Disturbing American Flags

A reporter speaks of her harrowing experience on Long Island.

Her complaint starts with American flags flying from the backs of pickup trucks, and later expands to dozens and dozens of American flags flying per se. I remembered later how, in 2003, Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean sparked a minor furor by saying that he wanted "to be the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks," adding that he only thought they could win by appealing "to a broad cross-section of Democrats." It's true that Clinton and Gore had run using Confederate flag campaign memorabilia, and that Jimmy Carter was often seen with Confederate flags. For that matter, here's JFK being presented with one, though like Dean he was a non-Southerner who had no plausible heritage-based reasons to associate with it. 

Both of those Democratic campaigns had carried Georgia, and therefore the White House. However, by 1996 Zell Miller as Governor of Georgia was trying to remove the Confederate flag from the state flag, which his successor succeeded in doing; by 2003, Dean was the last person to think that guys with Confederate flags flying from the backs of their pickup trucks were good people whose votes he wanted.

I can understand the way that Democrats decided to stop chasing white Southerners of proud Confederate heritage as voters. The Democrats' own history there is extremely embarrassing -- being the party of the Confederacy, the KKK, and Jim Crow -- and the story they'd like to tell of themselves was the Civil Rights story they've come to prefer. Republicans somehow allowed themselves to become painted as the heritage party of racism and all that, even though they had historically been a major force in opposition. This is similar to how nobody remembers the NRA's role in providing arms and training to black Freedmen, nor for that matter the NRA's role in helping arm the UK against Nazi invasion in World War II. Both organizations had every right to stand on their history and fight for it, but somehow both groups got stuck with the worst labels. 

What is happening now, as this reporter shows, is that 'men who fly flags from their pickup trucks' is becoming an undesirable part of the story the Democratic Party wants to tell about itself. Indeed, it is 'men who fly American flags at all.' They are, she says, a minority who should be "marginalized"; also a threat to be taken seriously, worried about, monitored, any force of government that can be marshalled by her side brought to bear against them. 

These are the people she thinks are dangerous to democracy: them, not herself. These are the people that she thinks are dangerous to America: the ones who fly American flags. 

It's madness, a collective madness that she and those interviewing her share (the lady at the end says she 'agrees totally'). Embedded within it is that preferred Democratic story about our history that puts these people on the wrong side of racism, now called 'Whiteness.' She does not know whose ancestors fought against slavery or armed the English against the Nazis. This is Long Island, home of the Creedmore Rifle Range founded in 1872 by the NRA and the state legislature of New York; the whole point was to train the citizens of New York City in riflemanship, to mitigate the advantages of the rural South if another fight were needed. 

She has no idea how wildly wrong she is, and neither do any of them; but they think they are the educated ones, just as they think they are the democratic ones. Their madness is a drumbeat driving our nation to ruin; but they believe they are its only saviors. 

When snowflakes strike

Powerline assesses the New Yorker union webpage. His favorite line (and mine) is "prestige without the pay is élitist." If you don't pay me a wage commensurate with my staggering prestige, you force me to taint myself with elitism, and that would be wrong.

Daddy

I don’t know if I put this up here before, but I meant to do. 

“43 has got the nerve.” Yeah he did. 

Some Remarks on Hillbillies

From someone named Robert Weissberg:

At the core of this elitist fear of Hillbillies (aka Po White, Rednecks, or Trailer Park Trash) is the elite’s realization that these denizens of rural America enjoy an almost genetic immunity to today’s race-based, politically correct narrative. Yes, the Dukes of Hazzard County folk may not be the brightest bulbs in the chandelier or especially well-informed politically, but when they hear mendacious anti-American lies, they may as well be rocket scientists. They admire America for what it is, not according to some bizarre ideology cooked up in a faculty lounge. Unlike timid elected officials, these people are not afraid of expressing “offensive’ views....

Hillbillies refuse to be placated by the elite’s permission to run wild and grab free stuff. No member of the White Trash Community will have their political grievances satisfied by looting Farm and Fleet or upsetting tables at a Cracker Barrel.

The Hillbilly Community is not easily bought off with elite-supplied goodies such as overpaid jobs as professors of Appalachian Studies or campus directors of outreach dedicated to targeting underserved rural populations. Nor are they willing to sacrifice personal freedom (and self-respect) to qualify as affirmative action hires. Chuck Yaeger would never have enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Forces if they lowered standards to fill diversity quotas.

I don't know who this guy is, but he should talk to Joe Bob Briggs. He's got a whole speech about this. Here's a sample.

I'd add that the gun-owning community, which overlaps somewhat with the community under discussion here (though far from perfectly) has responded to recent events not by looting but by purchasing ammunition. We're two years out on backorders right now; old manufacturing lines are being reopened to satisfy demand.

On old guns too: I hear Marlin Firearms lever actions may be available again soon. 

All Livestock

 

Prudence from West Virginia

Senator Joe Manchin saves the Republic from a grave peril by an exercise of practical wisdom. Well done. 

D-Day

A long time ago now, and very few are alive who remember it. Since we have had pipers this week, here’s a couple of videos remembering the role of Bill Millin. He was one man among many thousands, all united in common purpose. 

Actual Treason in the Senate

A book reviewed by MIT Press points out that Ted Kennedy had a KGB liaison, and that he regularly communicated with the USSR on undercutting American foreign policy. 

That explains his long, deep friendship with John Kerry. 

Ace in the Hole

Hank Thompson on the ways that the protest movement was funded circa 1968.

JP on CRT

Continuing the theme ...

As a bonus video, Ryan Long explains the many differences between racists and wokists ... er, something.

The AJC on CRT

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has this to say about Critical Race Theory:

Critical race theory. Once an academic abstraction discussed in college classrooms, it’s now a flashpoint for conservatives who say it is influencing what is being taught in grade schools. 

The decades-old concept seeks to highlight how racism influences all aspects of society and how past systemic inequities continue to shape policies.

The concept has become politicized with critics saying it distorts history. They say it casts white people as exploiters who owe a debt to everyone else, especially Black people.

The 'concept' has not 'become politicized,' though. It was always an inherently political mode of analysis. 

The AJC tries to paint this as a conservatives vs. everyone issue, but in fact the hottest critics of CRT are on the left. Major historians who objected to the 1619 project were published by the World Socialist.  As for CRT broadly, here's a sample of their opinion:

Identity politics serves to divide workers into warring camps based on superficial aspects of their identity. There is no challenge to the existing structure of society, only a shuffling of the deck chairs.

The fact of the matter is that identity politics and reactionary ideologies such as intersectionality are not merely compatible with the needs of US imperialism and its institutions like the CIA; they are an essential tool utilized by the bourgeoisie to maintain its class domination over the working class by keeping workers divided along racial and gender lines.

The actual Marxists object stridently because they see CRT (and similar critical theories) as hijacking their 'true and correct' analysis that everything is explicable in terms of economics; instead they try to explain everything in terms of race or sex or sexuality or whatever. If you're a true believer in Marxism, that's always going to lead to bad outcomes because it draws people away from the real problem, and divides them into warring camps who are more easily controlled than a united front would be. 

They have a point. These theories divide us into warring camps according to criteria we can neither choose nor change. That does, in fact, make Americans as a whole easier to control. It makes it less likely that united fronts will emerge against government corruption, corporate/tech domination of society, or the influence of foreign powers over what is supposed to have been a self-governing nation. 

It's also bad history, as you can read explained by major historians who were interviewed by the World Socialist. 

Trying to Reason from Anecdotes

Point: in Kansas City, a police officer appears to have shot another officer during an arrest (presumably by accident), then killed the person being arrested; the police then reported that the arrested/dead person had been the one to shoot the cop, thus justifying the shooting. Only it was caught on video. 

Counterpoint: in Volusia County Florida, police had responded 300 times to a juvenile group home, only to be ambushed by three of the juveniles who had fled, broken into a nearby lake house, found guns, and taken up shooting at the police for fun. The three were 12-14 years old. The police did eventually shoot one of them, not fatally, but only after enduring an hour and a half of gunfire themselves. 

The police in the second case have a very clear idea of what went wrong there: they say the juvenile system in Florida is broken. The activists in the first case have a very clear idea of what went wrong there: they say the policing system is broken. 

Once we as a culture would have said that these were too specific for general lessons; rather than try to alter legislation or training, we'd have referred the matters to prosecutors for individual trials on the exact charges in play. That era has apparently passed, but the new era leaves us scrambling to try to reason from anecdotes. That a bad thing can possibly happen leads to laws and restrictions that may make it harder for good outcomes to happen in many other cases. The emotions attending the bad cases lead to irrational decisions applied to the whole model. This is no way to run a railroad.

A Major Victory for the Right to Bear Arms

California's 'assault weapons' ban has been overturned.

In his 94-page ruling, the judge spoke favorably of modern weapons, said they were overwhelmingly used for legal reasons.

“Like the Swiss Army knife, the popular AR-15 rifle is a perfect combination of home defense weapon and homeland defense equipment. Good for both home and battle,” the judge said in his ruling’s introduction.

A remarkably sensible ruling to have been written by a judge in California! Good to see some clear thought coming from that quarter. 

A Scottish Evening

Since Tex’s pipes were a big hit, here are some more for the weekend. 

PA Legislators Call for Election Audit

Earlier this week a delegation of Pennsylvania legislators visited the Arizona audit, which they observed and where they obtained briefings by the auditors and some of their peers among Arizona legislators. Today, those Pennsylvania legislators called for an audit of their own.

Tiananmen Anniversary

Thirty-two years ago, Chinese state security forces murdered thousands of innocent protesters in Tiananmen Square. They have been relentlessly tracking the survivors and suppressing the story. Protests commemorating the massacre are forbidden, under penalty of prison for anyone attending one. 

I believe in the virtues of minding one's own business, but somebody has to speak about this for those who can't. There are very decent people in China living under their murderous police state. We have lots of problems of our own, but at least let us remember that they exist and some of what they have suffered. 

UPDATE: Foreign Affairs publishes an article arguing that we should prepare ourselves for the likelihood that Beijing may soon invade Taiwan.

UPDATE: A good move from the Biden administration, which barred investments by US persons in 59 Chinese firms linked to their military and surveillance state. Unfortunately this comes alongside a very bad move, the adoption of some Chinese-made drones by the US military for use.

A Podcast on Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics

So, I promised to try these National Review book podcasts, starting with 182: The Nicomachean Ethics. It's an interview with another Thomas Jefferson professor, this one from the University of Texas, Lorraine Smith Pangle. 

There are a lot of books in this series I have never read, and others I have read only lightly; you have to go all the way back to 163: Return of the King to get to one I feel as comfortable with as I do with Aristotle's ethics. It looks like a great introductory series of bite-sized podcasts on worthy books numerous enough that even well-educated people will have missed many of them.

Because this particular book is one I feel qualified to address, I'm going to take the liberty of answering the interviewer's questions before I listen to Dr. Pangle's answers. You can then compare and contrast what she has to say with what I do. 

Q1: "Why is the Nicomachean Ethics a great book?"

It is great because it teaches you how to be happy as a human being. The answer provided has seemed plausible to ancients, to the Medievals, to the early and late Moderns, and still does to many of us today. Even as you may disagree with parts of it from your own perspective, it gives you an independent place to stand while you criticize your own generation's answers -- one that has withstood the test of time for thousands of years, and inspired many of the best men and women who ever lived.

Q2: "According to Aristotle, what is the good [at which all things aim]?"

The good at which all things aim is existence, but not mere existence: a kind of perfected existence, which we can call 'flourishing' and which is eudaimonia in the Greek. Eudaimonia is often translated as 'happiness,' but it's really not an emotional state per se but this perfection of our existence. This is literally all things, insofar as they have power to aim. Trees move to track the sunlight, which helps them to flourish. Squirrels wildly pursue both food to help them continue to exist in a healthy way, and sex to further their existence into the next generation. Aristotle is going to say that we have both of these sets of capacities, the vegetable (or nutrative) and the animal. But humans also have a rational capacity that he thinks is lacking in those, and so we can pursue the good of a flourishing existence in a much deeper and more complete way. The goal of the ethics is to shape our lives into the best possible ones, the most perfected existence available to us.

[She answers this one in a very different way, one that more closely follows the text's unraveling of the story rather than giving the top-down answer.]

Q3: "What does he say about the good of politics?"

Aristotle, like Plato, thinks that human goods are only achievable in their highest forms in the context of a community devoted to them. Insofar as philosophy is one of the highest expressions of human good, one of the ways we live our most excellent lives, you need a community to sustain it. Partly you need to eat, so some of the community will be devoted to providing for that good; partly you need education. Partly you need others with whom to talk philosophy, who have also been interested in the questions and educated about how to pursue them. This will be true for the other elements of flourishing, such as art or sport or any other. Politics thus has to create a society that produces enough wealth to support the best life, and enough stability to pursue it; and that can defend itself against the outside world well enough to make that life sustainable in a dangerous world. This is one reason courage is both the first virtue he discusses in detail, and one he returns to over and over as an exemplary virtue. The good of politics is, ultimately, creating the conditions for this human good of a flourishing life. 

[She follows the first book's discussion closely here, explaining the end of ethics instead of politics, which is correct scholarship but not really what the interviewer had asked.]

Q4: "No, really, politics?"

[I've already answered this, but she is right to focus on the importance of participation in political life in the best life. Because the business of politics is to create and sustain the conditions for the best life, active participation in this is supposed to be both a part of the good life and a kind of moral duty -- it wouldn't be virtuous to leave this to others and not carry your part of the load, and it is good for both yourself and everyone else that good and virtuous people devote themselves to it.]

Q5: "Explain 'Nicomachean'?"

[I'll leave this one to her able answer, as the follow-on question about organization, and the next question about how important it is to study this closely.]

Q8: "Is this book in dialogue with Socrates and Plato?"

Sometimes explicitly so, for example, Book VII raises Socrates' view of the problem of knowledge and incontinent moral behavior. Scholars debate how much Aristotle was a Platonist and how much he really had a radically different take on the questions Plato and Socrates had raised. In some of Aristotle's works, especially the scientific works, he's doing things that Plato and Socrates may not have even considered; but especially when he writes on moral philosophy, he is right at the core of what most interested both of them, at least as Plato presents Socrates. I would say that Aristotle proposes substantially different answers especially on the nature of virtue, not as a form of knowledge (as Socrates had proposed) but as an active and habitual pursuit of excellence that shapes one's character over time. 

Q9: "What does the word 'Aristotelian' mean?"

Aristotle's works were lost for centuries, during which time much of Plato remained available in the West, as did later Roman thinkers' works. One can use the word to refer to the elements of things like Stoic works that resemble and probably drew on Aristotle's works, but I would tend to employ it more properly to the works of philosophy that were developed in the Islamic, Jewish, and Christian world once Aristotle became available to these later thinkers. The philosophies of all of these civilizations reformed themselves along lines they drew out of Aristotle, and each other's readings of Aristotle, in a way that is like him but also like them. Thus, they are 'Aristotelian.' 

Q10: [This is a question about her particular interpretation and understanding of what Aristotle means; I certainly don't know better than she does what she meant or thinks, so I'll leave those questions to her.]

Q11: "Why is courage so important? Why is it the highest virtue?"

I said above why it was necessary, and exemplary, but courage is not the highest virtue. Rather, it is a particularly clear example. If you want to discuss justice, it can be hard to say what is just; it's not hard to say what the brave thing to do in battle is (i.e., one's duty rather than running away or hiding). So when Aristotle comes around to justice, which many (but not me) believe he thinks is the highest virtue, he returns to courage as an example. Justice, he says, is fairness plus lawfulness -- but 'lawfulness' means something specific, not just obedience to any laws at all. It means that the laws should require you to do what you would do if you were virtuous, i.e., the laws on military service should require you to do your duty and punish you if you run or hide. In this way, Aristotle says, justice is a kind of perfection of virtue.

However, I would argue that justice isn't Aristotle's highest virtue either, but magnanimity. The magnanimous man does what is most worthy of honor. What is most worthy of honor? The most excellent version of the most virtuous thing. The just man does what is virtuous, but perhaps only because he is compelled. The magnanimous man does it because it is excellent, and he strives to do it in the most honorable way that he possibly can. Aristotle describes this as a kind of crown or ornament to virtue, a higher virtue even than justice in my reading.

Q12: "What are the other virtues?"

[No reason to give the list twice, except to note that she gives magnanimity as 'greatness of soul,' which is a literal translation of magna and anima.]

Q13: "What is the role of a community in cultivating these virtues? Is that what politics are all about?"

Already answered, above. However, I want to note that she raises a point about the importance of a good upbringing in moral education that I didn't, but that was a focal point of one of my teachers' thinking on Aristotle. 

Q14: "You mentioned this version of politics is not liberal. What did you mean by that?"

[Again, it's only proper that she should speak for herself about her own thoughts! I do agree with her understanding of what Aristotle was about, though.]

Q15: "Is this a book that every public official should read or is it just too remote from their everyday concerns?"

I doubt most of them are capable of understanding it, nor even very interested in it -- mostly our public officials are thieves and liars, not the kind of virtuous men and women Aristotle was addressing. 

[I endorse her answer as to why ordinary citizens should definitely engage it, however, just because of the failure of our political order to produce a good politics.]

Q16: "Discuss Aristotle's influence on Christianity."

[Frequently discussed here, so I will pass.]

Q17: "What does the book say about natural right?"

[She gives an interesting answer here, which focuses on Churchill.]

Q18: "Favorite translation?"

This is a question about her own thoughts, so she should give them.

Q19: "Why did you devote your life to studying Aristotle?"

This is also a question for her, which she should be allowed to answer without interruption. 

The Green Hills of Tyrol

Althouse: I Didn't Buy A Gun Because of the Pandemic!

D29 recommends this piece by Althouse. I don't get by there often, but she is in good form here. 

News to Me, Bud

The President claims that the most lethal threat facing 'the homeland' is 'white supremacy' -- "Not al Qaeda. Not ISIS. White Supremacy." 

The military has done a good job with al Qaeda and ISIS. They are definitely less of a threat than once. 

Still, "white supremacy"? The KKK couldn't fill a ballroom these days. That's a good, positive thing, a major advance and a big step forward from where we were a hundred years ago. It's insane that instead of celebrating the progress we've made, they're trying to turn this into a chance to go after people who would never describe themselves as white supremacists, people who would like to walk away from the whole history of racism and division.  

Why not celebrate the fact that white mob actions like the one in 1921 Tulsa are unthinkable today? Oh, Antifa is almost-all-white and still forms mobs and burns city centers, that much is not only still possible but still actual. Yet the people they're trying to sell you on as threats don't even want to be white supremacists. The tiny handful of actual white supremacists left in this country are despised by everyone else, regardless of politics. 

A Telling Aside

In a book review of a history of early America written by the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Professor at the University of Virginia, which was founded by none other than Thomas Jefferson:

(It is startling to witness just how much the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Professor at Jefferson’s own university dislikes its patron, Thomas Jefferson.)

"A Politically Fraud Situation"

A Freudian typo in an article about the border and the VP.

Harris’ role is not to staunch the flow of illegal aliens crossing into the U.S. but rather find solutions to the “root causes” of the migration in the first place.... Calling it a “politically fraud situation” for the Biden administration and Harris personally, Bertrand went on to say that the current White House, like past administrations  — “Trump Administration excepted” — is attempting to find a “humanitarian” solution.

She went on to claim that her network has been informed that Harris was “extremely involved” in devising the White House’s regional approach to the issue of surging illegal immigration, including “climate change” and “tackling food insecurity.”

Great job on that food insecurity work, then. With the inflation hitting grocery prices, America will soon stop looking so good in comparison. 

UPDATE: Man, we're really working that food insecurity angle. 

Happy Pride Month from the US Embassy to the Holy See

This isn't nearly as bad as the stuff they used to do in the Baghdad embassy, all of which was a finger in the eye to our Iraqi hosts (some of whom might have actually tried to kill us over it). Likewise it is definitely true that the United States government is now devoted to gay rights, and gay pride, which is one of the differences it has to work around when working with the Holy See. 

Still, it's hardly diplomatic. The Swiss Guards won't drop mortars on the US Embassy like the Mahdi Army, but it's no way to get along with what I believe we used to regard as a valuable ally. 

A Parting Glass

I hope the rising tone is not out of place today. It is a day to remember those who have died, but as the BRCC video Grim posted Friday noted, those memories may be joyful as well.

Rolling to Remember Successful

The Rolling to Remember demonstration ride I mentioned a few days ago came off well in spite of official difficulties. Estimates are that around 50,000 bikes participated this year. 

Rolling Thunder local chapters also had good rides this year, all of them smaller than the old event but located across the country. In addition, I saw video from the Infidels MC ride in Fayetteville here in North Carolina that indicated strong turnout. ("Here in North Carolina" makes it sound close; NC is a very big state. It's 316 miles each way by the shortest route.)

Glad to see these traditions holding on in spite of the disapproval of the powers that be. It's too bad they can't see the value in it, but so be it. The America our fallen fought for was made up of her citizens and her liberties, not her politicians and her bureaucrats. 

Memorial Day Photos

A somber collection from the Associated Press.

Sgt. MacKenzie

 

I first heard this in the movie We Were Soldiers. Wikipedia says that it was written about Sgt. Charles MacKenzie, who served in the Seaforth Highlanders in WWI. He was killed in combat at the age of 33. It was written in Scots, and here is a standard English translation.

Studying the Classics

One of America's most famous colleges is drastically changing the concept of what it means to study the Classics.

Classics majors at Princeton University will no longer be required to learn Greek or Latin in a push to create a more inclusive and equitable program, an effort that was given “new urgency” by the “events around race that occurred last summer.”

Last month, faculty members approved changes to the Classics department, including eliminating the “classics” track, which required an intermediate proficiency in Greek or Latin to enter the concentration, according to Princeton Alumni Weekly. The requirement for students to take Greek or Latin was also removed.

On the one hand, I'm delighted to learn that there is pressure from a diverse group of people to be included in the study of Homer or Cicero. Also, reading these things in the original may be less important now that we have 2,000+ years of translations available. I myself have never studied Latin or Greek formally, but rather am self-taught in the limited amount of each language I have. I still have managed to learn a fair amount about ancient philosophy.

On the other hand, we are still going to require a certain number of experts to check our work on these matters of fundamental texts. English drifts too, so that an older translation of Aristotle may now read differently to an English-language scholar than it was intended to read by the translator. Someone who can read the original can pull us back when we drift away from what was really meant by the text.

In addition, it sounds from the article like the discipline of studying difficult ancient languages is being replaced by racial-theory claptrap. This will only damage the thinking of students, whatever their backgrounds. It is replacing ancient things of proven value with fashionable nonsense driven by political aims. 

Roll Down

Take Your Guns to Town

We usually call this "constitutional carry," but Rolling Stone is borrowing a line from Johnny Cash's old song about a young cowboy who gets himself killed on his first trip to town as a man. Now, a quick review of the song will show that the young cowboy's error wasn't carrying the guns, but trying to draw on another man over a matter of pride. The guns being at home could have stopped that, but so could good sense. 

RS aren't fans of the law.

The Republican state representative who authored the measure insisted that the existing permitting regulations were no deterrent to crime. “The simple truth is that those that intend evil, those who are criminals, don’t care what we do in this building,” he said, adding: “We are charged with defending the freedoms that are owed to Texans and guaranteed by the Constitution.”

Wish they'd named the guy; that's the first politician I've heard in a while who seems to understand what the job of the government happens to be. He's exactly right about what they are charged with doing.

He also is correct that no criminals avoid carrying guns because of permit laws. Permit laws are defensible as a means to get law-abiding citizens to take firearm safety training, which is a reasonable public purpose; I don't oppose such laws provided that they are shall-issue and not onerous. Courses really should be provided for free* to any citizen who wants one. I have no objection to the 'well-regulated militia' being taught how to shoot accurately and carry safely. Still, the 2nd says "shall not be infringed," too; free courses readily available might not constitute much of an infringement, but almost any additional layer of difficulty would. 

In any case crime rates in our "towns" (cities, really) are through the roof. You may not need your gun in the countryside, but there's a rising chance that you'll want one in town.

* Mr. Hines reminds me that 'nothing is free,' which is fair; I mean that they should be provided at public expense to the citizen, rather than a cost they have to pay in order to exercise their rights. The citizen may not find this totally 'free,' since obviously their local taxes may have to cover the cost; although, since mostly we already pay for police officers who have long periods of boredom on an average day, it may be that it wouldn't entail additional expenses for them to occasionally provide a public course on firearm safety and accurate operation. 

Memoralizing Language

In reference to AVI's post on the same subject, when I was young Southerners still spoke like this. 

At this point I think everyone in the country feels free to say "ya'll,"* but no one still sounds much like they're from anywhere. Only in the high mountains do I hear the tones of an older tongue; and they don't sound like Lewis, whose speech was lowland rather than Highland Southern.

I went by his home town on the recent ride to Mobile. I was gratified to see his name on the local highway. He was proud of his home; I'm glad they're proud of him, too.

* Faulkner spells it this way. Naysayers can go jump. 

BRCC on Memorial Day

I'd Rather Carry the One that Works

Apparently the VP also gave a speech today.

"Just ask any Marine today, would she rather carry 20 pounds of batteries or a rolled up solar panel, and I am positive she will tell you a solar panel, and so would he," she said, before laughing.

You know their lives may well depend on whether the stuff works when they get to the end of that march, right? They aren't carrying all that gear for fun. I'm fairly positive that they'll want the gear that will reliably do the job that might complete their mission and/or save their lives. 

These people are going to get our people killed, laughing all the time about how clever they are.

Kabul, Vietnam

Ralph Peters with an appropriate-to-the-holiday look at how we made the same mistakes again.

[I]n both the Republic of South Vietnam and Afghanistan, we supported—indeed, imposed—leaders we found convenient. In both cases, our enemies had homegrown leadership that had earned its way to high-echelon command through sacrifice, guile, and commitment. More Vietnamese were willing to give their lives for Ho Chi Minh’s vision than were willing to die for South Vietnamese generals—often corrupt, rarely competent, but cynically ingratiating. In Afghanistan, we supported anyone who spoke English and could tie a Windsor knot. The result was that, despite our tactical prowess, the Taliban never wanted for volunteers and the organization is stronger today than a decade ago, midway through our semi-occupation. Taliban chieftains inspire loyalty; “our” Afghan leaders provoke jokes in the bazaar. The proof of capacity is on the ground, not in cheery briefings by ambitious colonels.

The second great mistake is directly related to the first: With shortsighted good intentions, we poured wealth into South Vietnam, corrupting the government and society we hoped to save. We were “the land of the big PX,” and our largesse broke our clients’ will to fight. North Vietnam’s greatest strength was its poverty. We sought to defeat Spartans with sybarites....

Insurgencies are not fundamentally contests of wealth or weaponry but of strength of will. 

His analysis differs from mine, but not in ways that make one of us wrong and the other right. He's not wrong. 

The Edited Declaration

I mean, at least he didn't forget "endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights." I already knew we didn't agree on what the rights were.

UPDATE: Another important thing forgotten was not to say this stuff out loud.

Georgia Update

A Georgia judge approved the unsealing of ballots for an audit in Fulton County. In response, Fulton County has hired lawyers -- specifically, criminal defense attorneys. Rather than rely on the county's own attorneys, they hired two top experts in criminal law from Atlanta firms.

Not election law experts, I notice. But of course everyone is innocent until proven guilty, and they're entitled to a vigorous defense against the charges they are anticipating. 

AI and the Ethics of War

As is well known to readers of the Hall, the United States military attempts to follow the laws of war by including a heavy lawyering component in its operations. One of the jobs of this lawyer component is to approve strikes in questionable cases, checking to ensure that the laws of war are being followed closely. This takes time, which can be of no special moment if we are in a position to strike at leisure; but it can also be crucial if guys are waiting on called-for air support.

Israel has developed an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based targeting process. 

Collecting data using signal intelligence (SIGINT), visual intelligence (VISINT), human intelligence (HUMINT), geographical intelligence (GEOINT) and more, the IDF has mountains of raw data that must be combed through to find the key pieces necessary to carry out a strike.

“Gospel” used AI to generate recommendations for troops in the research division of Military Intelligence, which used them to produce quality targets and then passed them on to the IAF to strike.

Against a non-peer adversary like Hamas, this is just one more tool in the toolkit. It occurs to me, however, that this greatly imperils the laws of war should the tool be employed by a near-peer adversary (or a peer, or a better). 

If you're not very concerned about ethics, you can fully automate this process. "Gospel" can generate targets that are passed directly to automated drone strikes or artillery as soon as they are tagged by the first program. Just let it roll until "Gospel" stops telling you there's anything to hit, or you run out of ammo for the drones/guns.

As noted in our recent discussion about OODA-loops, the ability to make a decision and act on it faster than your opponent can be the fundamental determinant of victory in war. The AI shortens the decision chain; eliminating the human lawyers shortens it further. A peer-ish adversary using AI would quickly be inside our OODA loops as long as we continued to use our lawyers.

The only pragmatic way to avoid defeat would be to eliminate the lawyers and automate our own weapons' decision-making. You might be able to program the AI with the appropriate lawyerly criteria; but even then, you're adding extra processing cycles that the enemy AIs don't have to run. That too would allow the enemy to get inside your OODA loop.

As a consequence, the introduction of this AI-based targeting is likely to eliminate the laws of war as a practical feature of modern combat. Even if we avoid Skynet-style AIs, we will end up creating unethical ones because they'll be the only ones that can compete. The alternative is defeat by an even more vicious power; either way, we end up with worse wars and evil AIs in control of the weapons of war. 

Have You Considered That Your Eyes Lie To You?

"As Americans are hitting the road," the White House explains, "they are paying less for gasoline than they have on average for the last 15 years -- [and] about the same as May 2018 and May 2019." 

Meanwhile, as James Carville explains, Democrats are the law-and-order party.

So really, the problem is you. If you'd quit believing your lying eyes and listen to what you're told by the experts, everything would be fine. 

Grid woes

I took a long break from the nyah-nyahing over the Texas grid failure in February. Today's WSJ carries a fascinating piece about the vulnerability of the "black start" capacity of the grid, which not only sends chills down my spine about how bad things could have gotten if ERCOT had delayed even a few more minutes before cutting off a huge fraction of Texas customers in the middle of the night, but also explains more than I'd read before about what happens if a grid shuts completely down and has to start back up. The article is behind the usual paywall, but you can get there by Googling.

How is it that we keep reading about these disasters in which the back-up systems turn out to be vulnerable to the same conditions that cause us to need a back-up?  I call that anti-resilience.

When a grid has rolling blackouts or even partial long-term service interruptions, a crucial core of the grid stays active. "Crucial" means not only things we'd really rather not shut down, like hospitals, but the power plants themselves. Power plants shut down not only because they can't get fuel and electric power, but also because a grid with too low a frequency can damage their workings.  Lack of fuel is a temporary problem, but disconnection from the grid or staying on a low-frequency grid are long-term bad news:  a damaged plant will take time to repair, and restarting a plant and reconnecting it to a dead grid is tricky.

I guess I always assumed that a power plant generated its own internal power as a matter of course, but apparently that's not so. If the grid shuts down, or even the part of the grid that's attached to the power plant, the power plant doesn't hum along on its own power.  It can't:  the power has to go to a load.  So when the local grid area shuts down, the plant shuts down, too.  It needs a special "black start" local generating unit to get it going again.

Even if all the black-start units operate perfectly, it's a wildly delicate operation to start the whole grid up again from scratch. If 1/2 or 3/4 of the grid is down, it's easier to add new sections gradually, though no picnic, with delicate attention to balancing the new power and the new load it can serve. When the whole grid goes down, it can take anything from days to the unthinkable months to black-start it.

In this case, ERCOT didn't have to do a black-start, which is a good thing, because about half of our black-start resources evidently were iffy. If they're to be reliable at all, they need a large standby fuel source. Gas that's got to come through vulnerable pipelines won't cut it. Nuclear is nice, as is hydro; failing those, giant oil or gas tanks would be good, or huge mountains of coal. The just-in-time inventory style has made those less common, and we're not giving power generators the right financial incentives to keep large expensive emergency fuel inventories handy.

This issue came up when ERCOT had a near-miss emergency in 2011. Predictably, we addressed the issue by ordaining committees to study the issue and work together to improve yada yada, the usual word salad. We won't have an actual solution until we figure out what it costs to have reliable standby power and reach a consensus on how to pay for it with real money from real electric power customers who have decided it's worth the price.  What I'm reading is arguments about whether the free market or regulation is the panacea.  The Texas system, while somewhat less regulated than some others, is hardly a free market, though it has a strong emphasis on market signals in some areas, generally in an attempt to force efficiency and keep prices down.  Nevertheless, it's not all about efficiency, unless you include adequate backup resources for extreme emergencies in the concept of efficiency.  Extra security costs money.  We're going to have to get past the thinking that either a market or a regulation can change the cold equation telling us that something valuable has to be paid for by someone.  "Someone" is going to be be (1) users or (2) people donating to users.

Memorial Day Weekend

Two years ago, I attended the last Rolling Thunder motorcycle demonstration. It was an amazing event, drawing at least half a million and perhaps a million bikers, including veteran motorcycle clubs and organizations from around the country. 

There is a legacy event that is called Rolling to Remember. It appears to draw bikers on the order of one tenth the scale of the previous demonstration, but 40,000 bikers is still a fair crowd of bikers. The Biden administration yanked its permit in an attempt to finish off the tradition, but the Rolling to Remember ride is happening anyway. 

If you happen to be in the area, go out and see it. They're there to honor the fallen, and those who never came home, as is the real purpose of the holiday weekend. Of course they'll also have a good time, another way of honoring those whose lives were given to defend the freedom to live a good life. 

Baseball is Magic

We've been playing this game for more than a century, and this has never happened before. But there's no reason it's out of order with the rules; it's just a thing that never happens, until it does, one afternoon in May.

It's a pretty neat game, really. I don't watch it often, but every time I do I appreciate it anew.

Product Placement? Nah ...

Continuing with our JP theme, I thought I detected a familiar product placement in this one ... but, nah. It's probably a coincidence.

Red Lines

Michael Anton has a new essay that I think is very important because it lines up with a project of my own: the new state of Appalachia, which I someday hope to form out of elements of North Georgia, East Tennessee, Western North Carolina, West Virginia and parts of Western Virginia. No big cities -- even Knoxville and Asheville will be omitted. Just good Highlander country, ideally a near-anarchy governed on voluntary lines such as I've been describing lately.

Anton is a very smart and well-educated guy whom I've met several times and have mentioned more than once before. I don't think he and I have much in common except the occasional idea; and sometimes not even that. But he's definitely worth reading once he sits down and maps something out, whether you end up agreeing with him or not. 

This time, I do. 

Genius Stinks

Well, maybe not, but it can be overrated. This article begins with 'creative genius,' but it then considers even physical prowess that is out of the ordinary.

Researchers have analysed the make-up of basketball and football teams, for example, to find out how the addition of highly rated players improves overall team performance. When analysing the World Cup, for instance, they examined how many of each nation’s players came from the most prestigious clubs, such as Manchester United or FC Barcelona. Surprisingly, they found that the benefits of that exceptional individual talent were often underwhelming. Thanks, perhaps, to the star players’ rutting egos, the teams with the highest number of stars often failed to collaborate effectively.

I don't know if the issue is really ego, though it might be; but it could also simply be that the rest of the team has trouble synchronizing with a physicality that is far beyond its average. In any case, I have noticed this effect in teams that try to buy themselves into a great position by recruiting 'genius' players. A team that thinks and acts as a team is often more effective in a team sport than one that is made up of people who are trying to support a single genius. 

Of course, not all sports are team sports. Sometimes there's a case for the lone gunslinger.

Fake News Today

BB: New Amazon Bond Film

Amazon has purchased MGM Studios and the famous Bond franchise for $8.45 billion, according to reports. Current Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos expressed his excitement over the purchase.

"We are looking forward to bringing the story of British superspy James Bond into new and exciting directions!" said Bezos. "I can't give away too much, but I can say that the next Bond film will be a story about how a powerful organization taking over the world is actually a good thing!" 

DB:  AWOL numbers skyrocket after Air Force transitions to camouflage that actually works

HT: Optimus Prime Forced to Walk Everywhere After Truck Form Fails Highway Safety Inspection

Advice For The People Running Biden

 Since we're watching JP, he has some very good advice for the people running Biden.

Welcome to the Trans Community

 

A Handsome Precedent

The current administration is abolishing ICE by administrative action.

Yesterday [a Washington Post reporter] published a follow up that makes clear the Biden administration is abolishing many of ICE’s duties even if the agency itself still exists. Last month the agencies 6,000 officers carried out just 3,000 deportations. This is all thanks to the new rules put in place by the administration.

I look forward to using the same treatment on the ATF, FBI, IRS and so many others. They may still exist as ceremonial units similar to the Military Knights of Windsor or the Royal Company of Archers. Eventually a sensible Congress can dispose of them, but in the meantime, they can all be rendered harmless along just the way that our current President is paving for us now.

Great Success

It's been a year since the death of George Floyd, a man whose death greatly enlarged his life. Let's check in on the progress being made by our progressive heroes.

60 Minutes Speaks Some Truth

I wonder how this idea ever got past their editors?

On Sunday, CBS News’ 60 Minutes aired an important news segment on the phenomenon of detransitioning — when a person who identified as transgender and undertook various interventions to confirm a cross-sex identity later rejects a transgender identity and embraces his or her biological sex. Many transgender activists have objected to news outlets covering these important stories....

Garrett told 60 Minutes that he went from taking hormones to getting his testicles removed in just three months, far short of the WPATH guidelines, which suggest a year’s worth of continuous use before such drastic “bottom surgery.” He later got a breast augmentation.

“But, instead of feeling more himself, he says he felt worse,” 60 Minutes reported.

“So, more depressed after you transitioned than before?” Stahl asked.

“I had never really been suicidal before until I had my breast augmentation,” Garrett replied. “And about a week afterwards I wanted to, like, actually kill myself. Like, I had a plan and I was gonna do it but I just kept thinking about, like, my family, to stop myself.”

“It kind of felt like, how am I ever going to feel normal again, like other guys now?” he remarked.

An aside: surprising that it wasn't after his castration that he had this experience, but after the cosmetic surgery to add fake breasts. I would have thought that the castration would be the traumatic event after which you could 'never feel normal' -- at least, not like a normal guy. The change in hormone balances already being effected by drugs would have become greater with the removal of one's natural source of testosterone. Yet apparently it was the visual difference of appearing to have breasts that was the real psychological shock.

Good to see some breakthrough discussion of this, though. These really are permanent, life-altering changes. No one should go through with this without a complete understanding of what it is going to entail, including the understanding that some people who do go through with it really regret it afterwards. Instead, it sounds like even the limited protections in the guidelines are being ignored by everyone involved.

Blue Militia

Lee Smith makes a striking observation.

This week, pro-Palestinian demonstrators auditioned for the chance to join already established Democratic Party militias antifa and Black Lives Matter by attacking Jews in New York and Los Angeles.... Since the late spring, many have noted that these blue militias have typically avoided laying waste to red regions. And it is strange, if you think the Democrats have mobilized criminals and psychopaths and other semitragic misfits to target those they claim are the true enemies of democracy, tolerance, and brotherly love—the more than 74 million Americans who voted for Donald Trump. Presumably, blue militias know that if they campaigned in rural or even suburban America they would be met by a well-armed citizenry. 

Still, why burn down their own neighborhoods? Again, here the Middle East is the key to understanding. And if you know anything about that region, you know that the answer is because that’s their job—not to confront their alleged red state enemies, but to remind their neighbors and fellow Joe Biden voters that their security, indeed even their lives, depend on them keeping the faith, no matter how much the party’s pet projects might hurt or offend them personally.

If Smith is right, something very different from ordinary politics is happening in our country now. Republicans seem to think they’ll just win it at the next election; but these kind of mobilizations in nations like Venezuela have generally heralded the end of legitimate elections. 

Dry Run

Officially there’s not yet a drought in Western North Carolina. However, Glassmine Falls is dry. You can see what it looks like usually at the link. Here’s what it looks like today:

This dry weather makes for great riding, though. As the Robert Duvall character says of cowboying in Broken Trail, “It’s a great life when it’s not raining or snowing.” Riding in the rain isn’t so bad, but it’s best when it’s sunny and warm. 

Back tonight with any luck. 

On the stove

Tonight is lamb meatballs in tomato sauce with poached eggs, using our neighbors' tomato bounty. About 10 lbs of tomatoes have been blanched, peeled, and seeded, and are bubbling on the stove, leaving another equal amount to be processed in a day or two. Leftover bread has been crumbled for the meatballs. This dish (or something like it) is called a lot of things around the Mediterranean, including Kefta Mkaouara and Shakshouka, but I think those names refer only to the eggs in spicy tomato sauce, while the meatballs are optional. My philosophy is to add meatballs to anything whenever possible.

Combat Veteran Lee Marvin on Marines

 A contrast with the recruiting ad for the Army we recently saw.

Imperial & American Pints

This came up in a recent discussion. I am in a pub that serves them, so here is an Imperial Snakebite versus an American pint glass with water. 

Friday Night Concert

 Chilling out on a Friday with an hour and a half of Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats

On the Road Again

Be back Sunday, Inshallah. Motorcycle is calling and the weather looks perfect. 

Recruiting Video Comparison

China, Russia, US

H/t Kozak over on Ricochet.

Don't Go Quoting Chairman Mao

Joltin' Joe Biden ignores the Beatles' advice in his commencement address to the Coast Guard. It's a silly thing to do, for two reasons. 

First, it's Chairman Mao. 

Second, the Chinese don't in any sense live up to the idea that women are equally important to men. Even when Mao said it, it was just a pat on the head. Women in China continue today to be treated as second-class subjects, though they are now free of the forced abortions of the 'One Child' period (except the Uighur women, who are still enduring forced abortions and sterilizations). To cite the Chinese Communists as an aspirational model to American women who are now college graduates is madness: these American women are already going to enjoy vastly greater privileges than their Chinese counterparts. 

Third, why not follow that up with an insult aimed at the graduating class?

Rock 'n' Cynicism

I have always loved rock, but some of my favorite rock songs are pretty cynical about the business of it or the lifestyle or even the audience. Here are four of those I came up with. If you know others, please post them in the comments.

Background

This Certainly Won't Calm Conspiracy Fears

Soros kicked in $2M to elect Maricopa County sheriff now stonewalling election audit

More than four years before Maricopa County Sheriff Paul Penzone used his law enforcement credibility to resist subpoenas in the Arizona Senate audit of the county's general election, he was running for the office he now holds.

Crucial to the Democrat's victory over incumbent Republican Joe Arpaio: $2 million from progressive megadonor George Soros.

It was the largest single donation Soros made in a local race in the 2016 election cycle, according to a Politico report at the time. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs' widow, Laurene Powell Jobs, kicked in another $250,000 to the pro-Penzone effort.

...

Liberal Media Viewers Are Misinformed About Crime in America

At least according to Rasmussen Reports:

Fewer than 50 unarmed black suspects were killed by police last year and more people were killed with knives than with so-called “assault weapons,” but viewers of MSNBC and CNN are far more likely than Fox News viewers to get those facts wrong.

Miss Unsinkable

According to Wikipedia, Violet Jessop (1887-1971) survived not only the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912, but also the sinking of its sister ship the HMHS Britanic in 1916. She was a stewardess on both ships, and she continued working on ships afterwards.

In competition with her record, "Wenman Humfrey 'Kit' Wykeham-Musgrave (1899–1989) was a Royal Navy officer who has the possibly unique distinction of having survived being torpedoed on three different ships on the same day," 22 September 1914. Torpedoed and sunk on three different ships, I should point out. He was saved by a Dutch trawler.

Capitol Police Appear to Have Given Permission to Buffalo-Hat

In this newly released video, police clearly negotiate terms for a peaceful entry and protest with a group including the infamous "shaman."

That's going to be a problem for the prosecution.

UPDATE: The defense, however, is its own problem. 

Internal Security

They've cracked the code for dodging constitutional protections -- those only apply to government. As long as the government hires it out, no constitutional protections need apply. 

You'd think the courts would object to that reading, but so far they've gotten away with it. Now the plan is to spy on US servicemembers for 'concerning' 'extremist' thoughts.

An extremism steering committee led by Bishop Garrison, a senior adviser to the secretary of defense, is currently designing the social media screening pilot program, which will “continuously” monitor military personnel for “concerning behaviors,” according to a Pentagon briefing in late March. Although in the past the military has balked at surveilling service members for extremist political views due to First Amendment protections, the pilot program will rely on a private surveillance firm in order to circumvent First Amendment restrictions on government monitoring, according to a senior Pentagon official....

[A possible candidate firm] has drawn criticism for its practice of buying bulk cellular location data and selling it to federal national security agencies like the Secret Service, who rely on the private company to bypass warrant requirements normally imposed on government bodies seeking to collect data.

Our FISA process has proven so full of holes that it's not clear why the government doesn't just lie to the court again to get the warrants it wants -- there appears to be no penalty for having done so. But I suppose this is easier still; they don't even have to bother to lie to get a warrant, because they no longer have to get a warrant at all. 

Stoic Happiness

A reasonable introduction to Stoic philosophy on happiness. Readers of the Hall can probably compare and contrast this view with the earlier Aristotelian view from which it drew much.  

Two Versions of a Song

 

Retrograde Veterans

The US hands off Kandahar Airfield as part of what command is currently calling "retrogade operations." A Marine NCO of significant experience speaks.

President Joe Biden announced April 14 that all US forces would be withdrawn from Afghanistan by Sept. 11, 2021, with more recent reports suggesting a US exit by July 2021. However, Richard Fowler, a Marine infantry sergeant, is skeptical.

“I believe nothing of what they [the DOD] tell me. We’re pulling out of Afghanistan like we pulled out of Cuba, like we pulled out of Germany, like we pulled out of Japan, like we pulled out of Korea, like we pulled out of Somalia, and on and on and on,” Fowler, who fought in Helmand province in 2008, told Coffee or Die.

Probably most Americans don't realize that we're still in Somalia.  

Eternal astonishment of the oblivious mind

We've returned to the realm of bad news that lands on us "unexpectedly," as many of us remember so well from the Obama years. It reminds me of the old comic song "It's the Same the Whole World Over," about the poor girl ("pure unstymied was her name") who keeps meeting another man and "again she lost her name."

   

It's only a mincing step from perpetual amazement to the practice of simply ignoring news that flouts the narrative.

In related news, the AP is shocked, shocked to learn that it was unexpectedly sharing a Gaza building with Hamas.  But to be fair, where would it have found the resources to check into such a thing?

Fighting Reality-Based OODA Loops

A brief essay in three parts.

I. Chaos and the Iraq War

From time to time, one sees this old (and anonymous, and thus dubious) "quote" from an unnamed Bush administration official around the time of the Iraq War. It is raised to this day by people on the left to mock people on the right, which is ironic for reasons I'll get to in a moment. 

"The aide said that guys like me were 'in what we call the reality-based community,' which he defined as people who 'believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.' [...] 'That's not the way the world really works anymore,' he continued. 'We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors...and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do'." 

This quote is mocked mostly because of the rhetorical error of conceding 'reality based' to the opposition, which leaves many with the impression that he (or she, if such a person even really existed) is purporting to be basing their actions on something besides reality. That sounds like an admission of a retreat into fantasy, say; and a concession that the other side is the realistic one.

The substance of the argument, however, is merely a restatement of Boyd's OODA Loop -- a widely accepted paradigm in strategy, whether military or otherwise. The basic idea is that one cannot act (the "A" at the end of "OODA") until one has finished observing what is going on, orienting one's self to the situation, and then making a decision about how to act. If the other side keeps changing the situation adequately rapidly, then, you may never get to an action -- or even to a decision. You have to keep re-starting the process by observing and orienting to the new changes.

(Or else act according to the older facts, which may be a strategic error that serves your opponent just as well as preventing your action, etc.)

One might raise the objection that this approach did not, in fact, win the Iraq War; the Bush administration found itself in a quagmire. This objection is both false and true. It is false in that the OODA approach did defeat the Saddam regime, and rapidly left the Bush team in control of the entire territory of Iraq. It is true in that the OODA approach was insufficient to defeating the insurgency that spawned in the chaos following the fall of that regime. 

This identifies a key flaw, or limit, of the OODA approach to military strategy. By its nature, it increases the chaos in the system. By keeping the situation constantly and rapidly changing, it keeps opponents off balance. Yet it also prevents the rise of stability, which is a necessary condition for success in counterinsurgency. Once the war in Iraq turned into a counterinsurgency, one of the most important jobs was directly contrary to the OODA approach.

At this point OODA was nonfunctional as a strategy, though it could still have tactical applications to particular bands of insurgents. What was needed was a counterinsurgency strategy built around reducing chaos. This strategy was developed and in place by 2007. It had two wings: attrition of enemy actors, coupled with rising prosperity. You might say it was a 'stick and carrot' approach.

If you put the American counterinsurgency strategy into plain English, it would be this:  We stop insurgencies against approved systems of government by raising the costs of being an insurgent, while also raising the benefits of participation in the system high enough that former insurgents have too much of a stake in that system to rebel against it. In other words, it is not just about killing people who are fighting the system. We also do good for people so that they have a positive reason to want to be part of the system. We might build them improved water pumps or treatment facilities, roads, factories, or get them jobs. They need a stake in the system that is better than what they can get by fighting.

By 2009, the war was essentially over; its subsequent return to chaos followed the incoming Obama administration's decision to withdraw too rapidly, removing the stabilizing element of US forces (who provided both the stick and the carrot, the latter by guaranteeing that the central government would keep the bargains with former insurgents). That loss is outside the scope of this essay. 

The point is that the OODA approach works perfectly well within particular limits. It is a functional strategy against for destabilizing an enemy regime; it remains a functional tactic against small formations even once a strategy of stability is needed instead. Yet there is a hinge point at which OODA is no longer a potentially successful strategy: the point at which success depends on reducing chaos within the system, rather than further destabilizing it. 

II. Wokeness as Chaos

Our current society seems to be rapidly destabilizing. In the wake of the successful BLM movement, policing has retreated in cities across America; the result is gigantic increases in crime. Homicides in particular is at rates not seen in decades, though it still has a way to go before it reaches its earlier peaks.

Coupled to that are the serious economic instabilities arising from last year's lockdowns. These included serial disruptions in supply chains (still ongoing: look at lumber prices and shipping container costs compared to last year). Small businesses were devastated. Amazon benefitted greatly, as did China; main street America, not so much. 

Now we have a new administration that has increased instability further. Canceling the Keystone Pipeline drove energy costs up, as has their move to further restrain coal production. Political instability is occasioned by any administration change, but this one has promised to study packing the courts, and is presently working with slim majorities in Congress to try to re-structure America's election systems along the lines they were able to effect in a few swing states last year. The intention here is long-term stability, not chaos -- they mean to rule forever -- but the short-term approach is to destabilize America's existing systems. 

On the activist front, the chaos strategy is particularly evident. The success in reducing policing, which is at least intended as a stabilizing force in any society, was noted above. The wokeness approach to life also involves knocking away the superstructure on which our society is built, as we have all noted (see e.g. the comments here.)

On top of that, there is an OODA-like structure to the way in which an ever-new set of demands is raised against the existing society. The right is currently striving to prevent biological men from being introduced to women's sports, which was not even under discussion a few years ago; but say one concedes that issue. Will that satisfy? Of course not. We are only having this argument because of concessions on previous ones, and ones before that. 

Nor will you win by winning, if the point is an OODA-like increase in chaos. Often these fights are in fact abandoned, because the point is just what the young alleged Bush advisor said: "we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors...and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.'"

Last week there was a big to-do about the introduction of "birthing persons" instead of "mothers," and right at Mother's Day! Well, of course; outrage and changing focus was the point. Remember "amen and a-women"? They don't really care about that; they just want to change your focus again. 

The point of this increase in chaos within the system is to collapse the system. Restoring stability can come later, after victory. Mao killed off the Red Guards when he was ready to restore stability, and many of these woke may find themselves likewise driven out when their purpose is served. Yet even for those who do not intend to collapse the system, who merely go along with wokeness because they think it is somehow connected to justice or niceness or something like that, the effect on the system is the same. It will not survive. 

III. Old Truths as Stability

Our recent discussion on grounding principles points to a way to introduce a stabilizing element, which is to stand on the ancient truths and objective moralities. 

I definitely believe that there is an objective moral order, one that is discoverable in nature -- for example, one discovers that the virtues Aristotle praised are in fact the things that make your life better if practiced. That is simply true; and yet the idea that one should draw ethical lessons from nature, even or especially human nature, is very much under attack. 

If one wishes to further justify them, one can point to the transcendent beauty that is only made possible by the existence of a long and powerful tradition. The competition has nothing similar to offer; neither the truth nor the beauty. 

This is only a partial approach. I do not now think that any of our institutions are likely to survive; and if the alternative to chaos is a stability attained through tyranny, as by court-packing and election-rigging and police states, I should rather have the chaos anyway. 

New institutions will therefore be needed. These will need to be based on volunteer principles rather than power, I believe, and in fact must reject the idea of concentrated political power essentially. A volunteer fire department; a volunteer militia of citizens who know and trust each other to take the place of police. Volunteer (and unpaid) offices: and, therefore, government kept on such a small scale that it can only be part-time, because (as we learned from Weber) it cannot be allowed to become a source of income. Government must be something one can do occasionally only, and therefore it cannot do much. 

I suspect that there may be a similar need for reform in institutions outside of government too; how, for example, a church (or the Church) should reform is beyond the scope of this essay. Yet there at least the basic principle is obvious: a restoration of objective morality as discovered by long tradition is surely within the scope of such organizations. Revelation will of course compete with objective morality; but if God made the world (however you and your faith conceive of God, of course), then the truths discovered there are also God's work. 

That I leave to others, and for other days. 

The Iron Dome

 

An extraordinary image from the AFP of the contest in Israel.

I listened to some Israelis discussing this, including a general officer and a political advisor. The political advisor thinks this is about a dispute over apartments; the general thinks it is really a power struggle between Hamas and Fatah, in which Hamas is trying to establish leadership by showing itself to be the stronger and more virile party.

I do not think that either of them is right about what is happening here. There are more titanic powers afoot. 

Better Get Busy, Lads

The UK needs every man to help save the nation’s pubs by drinking 124 pints. 

Gypsy Music for a Thursday