What Kind of Philosopher is Wittgenstein?

Wittgenstein—what kind of a philosopher is he? He creates the impression of being a self-consciously philosophical character, but not an expert philosopher. His ideas are interesting, but not particularly useful. A few of his perspectives are unique, but he is didactic and dry; we do not find him particularly touching and wise. He is disgusted by the ossified absurdities of philosophy and aims to discover the ultimate answers, but he is unable to avoid the philosopher’s plight of being mired in questions that are fundamentally unanswerable. He dwells on deep philosophical issues, but makes assertions aphoristically, with the attitude of a lighthearted gamer, and fails to provide a serious argument. He draws heavy praise from his devotees, but he is rarely cited in major works of philosophy.

Old Men and Their Philosophy

The sphere of philosophy has always been the home of garrulous old men whose language is so convoluted that it’s difficult to make out what they are trying to say.

Political Battles Versus Cultural Battles

In the sphere of culture and social life, it’s the politically powerless who score major victories—this is due to the faith that the movements which lack power have in their ideas, the energy and courage that they deploy in propagating them, and the sacrifices that they are willing to make to persuade or coerce society to accept their ideas. The movements which possess political power fail to win the cultural and social battles because their character and spirit is corroded by the privileges which their power confers on them, and they are marked by a void of ideas, energy, courage, and, of course, the ability to make sacrifices for their cause.

Philosophical Theory and Practice

To preach a philosophy is human; to live by the teachings of a philosophy is divine—the world is full of preachers of philosophy, but there has never been a man who lives by the teachings of a philosophy; all philosophers have sinned and have fallen short of their own teachings.

Consequences of the End of Capitalism

The liberals are bragging about the imminent end of capitalism as if the end is a great achievement, but they are most eager to conceal an important fact: capitalism is being abandoned by the children of capitalism, who don’t know how to survive without the products of capitalism—the end of capitalism means the end of their entire civilization.

The Wolves of 2020

The political and intellectual establishment speaks in one voice; they are a pack, a pack of wolves—they howl together; a line from Rudyard Kipling’s poem especially applies to them: “the strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack.” In the year 2020, political agenda is set, not by evidence or ideology, but by the howling of the wolves who are the pack.

Brave New World of Microchip Implants

The future? There is no future except a brave new world of humans implanted with a microchip, which detects their geolocation and health related information, and communicates the data in real time to a central grid. In two years, we will see a campaign to create a public opinion in favor of microchip implants—we will be told that the microchip will save society from crime, by making it easier to track people with criminal background, and from pandemics, by identifying individuals who show symptoms of communicable diseases. And we, my poor friends, will accept that the microchip implant is a good thing and we will eagerly line up to have it surgically implanted in our body. My prediction is that in ten years, close to twenty-five percent of the population in advanced countries will have the microchip implant, and in twenty years, ninety percent will have the implant. People will choose to have the implant not only because they will be convinced that it will make society safer but also because they will find that without an implant they cannot work in government organizations or big corporations; they cannot fly, take a train ride, or even hire a cab; they cannot go to areas where people gather in large numbers—schools, malls, theaters, beaches, hospitals. The few people who refuse to have the implant will be forced to exist in the fringes of society, like the “proles” that Orwell has described in his novel 1984.

On Optimism and Pessimism

I view “optimism” and “pessimism” as “isms” or philosophies—optimism is the philosophy of the feeble-brained pollyannas who believes that all problems, big or small, are mere blips and that in the long run things will turn out to be just fine and a perfect society will be created; pessimism, on the other hand, is the philosophy of men with practical experience who understand that the world is a hard place and that if they do not conduct themselves with wisdom and care, they will make bad choices and ruin their community. Optimism turns a man towards utopianism and liberalism; pessimism turns a man towards conservatism and republicanism.

Mystery is Vital for a Platonic Atlantis

Plato says that the republic of the children of the mind lies “beyond the last peaks and all the seas of the world.” To the republic of the children of the mind, Plato gives the name “Atlantis,” which is not modeled after any existing society and represents a new spirit of humanity, a venturing into a higher level of civilization. But an Atlantis cannot be founded in a known continent which is filled with the madding crowd of humanity—it needs a new place, which, as Plato puts it, lies “beyond the last peaks and all the seas of the world,” or is shrouded in mystery.

The First Twenty Years

The first twenty years of the twenty-first century can be summed up in these words: terrorism, leftism, religious fundamentalism, neoliberalism, neoconservatism, climate change-ism, nihilism, fascism, minority-ism, sexism, neo-racism, revisionism, pandemic-ism. The world has not made any worth noticing scientific, technological, industrial, or political achievement in the first twenty years of the twenty-first century.

2020: The Year of Frankenstein

The history of the year 2020 will be a long history; long will be its months, long its days, and long its hours. After five or ten years, when historians start writing the history of 2020, they will analyze this year, hour by hour, and day by day, instead of having an overview of all the 366 days. The historians might call 2020, the year of Frankenstein—underneath the complexities related to healthcare, politics, and economy, 2020 is breeding an enormous mob of Frankensteins; in one or two years, the Frankensteins will flood the streets and extort a massive political price.

When Marx Shaves his Beard

Question: What happens when Karl Marx shaves his beard?

Answer: The smiling face of Comrade Josef Stalin is revealed.

François Mauriac's Vipers' Tangle

If you are feeling miserable for any reason (the lockdowns or something else), read François Mauriac Vipers' Tangle, which is the story of Monsieur Louis, whose great misery will make you forget your own. Monsieur Louis, an embittered aging lawyer, is fabulously wealthy and is dying, and he is being driven to wretchedness by his estranged family who are waiting for him to die so that they can seize his property. He writes a journal to make his family realize why his heart is a tangle of poisonous vipers. But the book has a sort of blissful climax—during a hailstorm, by the blessing of god, the realization dawns on Monsieur Louis that his torment is due to his preoccupation with profit and property, and he detects in a corner of heart the semblance of something that he identifies as love. “How strange it is that when life is just beginning for us, and when a little happiness comes our way, no warning voice is heard.”

Healthy Society Versus Unhealthy Society

In a healthy society the weeds disappear while the useful plants and trees remain, but in an unhealthy society the cruel law of reverse-evolution operates: the useful plants and trees disappear while the weeds remain. Society in the year 2020 is in an extreme state of unhealthiness which is why our politics, academia, mainstream media, and big business are swamped with weeds, and the useful plants and trees are nowhere to be found.

On Environmentalism

Environmentalism taking centerstage in politics is a sign of a nation’s decline. When a nation is on the rise, its politics is oblivious to the environment; its people are filled with lust for defying the environment—they build roads, factories, megacities, train lines, airports, dams, power plants, ports, oil refineries, and try to break through the sky to reach the moon and planets. The spirit of defying the environment is a necessary condition for a nation’s progress, but environmentalism weakens this spirit by depicting every human activity as a moral vice.

On Flattening the Curve

The world leaders who are trying to “flatten the curve” have not been able to flatten their own curve—they display a grander potbelly, chubbier face, and fleshier hands. The big initiatives for “flattening the curve” are being taken in North America, Europe, and Asia, and in the nations in these three continents most politicians have gained weight in the last four months.

The Mistakes of the Libertarian Philosophers

The philosophers of libertarianism have committed a great mistake and done harm by their excessive intellectualizing of liberty, free markets, and minimum government. The libertarian writing on these subjects is dry as dust and soulless logic-chopping, which fuels the suspicion that liberty, free markets, and minimum government are not only utopian but also inimical to culture and religion. Instead of making people enthusiastic about libertarian ideas, the libertarian philosophers drive them into the opposite direction—away from liberty, away from free markets, away from minimum government, and into the arms of socialism and neoliberalism.

Thomas Aquinas on Patriotism

Thomas Aquinas preaches that patriotism is a moral virtue and its absence is moral vice. Here’s an excerpt from Summa Theologiae (translation by Alfred J. Freddoso)

"A man becomes a debtor to others in diverse ways in accord with the diverse types of their excellence and the diverse benefits that he receives from them.  In both these regards, God occupies the highest place, since He is the most excellent of all and the first principle of both our being and our governance.  But in second place, the principles of our being and governance are our parents and our country, by whom and in which we are born and governed.  And so, after God, a man is especially indebted to his parents and to his country.  Hence, just as [the virtue of] religion involves venerating God, so, at the second level, [the virtue of] piety involves venerating one’s parents and country.  Now the veneration of one’s parents includes venerating all of one’s blood relatives... On the other hand, the veneration of one’s country includes the veneration of one’s fellow citizens and of all the friends of one’s country."

The Failure of the Intellectuals

It’s the easiest thing for the intellectuals to wreck the defenses of their country through their unfounded conviction that their arguments and ideas are all that is needed to ensure their country’s security and their equally unfounded trust in the good intentions of other nations.

Oracle of Delphi on America-China Conflict

When Croesus, the King of Lydia, went to the Oracle of Delphi and asked if he could win a war against Persia, the Delphic priestess replied that if he went to war, he would destroy a great empire. Croesus, becoming convinced, that it was written in the stars that he would destroy the Persian empire, went to war, but his army was vanquished at the battlefield and the empire that was destroyed was his own. Coming to our own time, the Oracle of Delphi has predicted that a great empire will be destroyed if there is a serious military conflict between America and China. But which great empire will it be: American or Chinese?

Animosity Inspires Imitation

The animosity between religions and races runs hand in hand with imitation. History shows that the religious and racial groups which hate each other often try to imitate—they develop similar moral, intellectual, political, and militaristic standards at some point, but this usually implies a downfall in the standards of the religion and race whose way of life is more advanced.

On National Character

Nations, like individuals, have such a thing as a character, and the world is home to several types of national characters; there are instances where the difference in national character is drastic, almost antithetical, but in other instances, the difference in national character is relatively minor. How is a nation’s character formed—is it linked to the history of its civilization, the race and religion of its dominant population, its geographical features, its intellectual and scientific achievements, its political and economic system, its art and culture? Does national character determine a nation’s culture, politics, and economy, or is it the other way round? Can a nation’s character be transformed or subverted, or does it last till the nation is in existence?

A Paradox of Human Nature

It’s a paradox of human nature that the youngsters who have an easy and prosperous upbringing, on becoming adults, turn their face to immoralism, nihilism, and apocalyptic cults, while those who are born without sufficient resources and, from their early years, have to work hard to get their daily bread, on attaining adulthood, turn their full-face to good life, morality, and the idea of human progress through intellectualism, good culture, liberty, and innovation.

Philosophy and Play; Individualism and Collectivism

A community will not have good philosophy until it has good sports—the Ancient Greeks were the world’s first philosophers and they were the world’s first people to play (the first Olympic Games was organized in Ancient Greece and is traditionally dated to 776 BC). A community will not have individualism, until it has strong collectivist institutions—the Ancient Greeks were the first to philosophize on individualism, and they were the first to train their soldiers (hoplites) to parade with full disciple, wear common uniform which included metal body armor, and fight shoulder to shoulder in a strict military formation (phalanx).

Liberals and The Great Dumbing Down

If people learn to think for themselves, the surest prop of liberal political power gets demolished; this is why the control of the mainstream media, academia, and entertainment industry is of critical importance to the liberals—in the last hundred years, they have been using these three sectors to ensure that people become incapable of critical thinking, especially on politics and culture. In countries with powerful liberal political movements, the  population gets dumbed down through the years, and there eventually comes a stage where most people become so dumb that they cannot notice that they and those around them have been dumbed down, and that their culture is in the hands of yahoos.

On Faith

The knowledge that we get through the faculties of reason or intellect is partial—this knowledge will tell us about the material aspects (how much, from what, from where, when, and how), but it will not tell us about the values (moral or immoral; sublime or corporeal; artistic or vulgar; certain or doubtful). We cannot have full understanding of existence through the use of reason or intellect; we have to look at another resource to fulfill our need for understanding the values, and that resource is faith. Faith is not opinion; it’s not the conclusions that we reach by rigorous application of reason or intellect—it’s something different, something quite unique.

The Duel Between Physics and Biology

At a cosmic level there is a conflict between physics (matter) and biology (life)—physics, as we understand it, says that the universe had a beginning (Big Bang) and it will come to an end when all its energy gets exhausted (Big Crunch). But biology wants to know that if the universe, with all life in it, will one day end, then why did life evolve? The question is: Should the considerations of physics be allowed to override the interests of biology? Physics (matter) is concerned with only the mathematical and scientific outcome, but biology (life) wants to transcend the mathematical and scientific in the hope of existing forever.

Do I Read The Newspaper?

Someone asked me: “Do you even read the newspaper?”
My answer: “No, I only look at it.”

The USA Versus China

If there is a serious military confrontation between the USA and China, the USA will ultimately win, but in a generally peaceful or “cold” confrontation between the two nations, China has a clear advantage. In the last thirty years, China has made several inroads into American society; they control a chunk of American art, movies, academia, media, big business, and politics—in a “cold” confrontation, the Americans will not be united, as they will be in a serious military confrontation, and so they will be fighting not only the China that exists outside their borders but also the pro-China elements who hold commanding positions in their own society.

Liberalism and the Dream of Utopia

To the liberals, reality is disheartening and frightening, and they find a refuge in a utopia. The intellectuals among the liberals know that the utopia is unattainable, but since they believe in the political dogma that it’s better to reign in hell than serve in heaven, they keep egging their followers to crush the past and the present, and, if necessary, create a hell while questing for the heaven or utopian future. Will the hand of truth at any time reduce the myth of liberal utopianism to the putrid mass that it deserves to be? That is not likely because the power of the liberals over their followers, the brainwashed democratic rabble, is overpowering—moreover, too many politicians, intellectuals, and businessmen have been milking liberalism to make financial gain; they will never allow the dream of utopia to die.

The Experience of the Sacred

Religion is not about god; it’s about the experience of the sacred, which is the driver of intellectualism and morality. When the atheists deny religion, they are suppressing and desecrating the sacred—this makes them alienated from the intellectual and moral roots of their society. The communities in which atheism takes root are unintellectual and immoral.

The New Terra Incognita

The planet earth is fast becoming terra incognita, if it has not already become so—in name of battling the pandemic, vast stretches of the planet have barricaded themselves against the truth; only the politically connected voices are likely to be heard.

Defeatism: The New Western Ideology

The dominant ideology of the western countries in the twenty-first century is defeatism, pure and simple. The people who vanquished Nazism in the 1940s, and the Soviet Union in 1991, are now so enfeebled and unintellectual that they readily surrender their life, property, and culture to any threat, real or imagined, which suddenly pops up and utters “boo”: global warming, climate change, global pandemic, systemic racism, sexism, misogyny, rising China, radical islam, North Korea, and even plastic straws and cups. They no longer have the will to promote free markets and democracy or be the world's superpower, especially when the immediate task of exorcising the demons of history seems so formidable.

On Imperialism

Imperialism is an immutable civilizational force. If history reveals anything, it reveals that every great civilization has a passion for conquest and domination; it’s driven to make cultural, intellectual, religious, and militaristic efforts to conquer and dominate all the communities that it discovers. In the last seven thousand years, the communities in most parts of the world have been targeted by imperialistic civilizational forces at different points of time; only those communities have escaped the clutches of imperialism that were existing in total isolation, in a remote island, in the middle of a desert, or in a valley surrounded by high mountains.

A Bit Of Machiavellian Wisdom

Machiavelli says in The Prince that whoever becomes the cause of another becoming powerful, ensures his own ruin—from this bit of Machiavellian wisdom I infer that if a community sacrifices its intellectual, political, and financial achievements to raise the standards of a backward community, then it will, at some point of time, itself become backward.

Who is in Belly of the Trojan Horse?

The irony is that today the defenders of capitalism and good culture are within the belly of the Trojan Horse, while the socialists and nihilists are in control of the fortress.

On Wars

Wars are destructive but cannot be avoided, and when nations go to war, there is every justification for using the most effective methods of waging and ending the war—if conventional weapons are not effective, then atomic weapons can be used to break the enemy nation’s spirit and force it to surrender. There is nothing unique about the devastation caused by atomic weapons. The Rwandan genocide is a case in point—between 7 April and 15 July 1994, the Hutu and Tutsi tribes in Rwanda butchered an estimated 500,000 to 1,000,000 people using stones, sticks, knives, spears, and fire. The death toll in the Rwandan genocide, conducted with Stone Age and Bronze Age weapons, is greater than the death toll from the use of atomic weapons in Japan in 1945. I have no patience for the views of peaceniks.

The Conservative Way Versus The Liberal Way

The conservatives are preoccupied with traditions and morals, and their preachers are traditionalists first and humanists next. Their insistent preaching is directed towards building of character; they exhort their youth to strive to be as good as their ancestors. The liberals, on the other hand, are preoccupied with proving that the norms of traditions and morality are anti-freedom, and their preachers are alienated individualists first and nihilists next. Their insistent preaching is directed towards creating individuals who are alienated and nihilistic, and seek total freedom from the bondage of traditions and morality.

The World is Being Re-Barbarized

Whose fault is it that the world is what it is? We began in the age of Enlightenment and worked without intermission for two centuries to create what? A bunch of fascistic democracies which are re-barbarizing the people!

A Good Nation is a River and Not a Pond

If a nation wants its history to keep flowing like a river, it must endeavor to raise itself to a higher level of culture, politics, economic progress, and technological excellence every fifty years; otherwise the nation’s river will stop flowing—the river will transform into a pond whose surface is covered with green algae and on whose banks there exist the “human scum” who have lost their intellect, enterprise, and sense of culture and morality, and who subsist by feeding on the pond’s rotten algae and fish and on the weeds growing on the land.

Human Nature and Morality

Morality should never entail a rebellion against human nature. Nothing that is impossible to human beings can be moral; it can, on the other hand, be immoral. All moral exhortations, which are against human nature, should be outrightly rejected.

Rise of the King Cobra

Between 2008 and 2016, the liberals became drunk with hubris and started feeling that they were invincible—they were convinced by their cronies in the mainstream media that the conservatives and nationalists were a spent force, and that the liberal political agenda would be unstoppable in the next fifty years. But in late 2016, politics took an unexpected turn, and since then the liberals have been watching with outrage and horror the spectacle of a new kind of conservatism and nationalism rearing itself up, like a King Cobra spreading its hood and hissing.

Who is the Greatest Philosopher?

If I stand in front of the magic mirror and say, “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the greatest philosopher of them all?” The magic mirror will certainly reply: “Plato, but not Plato, alas! Aristotle, but not Aristotle, alas! Immanuel Kant, but not Immanuel Kant, alas!” Every great philosopher is a universe by himself, and it is impossible to decide which universe is the best.

The Failure of the Liberal and Neoconservative Agenda

The management of the post-Soviet Union world (world after 1991) by the liberals and neoconservatives is a story of human stupidity—a tale full of utopian dreams of “end of history” and the rise of “a global utopia of liberty and free markets,” but in essence signifying nothing; a pathetic tale of bombastic claims pitted against ineluctable facts. The cause of liberty and free markets becomes a mockery, if the price paid is the destruction of those who are expected to thrive under a capitalist system—but that is exactly what the neoconservatives and the liberals have been doing since 1991; they have been chasing liberty and free markets around the globe and causing mindless destruction in several nations. The election of Trump in 2016 must be seen as a reaction to the failure of the neoconservative and liberal agendas.

Newton’s Third Law and the Mind

Newton’s third law of motion is applicable to man’s mind as well—every political action provokes an equal and opposite emotional reaction in our mind.

A Philosophical Explanation of Capitalism is not Possible

A philosophical view of capitalist society cannot be developed; the moment we try to develop a philosophical explanation for the five pillars of capitalism—reason, liberty, free markets, rule of law, and history—the five pillars slip out of our grasp. Capitalism, being an outcome of political action, all aspects of it cannot be explained in the language of abstract philosophy.

Why I Didn’t Watch the Movie Joker?

In Agatha Christie’s novel A Murder Is Announced, a character says, "I didn't want to kill her. I didn't want to kill anybody — I had to…” (The character, to be fair, is not expressing Christie’s political viewpoints, but attempting to defend herself.) After the 1960s, the neoliberal left has developed the ideological position that most criminals are a victim of the injustices which are intrinsic to capitalist society; they assert that capitalism is so unfair that it breeds alienation and resentment and forces people to become monstrous killers. Like Christie’s character, the liberals say, “They didn’t want to kill anybody—they had to…” and they preach sympathy for the psychology of those who go on a killing spree. Recently, I saw, or tried to see, the movie Joker—I could not watch it after the first 10 minutes; I found it boring. The movie, it seems (I can’t be sure, having seen only a slice of it), is a defense of the psychopath Arthur Fleck (the Joker)—it portrays Fleck as a sort of anti-hero, who is forced to become a psychopathic killer after being bullied and harassed for his financial, health-related, and psychological problems. The Joker is a sick movie which seeks to justify Arthur Fleck’s antisocial character and brutal crimes.

Jean Valjean Versus Javert

In Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables, the cop Javert has the protagonist Jean Valjean trapped in a narrow street from which the only way of escaping is by climbing two perpendicular walls of great height. Jean Valjean is with the child Cosette but he manages to escape with her by the virtue of the massive strength of his arms and legs—carrying her on his shoulders, he climbs over the two perpendicular walls and climbs down from the other side leaving Javert dumbfounded. But today’s man does not possess the strength and courage of Jean Valjean; if he is trapped by a leftist mob in a narrow street, he will look for a ladder, which will never arrive.

On Whiners & Snarlers

The man who whines knows how to snarl; today’s whiner is tomorrow’s snarler who will readily join violent mobs and indulge in looting, arson, and other kinds of disorderly behavior to force society to grant him the respect, wealth, and power that he does not deserve. Whining is not a sign of intelligence or virtue—it’s a prelude to snarling and political vices.

Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained

The nationalist movement qua agitation is in the dumps. For those who favor a capitalistic democracy, the downfall of nationalism signals “Paradise Lost.” Nationalism, democracy, and capitalism have marched together since the Industrial Revolution. But the young generation has been coaxed by the “Leftist Serpent” to eat the “Forbidden Fruit” of anarchism and nihilism—they have been transformed into “Useful Idiots” who will happily rip apart the social system, based on nationalism, democracy, and capitalism, in which they have some possibility of leading a good life. The "Leftist Serpent” has mustered a great army, but they cannot win; they will fail for the same reasons for which communism failed to conquer the world in the twentieth century—the communists could not deliver the utopia that they had promised and this forced their best intellects to flee from the communist movement. The army of the contemporary left too will start melting away in the next ten years when the anarchistic and nihilistic utopia fails to materialize.

The New Age of Anti-Capitalism

A new age of anti-capitalism has dawned; this time the nations are not discarding capitalism because they want to adopt socialism or communism but because they want to be free from the bondage of culture, constitution, and economics—they see every past and present value, the book of constitution, and the rules of economics as an instrument of oppression and want to live free in a nihilistic and anarchistic utopia. The liberal elite, who control the mainstream media, the digital industry, and the academic industry, are playing a major role in making a case for the utopia of nihilism and anarchism—their propaganda has ensured that the public opinion is firmly set against all forms of democracy and capitalism, and working in favor of razing all values and rules.

Americans in 1991 Versus Americans in 2020

Americans in 1991 (after the fall of the Soviet Union): all nations will now accept the free market democratic system; history has come to an end—there will be no world historical conflicts in the future. Americans in 2020: free markets is racist; democracy is misogynist; there are 74 genders; truth is anti-minority rights; fossil fuels are evil; climate change will kill half of humanity, the other half will be killed by the virus pandemic; if you won’t support the lockdown and mask culture, you are a psychopath; Gone With The Wind is liked by racist-sexist dunderheads; cancel history, cancel classics. What a difference thirty years makes in a nation’s outlook?

Rejection of Aristotelian Biology in 2020

In his commentary on health and diseases, Aristotle follows his bent as a biologist and looks at how the body of the healthy members of any species works. He notes that the creatures which fail to match the health standards of the healthy members of their species are unhealthy or diseased. Since the time of Aristotle, the field of medicine has followed his methodology of using the health indices of the healthy men and women as the optimal standard for all human beings. But in 2020, the medical establishments in most nations have engineered a biological inversion; in the ongoing virus pandemic, they are using the health indices of the few unhealthy men and women to develop criteria which are applicable to everyone—this has led to an economic and political distress which might destroy more lives than the pandemic.

The Barbarians Who Disregard History

History is not a fairytale; it’s not a love story. It’s the story of the achievements and the failures of our ancestors; of the terrors and cataclysms as well as the genius and grandeur; of the cruelties, persecutions, and wars as well as the achievements in philosophy, science, literature, engineering, art, and politics. History enables us to learn lessons from the past; it tells us who we are, what our proper place is in the universe. Those who despise history and try to obliterate it from public domain are the barbarians whose rise in politics means the end of a civilization.

Green Shoots Versus Oak Trees

People look at the few green shoots in the cornfields and think that a new civilization is arising, but a civilization is not created by the weak and ephemeral green shoots—it’s created by the giant battle-hardened oak trees which carry the scars of the centuries. The political movements of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries (neoliberalism, existentialism, libertarianism, neoconservatism, antifa) are the green shoots, which are here today, gone tomorrow, but the traditions and movements which have come down to us from the Ancient and Middle Ages are the giant oak trees which will keep supporting us for centuries in the future.

Unemployment and Revolutions

Unemployment has nothing to do with revolutionary activities for the simple reason that most people join the revolutionary movements when they are young school or college students (the average age of the revolutionaries is between fourteen and twenty years); they come from well-to-do middle class homes, and many belong to the wealthy class. So there is no problem of livelihood for these revolutionaries. Those who face problems of livelihood have no time for revolutionary activities—they are busy looking for jobs or the means to start a small business.

From Where Does Power Grow?

For the communists, power grows out of the barrel of a gun; for the Antifa, power grows out of the butt of a gun—after being knocked down by the gun’s recoil, the weedy-wispy Antifa activists will surmise that the gun’s butt is the source of its power.

The Questions of Philosophy are Unanswerable

Philosophy has sustained itself for more than two thousand years by trying to find the answers to the fundamental questions raised by Socrates and Plato—on the nature of reality, man’s place in the universe, the relation between mind and matter, the ways of leading a moral life and creating a perfect society—but till now none of these questions have been convincingly answered and there is little likelihood of them ever being convincingly answered. This can mean two things—one, the questions raised by Socrates and Plato are invalid and must be rejected; two, philosophy is an endless quest to find answers to questions that are fundamentally unanswerable.

On Political Competence of the Conservatives

A competent politician will address the concerns of his supporters first and then declare a war on his rivals, while an incompetent politician will declare a war on his rivals before addressing the concerns of his supporters. In our times, the conservatives are proving to be the competent politicians, while the liberals are making too many blunders. In the next two years, it seems, the conservatives will win the elections in most democratic countries.

Rereading Gone With The Wind

Rereading Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With The Wind: Thank you, liberals—for creating a hoopla and reminding me that more than two decades have passed since I read this great book, and that it’s time for me to reread it.

On Fascism

Fascism is an ideology which tries to acquire political power through movements which claim to be fighting fascism. When the fascists become convinced that they are fighting fascism, their moral fury and political energy reaches the apogee, and they work like devil’s minions to achieve their political goals—hell hath no fury like the fascists who are fighting fascism.

The Periodic Law of Major Civilizations

The passion to innovate, discover, and create and make cultural progress, or indulge in an orgy of insanity, destruction, depravity, and nihilism comes and goes cyclically in all major civilizations—their history follows a “periodic law.” The major civilizations are currently in the phase of insanity, destruction, depravity, and nihilism—they are self-destructing by squandering their resources on battling unreal threats while ignoring the real threats.

A Benefit of Wisdom

A man of wisdom has the merit at least of being able to laugh at the fools and rogues in politics and media, whom a man lacking in wisdom might be so weak as to hate.

On Optimism, Utopianism, & Perfectionism

Optimism in individuals, utopianism in political movements, and perfectionism in philosophical movements is a sign of ignorance and dumbness.

On Nations & Historical Trends

No nation can resist a historical trend; if time has come for it to pass out of history, then it will.

2020: The Year of the Post-Truth

The mind-numbing speed and draconian irrationality with which major democratic nations have decimated their economy and culture in the first five months of 2020, and forced millions of innocent people to commit professional harakiri and forgo their life’s ambitions, is a sign that the world has entered the post-truth age of politics. Facts and truth no longer have the power to influence the government’s policies; the political debate is now a play of clever arguments (often specious) and emotional melodrama. The public opinion, driven by the mainstream media, is blind and its fickleness is terrifying to watch—the biggest concerns that humanity faces, according to the mainstream media, are: climate change, global pandemic, gender, racism, sexism, misogyny, and minority rights. Seeking facts and truth is a proof of irrational behavior; rationality in the post-truth age entails being in awe of the clever arguments and emotional melodrama of the politicians in power, the intellectuals and experts in TV, and the mobs in the streets.

The Western and Asian Minds in 2020

Seven problems plague the Western mind in the year 2020: climate change, global pandemic, gender, racism, sexism, minority rights, and multiculturalism. These seven problems are not founded on the evidence gathered through a scientific methodology but on the theories of the philosophers and activists belonging to the Frankfurt School, the postmodernist movement, the libertarian and anarchistic movements, and the neoliberal and neoconservative movements. For a century, the Asian mind has blindly followed the Western mind, and most Asian nations accept that the seven problems are real and need to be dealt with swiftly. Today the entire world is engaged in fighting the seven mythical problems invented by philosophers and activists—the year 2020 will go down in history as the year of peak insanity.

Why National Standards Decline?

People imitate their intellectual and political leaders; when the intellectuals and politicians are immoral, ignorant, tyrannical, and cowardly, a decline in the nation’s moral, intellectual, and political intellectual standards is certain.

Presaging the Disasters

By the time a nation diagnoses the disasters it faces, in most cases, it's already past the stage at which they can be expunged. A good standard of living cannot be maintained without the capacity to foresee the coming disasters and making preparations to protect society. From the knowledge of the past (history and traditions), people gain an insight into the experiences of their ancestors, and they develop the talent for assessing the present for signs of future disasters. But when the times are good, the new generation becomes attracted to liberalism and nihilism, which thrive by weakening the sense of history and traditions—their capacity to study the past, conduct an assessment of the present, and presage the future gets atrophied. A nation of liberal and nihilistic people cannot fend off the smallest disaster.

Moralist Versus Nihilist

The distinction between a moralist and a nihilist: the moralist is concerned about his people only (himself, his family, his friends, and if he is politically aware, his community and nation); the nihilist, on the other hand, is a globalist, he is concerned about all of humankind (a man who is concerned about all human beings, is concerned about no one, not even himself).

Inferior Life Versus Superior Life

In a conservative country, when two types of life, one inferior and one superior, come in contact, the inferior life tries to improve its own standards so that it might emulate the superior life. In a liberal country, however, the opposite happens—the superior life degrades itself, gives up its high standards, and tries to emulate the inferior life.

The Conservative Mind: From 1991 to Today

From the year 1991 (the fall of the Soviet Union) to 2000, the conservatives were overconfident and unquestioningly complacent; from 2001 to 2009, they were rebellious, bellicose, and utopian; from 2010 to 2016, they were filled with facile pessimism and political disorientation; from 2017 till today, their mood has oscillated between euphoric despair and melancholic hope.

The Politics of Hate

In a community, the inclination to hate is like a drug habit; once adopted, the hate cannot be shaken off—their politics, for as long as the community remains united, is motivated by the hatred of others; they do not introspect, they never think of doing anything to improve themselves, and they spend their entire life blaming others for their woes. The communities, which get addicted to hate, generally vote for the liberal political parties.

The Contradictions of Practical Politics

The more well-intentioned the people, the more prone they become to utter drivel; the more saintly the political leader, the more prone he is to committing monstrous acts.

The Visible and the Invisible Side of the Masses

Like the moon, the masses have two sides, one side is visible and bright while the other side is invisible and dark. The visible side of the masses yearns for a society in which all human beings can pursue their rational ambitions and live a good life, but the invisible side has on it the predilections created by false values, in which feelings of irrationalism, jealousy, and hatred are inbuilt. The contest between the visible and the invisible side of the masses determines the course of a nation’s politics. The liberals are good at appealing to the invisible side of the masses, while the conservatives are good at appealing to the visible side.

What Paves the Path to a Good Society?

The path to hell is paved with good intentions, but what about the path to heaven or a good society—how is that paved? The answer is that the path to a good society is not paved with mere intentions—it’s paved with the real deeds of rational, moral, and intelligent people.