A new episode of my podcast series, produced by Possibly Correct out of Toronto. Audio: iTunes Stitcher YouTube Topics and times: The decline of slavery as a moral achievement // History: Slavery practiced everywhere before modernity // The internal African slave society and trades // The Atlantic trade and where the slaves went // Early […]
The Stain of Slavery [Open College] Read More »
Hollywood screenwriter Anna Louise Strong was basically a Communist propagandist. When in 1956 Khrushchev “revealed” Stalin’s crimes, Strong suffered a mental breakdown over the “betrayal.” Later she confessed: “We knew all these things for twenty-five years, and I kept silent for the cause of socialism. What am I supposed to say?” (Which I connect to
On honesty, Stalin’s killings, and Western intellectuals (anecdote) Read More »
Dr. Bella d’Abrera will be the MC for two of my Adventures in Postmodernism Tour events. Here is a recent piece she published on the state of history (mis-)education in Australia: Three Years in an Aussie Re-education Camp. Dr. d’Abrera attended Cambridge University and writes about postmodernism in Australian media and appears on major news
Bella d’ Abrera on Aussie re-education camps (a.k.a. universities) Read More »
During a fun (and long) question-and-answer session after a lecture at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania — some of us were still going strong after three hours — I was asked my view on the origins of the Enlightenment. The first questioner noted that Jordan Peterson had spoken at Lafayette the year before and had argued
A difference with Jordan Peterson on Enlightenment foundations Read More »
Audio links: iTunes Stitcher YouTube Topics: The “Dark” Ages or The “Brilliant” Ages? // Chronology // Was there a Dark Age? // Why did the activity pick up after the year 1000? // Roger Bacon and Thomas Aquinas // Why is the debate significant today? // The verdict on Christianity // The verdict on modernity and the Enlightenment // Why
Conservatives: Get Over the Dark Ages [Open College series] Read More »
September 1, 1939 is the date the German Nazis invaded Poland, initiating World War Two. Less well remembered is the shortly thereafter Soviet Russian invasion of Poland. A month earlier, the Nazis and Soviets had agreed not to attack each other and to divide Poland (and other parts of eastern Europe) between them. The Soviets
Remembering the Nazi-Soviet invasions of Poland Read More »
Thanks to Mohamad Machine-Chian for this translation. It was first published as two separate columns in The Good Life series as “Is Republishing Hitler’s Mein Kampf the Correct Decision?” and “Is Free Speech Dead in Universities?” The two articles were edited by Vinay Kolhatkar and published at The Savvy Street. The articles were also translated
Persian translation of “Hitler and the Death of Free Speech” Read More »
From a review of always-thoughtful Mark Lilla’s 2018 book on how to revive liberalism. The question, says Samuel Moyn, is: “How did we get here? Much depends on how one narrates the path from 1968 to Trump’s election.” Moyn’s suggestion is: ‘After 1968, disaster set in. Faced with the sins of Vietnam, the Democrats flirted
A leftist on how we got to Trump Read More »