Guardians (ruling class elites) and the role that the Auxiliary must assume: The breeding and the education of the Auxiliary and thereby of the ruling class of Plato’s best state is, like their carrying of arms, a class symbol and therefore a class prerogative. And breeding and education are not empty symbols but, like arms, instruments of class rule, and necessary for ensuring the stability of this rule. They are treated by Plato…. as powerful political weapons, as means which are useful for herding the human cattle, and for unifying the ruling class. What Popper reveals is that Plato was not merely one heck of a metaphysical philosopher, but he was the prototype for Communism if there ever was one. In Plato’s public administration plan for Utopia, we can see the playbook that inspired the dialectics of Hegel, the redistribution ideas of Marx, and the revolutionary doctrines of Lenin, as well as guides for European and North American leftists. Let’s take a look at how this works. I bet it will answer all your questions including but not limited to, “So, what do they want by all of this attack on Judeo-Christian Western Civilization culture and tradition?” And, “Why are universities so stinking liberal?” These and other perennial questions from the outdated, unwashed masses (that is, the “basket of deplorables,” the “bitter . . . guns and religion” crowd, the “clowns” — choose your pejorative term, but the elite are talking about you and me, i.e., those “irredeemable,” four-legged creatures who go “moo”) can be understood by changing your worldview lens. Let’s don the magical spectacles of Platonic communism to explore the Utopian vision of everyday governance and unveil the answers we seek. Amidst this vast landscape of ideas, let’s focus our gaze on the structural foundation itself. Beginning at the zenith, we encounter a hierarchical and class-driven system. The Elites: Guardians of Power The elites, the guardians, the ruling class: These are the proverbial “cool kids” of society. But let’s not forget, they’re also frequent purveyors of deception and coercion, a truth that patriots must always bear in mind. What matters most to these individuals is the acquisition and retention of absolute power, whether attained through elections or not — it’s all the same to them. In their worldview, the attainment of the new Athens, where the masses receive sustenance at the expense of their autonomy and dignity, rests solely in the hands of the elites. (READ MORE: The Left’s Never-Ending War to Disqualify Justices) “Who are they?” Well, if you need to ask, you’re not among them. In this framework of life and society, meritocracy is out the window with the perceived dirty dishwater of family and private property. These individuals aren’t playing games. They’re playing for keeps, and they’re in it for the long haul. So, the ruling class must perpetuate itself (more on that as we get to the flunkies) or risk losing the levers of the machine. Considering that Utopia is envisioned as emanating from the enlightened elite who stand as sentinels at the gateway to this earthly paradise, every conceivable means must be employed to advance the state’s overarching agenda. This state, comprised of what could be dubbed the unholy trinity — namely, the elites, the flunkies, and the human cattle — leaves no stone unturned in its pursuit of power and control. Thus, tactical operations like the Russia hoax and the current weaponization of the judicial system are unpleasant but necessary means to stop an outsider (i.e., Trump) from stealing the reins of power and, therefore, compromising the “guardians’” rule. This leads us to the flunkies. The Flunkies: Enforcers of Elite Will This class is a subset of the elites. The flunky class exists only for the elites. Their relationship with the human cattle class is, at best, tangential. Remember Popper’s analysis of this group: “. . . breeding and education are not empty symbols but, like arms, instruments of class rule, and necessary for ensuring the stability of this rule.” The flunky’s role is twofold: To bolster the elite’s ranks and shape the next generation of elites while dulling the minds of the masses and ensuring their continued dependence. Their mandate encompasses all measures necessary to fortify and perpetuate the elite’s grip on power. Enter the realm of entertainment for the human cattle. Music, a potent tool, is wielded to enchant them into embracing the requisite dogma that upholds the elite’s supremacy. Plato’s era saw musicians flattered by the recognition of music’s political sway — a fact not lost on today’s orchestrators of power. Another effective strategy involves infiltrating professional guilds, particularly in the trades, to further solidify control. Mass media, too, becomes a conduit for shaping uncritical groupthink among the populace. When fortune favors, natural calamities or the specter of war are exploited to instill fear and reaffirm who holds the reins of authority and why it’s for the greater good. What were once bastions of stability — universities, churches, public education, and even seemingly innocuous groups like the Boy Scouts or athletic organizations — are repurposed as instruments of class domination. (READ MORE: Leftist Colleges Tend to Produce Leftist Scientific Studies) In the elitists’ worldview, the cattle class remains befuddled or sedated while the breeding of the next elite cadre proceeds unabated. Of course, the elites don’t really believe that men can have babies or that girls should have to shower with boys pretending to be women. Nor do they support failed government schools. Their own private choices reveal the truth. For the elites truth and falsehood, like right and wrong, are merely pawns in their grand revolutionary chess game — designed to deliver their twisted version of “Your Best Life Now.” When Plato urged the Athenians to practice abortion — unknown in Athens at the time but observed in Sparta — he recognized the value of eugenics for controlling the herd. Check out any of your average ruling class-supported totalitarian initiatives in history and you will find this highly valued feature. Abortion, as it turns out, is a useful resource for the elite class. As a budding elite, you would want to use the flunkies in this operation and even convince the cattle to cull their own herd. Here the warped compassion of the elite reveals itself: “It is for their own good.” And that brings us to those who must ensure the uninterrupted flow of goods and services to support the flunkies and the elite Utopia. The Human Cattle: Subjects of Control Plato called this large, dependent mass of humanity “the working class” (a phrase that makes my skin crawl even when it’s used out of sheer habit with no ill intent). By “working class,” we glimpse the twisted brilliance of the Utopian vision: The elites keep their hands clean, never lowering themselves to common labor. Instead, they delegate to the flunky class — the maniacal middle management of Utopia. The commoners, the necessary human bots, are left to handle the mundane but crucial tasks of the Utopia. The cattle class, vital to the system, is kept on the brink of survival by the state’s machinations, all while being squeezed for every drop of devotion and labor. The advent of smartphones and social media was a blessing in disguise. The elites, in their infinite wisdom, initially feared the cattle might grow independent with the internet at their fingertips. But, surprise, surprise, the opposite happened. Those little machines transfixed the herd, lulling them into a useful, drooling complacency. The elites are both ruthless and “compassionate.” They proudly embrace a snobbish “noblesse oblige” that permits them to approve certain toys for the “working class,” provided these gadgets are closely monitored and used to perpetuate the master class Utopia. When one grasps this worldview, the lingering questions suddenly find their answers: Why they loathe opposition figures like Trump (a usurper threatening to disrupt the Elite vision), why they despise practicing Christians and Jews, and why they delight in dismantling American heritage and mocking American traditions. Recognizing this ancient scheme at play is the first step in devising plans to either escape its clutches or overturn it altogether. The truth is, the Utopian vision is not novel. It is, in fact, the de facto setting in human history. From Babel to Beijing history is marred by the effects of a fallen race and despotism, though it feels alien, seems to be an ever-present strand in the human genome. America is an exceptional nation (not as Obama smirched it, with the tired notion that all societies believe they’re exceptional) because America is an exception to the history of nations. British historian Paul Johnson reminded us that the United States has an observable founding. One can read the historical documents about the Pilgrims, the settlers in Jamestown, and the immigrants who followed them. You can read source documents if you wonder about their faith, intent, or desire to be a “city on a hill” (John Winthrop quoting Matthew 5:14). When Reagan (and before him, JKF) famously used the phrase “city on a hill,” he articulated the demonstrated exceptional nature of our founding. America was founded and built by those who rejected class systems in favor of freedom and hard work. Undoubtedly, America became the outworking of Reformational teaching that every man can access Scripture, pray to God, be heard, and — as John Calvin taught in Geneva — be assured of God’s bestowal of dignity in all forms of work. To wit, the president of the United States, while deserving respect, holds no inherent or societal superiority over a homemaker or a ditch digger. All are valued. All are needed. All have equal voices. Western Civilization wasn’t just built on Greek democracies; it was rebuilt on the Christian teachings of St. Paul: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.” And America ran with it. We were established without a ruling class or a working class. We were — we are — all just Americans. All have equal opportunity to work, learn, build, and strive for the fullest expression of liberty one can achieve. Yet, we must remain vigilant. There are always those who see herds where God sees individuals, seeking to replace the Almighty with their own rule. To be an American is to deny their authority and defy their pretensions through the joyful exercise of faith at work in liberty. The post Being Herd: Understanding How the Left Views Society appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.
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