The book is not an easy read, and the linked review is not that easy either. I believe it is impossible to really summarise these topics and the relationship between them because they are both deep and VERY wide!
In this age of Covid, I was especially struck by this prophetic statement near the end of the review:
What makes this tale particularly unsettling to me is that the modern regulatory state also has supplied pathways to public influence for specialists in normally obscure scientific disciplines. One need only recall the public role of cytologists, pathologists, and geneticists, all of them claiming the halo of scientific objectivity and concern for public safety, in the debates on Love Canal, nitrates, saccharin, aspartame, and malathion (the Medfly spray).
In 1982, even "Anthropogenic Global Warming", now rebranded as "Climate Change" to cover ALL bases, had not entered the fetid relationship of pseudoscience, bureaucracy, political mass media, etc.
I'd recommend at least trying to make it through the linked review.
The VERY inadequate moose summary is that the ever increasing power of intellectuals who have never done anything in the real world, wielded by bureaucracy, aided abetted by global media and big business, causes the feedback mechanisms of profit/loss and being voted out of office to be effectively suffocated.
While this book is great, "A Conflict of Visions" is a much more reachable way to get to essentially the same conclusions.
The link is to an excellent, though maybe a little esoteric article by Michael Anton, the esteemed author of the "Flight 93 Election".
Machiavelli has a poor reputation in Christian circles for obvious reasons, however, just because you don't agree with a lot of a person's thinking is no reason to trash all of it.
Machiavelli faced a challenge so startlingly similar to ours that it almost seems as if history does repeat itself. To put it as succinctly possible, he sought to liberate philosophy and politics—theory and practice—from a stultifying tradition and corrupt institutions.
The following quote can be thought of as somewhat equivalent to the idea that Christians may need to use "unsavory tools" (like violence) to protect their families, the weak, and the eternal souls of billions. This is also dangerous, but possibly necessary. One of my mottos -- "safety first when lighting fires with gasoline"!
They had to admit in other words that in an important respect the good has to take its bearings by the practice of bad cities or that the bad impose their law on the good.
A quote directly applicable to our times;
Our institutions are rotten. For those needing details on how, I lay it out in chapter 3 of The Stakes. For two fresher examples see, first, the way the government colluded with hedge funds to crush small online investors trying to block an all-too-typical financial sector wealth-extraction power play; second, look at Anthony Fauci’s transparently false denials of having funded COVID research in China, and the media’s (and government’s) shameless attempts to cover it all up. There is really not one institution left in America that is not corrupt in both senses: borderline incompetent, but also venal, self-serving and lawless.
As a conservative technologist this really hits home:
The classics were for almost all practical purposes what now are called conservatives. In contradistinction to many present-day conservatives however, they knew that one cannot be distrustful of political or social change without being distrustful of technological change.
The discussion of "sophistry" vs "propaganda" is illuminated in "The Ethics of Rhetoric". Basically, sophistry is "fake news", and "propaganda" is more like "long term marketing speech", normally linked with institutions once trusted, and for the uninformed, still trusted.
Whereas sophistry is the art of persuading a particular democratic assembly on a given issue on a specific day, propaganda aims to shape public opinion broadly and, if not permanently, for as long as humanly possible. Strauss is saying that the classics’ reluctance to innovate—their dispositional conservatism—made them vulnerable to conquest via this new weapon. The conquest happened. Christianity waged a spiritual war against the classical world which the latter proved unable to resist
Machiavelli played the very long game ... which Christians likely need to play today, but with a completely different foundation.
He proposes to do this via a popular-philosophic alliance in which the people are convinced by a new type of propaganda, disseminated by Machiavelli’s successors, to allow the philosophers to rule (indirectly) in exchange for philosophy providing what the people most want: material plenty and a modicum of security (P 25). Fat and happy, they will forget God, or at least bestow their gratitude on others. (Though there’s a lot more to it than just this.)
So philosophy begat science/technology which caused the masses to forget God and worship science. Like most best laid plans of man, it is doubtful that Niccolo thought that philosophy, and even the concept of metaphysical truth, would be buried under the "stuff" and entertainment heaped on man in unbelieveale (at Machiavelli's time) plenty.
The linked rather long article an interview with Dr Robert Malone, one of the original inventors of mRNA technology.
I like to check my sources (unlike much of the media today). This from Novotech :
Dr Malone brings more than 20 years of management and leadership experience in academia, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology with deep expertise in regulatory and medical strategy for global clinical product development. Dr Malone is an internationally recognised physician and scientist for his work in the areas of clinical trials, vaccines, gene therapy, biodefense, and immunology and specifically as one of the original inventors of DNA vaccination and multiple non-viral gene therapy technologies (RNA and DNA).
That quote is from 2017, so no doubt Dr Malone is labeled an insane crank today.
Dr Malone is looking at Ivermectin as a lower cost, better tested med for preventing/treating Covid. Naturally, if you google it, the NIH, CDC don't like it ... much like they originally said that Trump was xenophobic for restricting travel from Wuhan, and that masks were not effective against Covid.
The American Journal for Therapeutics OTH says:
Moderate-certainty evidence finds that large reductions in COVID-19 deaths are possible using ivermectin. Using ivermectin early in the clinical course may reduce numbers progressing to severe disease. The apparent safety and low cost suggest that ivermectin is likely to have a significant impact on the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic globally.
Dr Malone says:
Obviously, the RNA vaccines have gotten a lot of attention. They’re remarkable. The adenovirus vectored vaccines probably produce more protein over a longer period of time. They came out fairly early and were identified as associated with coagulation problems. Those coagulation problems are now being seen more with the RNA vaccines.
And there’s an odd spectrum of symptoms. The governments across the world have largely denied that there are any safety concerns with the RNA vaccines. Now, that’s not so tenable.
Another Malone quote:
Now I’ve had COVID. I’ve had long COVID, and it’s changed my body. I don’t have the exercise tolerance I used to have. But I didn’t die, and I’m 61. I’m in a moderate risk group, but we fear it almost like the Africans feared Ebola in the West African outbreak. It’s driving us to compromise some of our fundamentals, including this censorship initiative.
I don’t know what that looks like on the other side. Eventually, we’re going to get through this, but it’s impacting on society in profound ways. This censorship of information, those that are experiencing it, including myself, are profoundly disturbed by what we’re seeing, and the long-term meanings of it.
My wife and I had "short Covid" in December.
My wife came down with fairly long lasting cold in early June, I picked it up after, and still have a nagging, but clearing cough. We have not been vaccinated based on "watchful waiting", the usual medical advice for something with a 99%+ survival rate, especially if you have had it, that rate even being better. I've had long term sinus drip/nagging coughs nearly every year of my life since adolescence. Could this be a Covid re-infection? Certainly, however it has none of the original symptoms ... lethargy, loss of taste, etc.
Of course, if you listen to much of the media (which I don't, but I'm not Amish, nor from Havana), one of the reasons for "masks forever" is that even if you have had it and are vaccinated, you can be re-infected, and your symptoms may be reduced/different - so stay fearful!
Isn't that convenient if one of your major objectives is to maintain fear, allowing for increased power for government, CDC, etc.? And then there is the "delta variant".
Have you renewed the extended warranty on your vehicle? You COULD have a repair costing $5K or more! Thank God you are getting this important call!
The overarching message of the (too long) interview is that the Covid overreaction, plus the suppression of information calling that overreaction into question is reducing faith in public health and vaccinations in general.
Well DUH!
Perhaps we should "ask Amy"?
Just finished Thomas Sowell's "Knowledge and Decisions" (review to come shortly). An important part of a society descending into bureaucratic tyranny is to maintain fear. Crisis followed by crisis - nuclear war, running out of petroleum, climate change, terrorism, etc, etc. "Never let a "crisis" go to waste".
Is there a basis for some level of concern on any/all of these? Certainly, however we need to all be aware of the global media, corporatist, bureaucratic "Great Reset".
Perhaps the penalty for the mostly peaceful demonstration (nothing was burned, nobody got a free TV, and the only person killed was an unarmed female veteran by an unnamed assailant) will be reduced since the Lego model was not fully assembled?
It is easy to understand how the image of the US has been restored through the "election" of a cadaver post Trump as the media has been celebrating.
The tragedy of Roe V Wade made America a farce for a good long time. ("first as tragedy, then as farce", Marx)
Trump was an "embarrassment" for the residue of a formerly significant nation?
I'm reminded of this great president -- still a leftist hero, even after all the focus on "sexual harassment" ... Roy Moore, Kavanaugh, etc
Since the dawn of civilization, bureaucracy has been the enemy of the people. It's primary purpose is to increase its own power, followed closely by ensuring its isolation from feedback that would expose its malfeasance and incompetence.
The biggest lesson of the epidemic, which fortunately many Americans seem to have taken to heart, is that you can’t trust experts or politicians, and you can’t believe anything they tell you about the data or science. YOU NEED TO TRUST YOUR OWN ABILITY TO GET THE FACTS AND REASON OUT THE TRUTH.
Our supposed public health experts, most of whom are lifetime government bureaucrats who couldn’t get or keep a job in private industry (yes, this means you Dr. Fauci) have repeatedly promoted suppression measures which anyone who looked at the research and who was thoughtful would reject. Build and be guided by models that aren’t close to representing reality. Close schools, when there is no risk to children and they are minor transmitters. Recommend massive testing programs that don’t slow spread but do generate false and low positives that force people to wrongly quarantine. Use PCR testing results that are essentially worthless in determining who is actually infectious. Over-attribute hospitalizations and deaths to CV-19 and terrorize the population about how scary this virus is. Close businesses and cause enormous and disruptive unemployment. Push social distancing that makes no difference, endorse plastic barriers that make no difference, and most of all, turn masking into a religion when the only actual research shows masks make no difference to community spread. And on and on, with one stupid, incredibly destructive recommendation after another.
Business relies on results in competition in the market and the feedback of profits, or most frequently lack thereof. Only 30% of new businesses last 30 years, I could not find a statistic on how long government agencies last, am not so surprised to know that we don't even have an agreed list of how many government agencies we currently have. I will give you a link to the "wide horse and burro" program, just in case you are worried that not enough of your tax dollars are going to that critical funcion!
The point is that bureaucracy endures, and it is dedicated to survival and expanding, because it has no competitors, nor actual oversight. It is the 4th and most powerful branch of our broken insolvent government.
NEVER trust in "experts"! In order to be an expert on something, you must know more and more about less and less, until you know everything about nothing. That is the price of being a limited human in a universe where the details about even an electron are infinite.
Given that limitation along with the prime objective of making certain you get credit for anything you can present as a "success", no matter the cost to others, as well as being a true "expert" on dodging any responsibility for failure.
Covid did a great job of exposing the total failure of our "experts", though given the efforts of the general media cheerleading, and social media cancelling, most will succumb to the narrative of bureaucratic and "expert" success.
Hollywood is easy to "stun" under some conditions, impervious under others. Cosby for 30+ years, Billy C forever, Harvey Weinstein for decades, etc, etc
Our "legal system" is purely political. If you tow the leftist line, you walk! Increasingly, if you are black, the "justice" will do their best to avoid any enforcement action at all.
As in the case of Kavanaugh, if you end up as their target and they can paint you as "unwoke" in any way, forget the idea of "innocent till PROVEN guilty". They demand you prove the negative. "Proving" anything decades old is nigh on impossible, even murders that you KNOW happened because they leave physical evidence, are very difficult to prosecute.
Such evidence is very rare for "harassment", unless you have a stained blue dress. Naturally, if you are in good standing with the Democrats, even that doesn't matter!
You can also own a fighter jet (though probably not an F-15 unless you donate a lot to Biden). Interestingly, when I was at the EAA convention, many of the owners of the fighter jets bring their "25-30 something" exceptionally beautiful "daughters" along!
Here is my personal hand cannon S&W .460 mag. I need it in case the home intruder steps behind the refrigerator.
Quantum mechanics continues to scream at us that what we think we see and measure are actually not "real" in the sense we think. The electron is BOTH a wave and a particle until we observe it.
The current materialist worldview says that what we "see" when we move to quantum physics is "nothing to worry about" ... it is all "stuff" (material), all the way down, including us. No "ghost in the machine", we are purely "meat machines", no spirit, no meaning, just random emanations from the big bang and a lot of very unlikely coincidences. One of the current theories for explaining "everything", is that there are something like 10 to the 500th universes, so even the "impossible" (which we seem to be) can (and has) happened, because we believe we are "here".
So is that "true"?
To get a feeling for Rovelli's perspective, imagine of a blue bowling ball that's 10 in. across and weighs 25 lbs. We think those properties — the ball's color, weight and size — are real in and of themselves. If the bowling ball were the only thing in the whole universe, it would still be blue, 10 in. across and weigh 25 lbs. But the lesson Rovelli wants us to learn is that nothing has any properties at all until it interacts with something else. And between those interactions there are no properties at all. What quantum mechanics is teaching us, Rovelli says, is that reality is a vast net of interactions where there are no things, only relationships. "This is the radical leap," he writes, that "... everything exists solely in the way it affects something else."
For Christians, this seems to make a part of our faith "observably" true. Rather dangerous idea actually, because we have faith in what is NOT "seen", to only have faith in what is seen at least borders on idolatry.
"If the physical world is woven from the subtle interplay of images in mirrors reflected in mirrors," he writes, then "... perhaps it becomes easier to recognize ourselves as part of that whole."
Col Bud Day is the 16th most decorated soldier in US military history. The book gives a detailed and often shocking review of his eventful, courageous, and as a POW in N Vietnam, very painful life.
As a POW he was a cellmate of John McCain, and although they remained friends as McCain rose in politics and sank in honor, it gives a calm appraisal of their clear differences in character.
I was surprised to see a calm and as unbiased as possible appraisal of "reminiscent of Genghis Khan", John Kerry who traitorously and falsely betrayed US POWs as they languished in the "Hanoi Hilton", extending by at least 2 years their painful incarceration for political gain.
I was surprised to see Dick Rutan was also a "Misty" fighter pilot in Vietnam. The "Misties" were a the pioneering "Forward Air Control", a group formed and honed by their leader "Misty 1", Bud Day. Dick Rutan was the less famous brother of Burt Rutan, famous aircraft designer. Dick flew "Voyager", the first aircraft to fly around the world without refuelling.
Bud Day appears near the end of this "Stolen Honor" mini documentary that does a good job of covering the suppressed and often maligned story of John Kerry's attempt to gain the US presidency based on his traitorous military "service", including his audacious "John Kerry reporting for duty" scam at the 2004 Democratic convention,
If you have any interest in the kind of men we depend on to defend this less and less "under God" nation, this gives a real insite. Since our nation dropped prayer in school with Engel v. Vitale, 370 U.S. 421 (1962), our military record has suffered. 1st Samuel 2:9 "He will guard the feet of his faithful ones, but the wicked ones shall be cut off in darkness, for not by might shall a man prevail."
Without God, we will not prevail. Pray that like the Israelites, we will return to God. I pray that our well deserved punishment will not be as terrible as theirs often was.
A good report on what is happening in Lebanon as their currency becomes increasingly worthless. Our elites assure us "it can't happen here". Why, thinking it would, is like thinking the 2016 election was not invalidated by Russian interference, or imagining that Biden breaking Obama's 2008 record of 69 million with a new record of 81 million was somehow "fishy". Obvious conspiracy theory ... like thinking that the Wuhan Coronavirus may have come from a lab in Wuhan working on enhancing the lethality of Corona viruses.
Even looking at things like this shows that one's mental faculties are slipping ... some idiot people even question the clear ability of our vibrant leader Joe Biden! It seems that such people need to re-educated at a minimum ... possibly put in nice remote camp for some therapeutic shock treatment to get their minds right?
It can't happen here! Just look at the gas pump, or a restaurant tab, it is obvious our dollars are as sound as Biden, and isn't that a relief?
