Category Archives: Cultural

“If our economy of freedom fails to distribute wealth as ably as it has created it…”

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I came across this quote from Will Durant which stopped me in my tracks:

“If our economy of freedom fails to distribute wealth as ably as it has created it, the road to dictatorship will be open to any man who can persuasively promise security to all.”

I then went searching and found an entire storehouse of quotes from him that are just as profound: The Lessons of History Quotes, taken from:

The Lessons of History

A few more from the link:

“Normally and generally men are judged by their ability to produce—except in war, when they are ranked according to their ability to destroy.”

“History is, above all else, the creation and recording of that heritage; progress is its increasing abundance, preservation, transmission, and use. To those of us who study history not merely as a warning reminder of man’s follies and crimes, but also as an encouraging remembrance of generative souls, the past ceases to be a depressing chamber of horrors; it becomes a celestial city, a spacious country of the mind, wherein a thousand saints, statesmen, inventors, scientists, poets, artists, musicians, lovers, and philosophers still live and speak, teach and carve and sing. The historian will not mourn because he can see no meaning in human existence except that which man puts into it; let it be our pride that we ourselves may put meaning into our lives, and sometimes a significance that transcends death. If a man is fortunate he will, before he dies, gather up as much as he can of his civilized heritage and transmit it to his children. And to his final breath he will be grateful for this inexhaustible legacy, knowing that it is our nourishing mother and our lasting life.”

“The conservative who resists change is as valuable as the radical who proposes it—perhaps as much more valuable as roots are more vital than grafts.”

“[…] violent revolutions do not so much redistribute wealth as destroy it. There may be a redivision of the land, but the natural inequality of men soon re-creates an inequality of possessions and privileges, and raises to power a new minority with essentially the same instincts as in the old. The only real revolution is in the enlightenment of the mind and the improvement of character, the only real emancipation is individual, and the only real revolutionists are philosophers and saints.”

These vaxxines come with terrible risks

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Two related articles from Gateway Pundit. First: Top American Medical Journal Study Confirms the Risk of Myocarditis and Pericarditis After Receiving COVID-19 Vaccines – Risks is Highest After Second Vaccine in Adolescent Males and Young Men. Already well understood by anyone who follows these things, but further confirmation.

A new study released on Tuesday by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) revealed the development of myocarditis and pericarditis after mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccination which is highest in adolescent males and young men.

The study was based on the data from VAERS on reported cases of myocarditis that occurred after receiving the Pfizer and Moderna vaccine between December 2020 and August 2021 in 192, 405 ,448 individuals older than 12 years of age in the US. These data were processed by VAERS as of September 30, 2021.

The primary outcome after the vaccination was the occurrence of myocarditis and the secondary outcome was pericarditis.

And then this as well, with an Australian connection: “I Have Had Every Symptom You Could Dream Of” – Bedridden Aussie Mayor Opens Up About Immune Reaction After Receiving COVID Vaccine. A terrible story, naturally barely mentioned in the local news.

An Australian mayor is bedridden and has spent time in and out of the hospital after suffering a severe reaction to her second COVID vaccination, the West Australian reported.

Mayor Claire Boan of Port Adelaide Enfield opened up about her current condition and described “the new normal” in her life on her Facebook account last week.

According to the mayor, she’s been in bed for more than 35 days due to an immune reaction after receiving her second COVID shot.

“I have had every symptom you could dream of and my body continues to display new ones; it’s been exhausting for my body, traumatic for my family, and difficult for my mind,” the mayor said.

More at the link, with the cone of silence the most frightening aspect.

“A massive fraud has been visited upon a fearful and credulous public”

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From David Solway at The Pipeline: Something Wicked Really Does This Way Come. His first para:

After almost two years of intensively studying the chemistry of viruses, the nature of the Covid pandemic and the policies adopted to combat it, I’ve concluded, as have many others, that a massive fraud has been visited upon a fearful and credulous public. And after examining innumerable podcasts and blockbuster video interviews conducted with highly credentialed virologists and public health experts, most recently with Professor of Medicine at Stanford University Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, leading cardiologist Dr. Peter McCullough, the inventor of core mRNA technology Dr. Robert Malone, and Michael Yeadon, a former VP at Pfizer, what I once thought sounded like a conspiracy theory may well be a conspiracy fact.

David goes on with this.

We learn that hospitals have been financially incentivized to report and inflate the numbers of doubtful cases and mortalities, and that deaths “with Covid” were routinely conflated with “from Covid.” Injuries and deaths due to the vaccines have been largely downplayed and hidden; voluntary reporting sites such as VAERS in the U.S. and Yellow Card in the U.K. are grossly unreliable. We learn that the vaccinated are susceptible to infection and shedding at rates equal to or higher than the unvaccinated. Emergency-use legislation shields Big Pharma from legal proceedings initiated by those who have suffered from the vaccines. Meanwhile, as former New York Times investigative reporter Alex Berenson reports, quoting the U.K. Office for National Statistics, the vaccinated are dying at twice the proportional rate of the unvaccinated.

And if you are unaware of this, you have not been paying attention.

In the words of Robert Malone and Peter Navarro, the vaccines “can trigger serious cardiac and thrombotic conditions, menstrual cycle disruptions, Bell’s palsy, Guillain-Barre syndrome and anaphylaxis. Male children appear particularly prone to myocarditis while, post-vaccination, individuals may have suppressed immunities that make them vulnerable to other diseases.” Young children of all ages, who have no need for protection against Covid, are at considerable risk from the inoculations, and pregnant women are prone to miscarriages and stillbirths. These Pharma products have been rushed to market and have not undergone the standard 5-12 years of testing. No one knows what the future portends for those who have received the jab.

You might say that the following is his conclusion, except that it is only about half way through the article.

The circumstantial evidence for nefarious intentions among government leaders and bureaucrats, Big Pharma, media, left-wing plutocrats, academia, the World Economic Forum, and the medical establishment is impossible to ignore. The extent of the alleged collusion is mind-boggling, and yet it seems entirely plausible given the astronomical sums and consolidated power involved. 

You should read the whole thing. We try to pretend that only if one lived in a Bond movie could anything like this be true, but sometime, perhaps this time, reality may turn out to be stranger than fiction.

Covidiocy may be about to end

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Are we beginning to see the beginning of the end of Covidiocy? First this: England Ends All COVID Passports, Mask Mandates, Work Restrictions. Undoubtedly pushed along by the fact that no one in authority takes Covid seriously, only the media and the population. That is why all over the political class there are so few who wear masks in public unless they are being knowingly photographed. So in the UK:

Restrictions including COVID-19 passes, mask mandates, and work-from-home guidance will be removed in England, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on Wednesday.

And now this as well: Europe considers new COVID-19 strategy: Accepting the virus.

With one of Europe’s highest vaccination rates and most pandemic-battered economies, the [Spanish] government is laying the groundwork to treat the next infection surge not as an emergency but an illness that is here to stay. Similar steps are under consideration in neighboring Portugal and in Britain.

A few examples.

PICTURED: Maskless AOC raises a cocktail at dinner in Miami Beach | Daily Mail Online
Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews fined $400 for mask breaches after he admitted it was an 'oversight' | 7NEWS

Do you think that if they thought there was any serious danger they would behave like this?

Jordan Peterson discusses the crumbling walls of Western Civilisation

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Although I am a graduate of the University of Toronto, that’s not why this interests me so much: Jordan Peterson: Why I am no longer a tenured professor at the University of Toronto. Universities are no longer safe territories for anyone other than those on the committed left. It’s an old story by now, but if even a Jordan Peterson is no longer seen as an esteemed colleague in what was Canada’s best university, then no one is. Here are a few highlights from what he has to say.

I had envisioned teaching and researching at the U of T, full time, until they had to haul my skeleton out of my office. I loved my job. And my students, undergraduates and graduates alike, were positively predisposed toward me. But that career path was not meant to be. There were many reasons, including the fact that I can now teach many more people and with less interference online. But here’s a few more.

First, my qualified and supremely trained heterosexual white male graduate students (and I’ve had many others, by the way) face a negligible chance of being offered university research positions, despite stellar scientific dossiers….

Second reason: [The] many issues of appalling ideology currently demolishing the universities and, downstream, the general culture….

Furthermore, the accrediting boards for graduate clinical psychology training programs in Canada are now planning to refuse to accredit university clinical programs unless they have a “social justice” orientation….

And if you think DIE is bad [“Diversity, Inclusivity and Equity mandates (my preferred acronym: DIE)”] , wait until you get a load of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) scores . Purporting to assess corporate moral responsibility, these scores, which can dramatically affect an enterprise’s financial viability, are nothing less than the equivalent of China’s damnable social credit system, applied to the entrepreneurial and financial world. CEOs: what in the world is wrong with you?…

Finally, do you know that Vladimir Putin himself is capitalizing on this woke madness?… It may come as a surprise to some people, but Russia has been there already. After the 1917 revolution, the Bolsheviks, relying on the dogmas of Marx and Engels, also said that they would change existing ways and customs, and not just political and economic ones, but the very notion of human morality and the foundations of a healthy society….

And all of you going along with the DIE activists, whatever your reasons: this is on you. Professors. Cowering cravenly in pretence and silence. Teaching your students to dissimulate and lie. To get along. As the walls crumble. For shame.

Jordan Peterson is near unique, not so much in his views but in his prominence in spite of his views. How long he can withstand the pressure we shall only eventually see, but the ruin that others are trying to bring into his life is an all-too vivid example of how one’s life can be completely ruined if one does not toe the line.

How to identify intelligence in other people

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This is from Quora: How can you tell if someone has a high IQ? The answer was supplied by Bruno Campello de Souza, Professor at Federal University of Pernambuco. He sensibly shied away from identifying high intelligence with high IQ. Although they may be related, they are not the same. This was his answer.

There are observable signs of intelligence that tend to be more easily spotted by those with higher IQ than by those with lower ones. The saying below may sound obnoxiously elitist, but it does seem to hold:

Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius. – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Having said that, in no particular order, the signs that one is interacting with a person that has a very high level of intelligence include perceiving in that person:

  • An appetite for information and knowledge, which includes not only curiosity, but also a veritable “need” for intellectual stimulation;
  • The ability to quickly understand your arguments without the need for much explanation, perhaps even anticipating the final conclusion before you get to it;
  • Identifying interesting implications and consequences of your arguments that you yourself had not considered;
  • Displays of rapid perception, strong learning capacity, and substantial problem-solving abilities;
  • A broad scope and/or depth of knowledge;
  • The ability to perceive and appreciate the relevant talents and accomplishments of others.

When you see most of these signs in someone, you can tell that they are an intellectual “force to be reckoned with”.

The comments that follow his post are also worth a look. There is also this further posting by Professor Campello de Souza: Are more intelligent people more likely to be alone. The post begins:

In a study with 1,383 adults from Pernambuco, Brazil, IQ was negatively associated to both Extraversion and Agreeableness.

He speculates that the following characteristics may be in play.

  • With a higher IQ, there is a tendency for a higher level of working memory and also long-term recall, as well as speed of processing, which grants the ability to generate more and better mental imagery, thereby creating an incentive for “daydreaming” or “zoning out” (think of having your own personal “mental holodeck”);
  • IQ is, by definition, the capacity to deal with abstract thinking, making the intellectually gifted more prone to detach from concrete experiences;
  • The things that many of the Gifted are most interested in are not the things that attract the vast majority of people, the same happening with their life and work experiences, so that the highly intelligent may not find much in common with the majority of people and vice-versa;
  • Being a minority by definition, a relevant portion of the Gifted might be the object of prejudice, making them more prone to withdrawing from social interactions and/or being less inclined to be less empathetic or altruistic;
  • The differences in the size and breadth of vocabulary between the Gifted and most people might make communication more difficult or cumbersome;
  • The Gifted can, at times, become frustrated, impatient or irritated with the slower and/or more limited intelligence of normal individuals, something which can come from elitism, self-importance, sense of superiority and even Narcissism, but can also arise from honest exhaustion from continuously having to wait for, explain to, correct, and accept errors from most of the people one interacts with.