Those of us in the democratic-republican West often find it impossible to understand how the world could go to war so often in the 20th century. We were raised in a culture that had internalized Locke, Jefferson, Mill, and others—for whom the goal of peace and respect for others’ rights to life, liberty, and property […]
Werner Sombart on heroes versus merchants Read More »
The Fountainhead‘s themes are independence and integrity. In Part One, novelist Ayn Rand’s primary purpose is to contrast the characters Howard Roark and Peter Keating. Here is a table summarizing the main events in each young man’s early career. Structurally, each plot event for Roark is matched by an opposite event for Keating. Roark’s career
Socialists in 1980: “We use walls, barbed wire, and men with guns to control our people. Deal with it.” Socialists in 2000: “We’re ashamed of the Wall, but now we’re democratic socialists. Trust us!” Socialists in 2020: “Just kidding. Bring back the Wall!” Source: Jacobin, the Marxist/neo-Marxist true-believer magazine. Related: Marx and Engels’ The Communist
Socialists and the Berlin Wall — disturbing changing attitudes Read More »
Reprising this Dmitri Shostakovich story of Alexander Glazunov‘s astounding musical memory. Glazunov was one of Shostakovich’s teachers in St. Petersburg, and by all accounts his ability to retain and recapitulate music was perfect. Here’s the practical joke played upon a visiting composer, Sergei Taneyev: “Taneyev had come to Petersburg from Moscow to show his new
A prodigious practical joke in music Read More »
Capitalism: All humans have the rights to life, liberty, and property. Imperialism: We have the right to control you, take your stuff, and kill you if you resist. Imperialism existed for millennia before the revolutionary modern world of the last few centuries. During the modern era, both capitalism’s liberalism and imperialism’s authoritarianism existed within modernizing
Imperialism and Capitalism Read More »
According to Shostakovich: “Rimsky-Korsakov used to say that he refused to acknowledge any complaints from composers about their hard lot in life. He explained his position thus: Talk to a bookkeeper and he’ll start complaining about life and his work. Work has ruined him, it’s so dull and boring. You see, the bookkeeper had planned
Rimsky-Korsakov on the “hardship” of the composer’s life Read More »
A short publication of mine entitled “The Ethics of Outside Funding”. Some years ago there was controversy in the academic world about the BB&T Charitable Foundation’s sponsoring programs on the moral foundations of capitalism. I participated in a conference panel that debated the issue pro and con. After an interesting set of papers and the
The ethics of outside funding Read More »
What Jean-Paul Sartre said about the anti-Semites of his day applies perfectly to the language-and-emotion manipulating so-called “anti-racists” of our day: “Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who
Sartre on dealing with bad faith “anti-racists” Read More »