A quotation from Jane Addams, Nobel Peace Prize winner and Rockford University student on progressivism’s meaning of democracy. “In this effort toward a higher morality in our social relations, we must demand that the individual shall be willing to lose the sense of personal achievement, and shall be content to realize his activity only in […]
Jane Addams and the progressive mindset Read More »
I’m preparing a lecture on Sayyid Qutb (to be delivered late summer), so this makes me chuckle. The connections: Qutb was executed by Egyptian gov’t in 1966 and became an Islamist martyr. Qutb’s writings were translated into Persian by Ayatollah Khomeini. Khomenei led the 1979 theocratic revolution in Iran. Ayatollah Khamenei is his successor. Here’s
Qutb, Khomeini, and Khamenei Read More »
Following up on “The constant decline of civilization?” A favorite historian, Sallust (86– c. 35 BCE), on how his generation of Romans is so much worse morally than the preceding ones. In The War with Catiline, he writes: “Since the occasion has arisen to speak of the morals of our country, the nature of my
Are we Rome? Sallust on the decline of civilization Read More »
In Henry the VIII’s time, sugar became widely available in England. Those who could afford it used it on just about everything, and too much sugar causes one’s teeth to become black. But sugar was still expensive, so having black teeth came to be a symbol of wealth. Soon many of the English, women especially,
Fashion: white teeth — or black? Read More »
Piggybacking on economist David Henderson’s fun-with-a-point post, “I Was a Chinese Laborer,” about rules designed to limit how much overtime Chinese workers are allowed at Apple’s and other companies’ factories. The goal is “to bring its factories within China’s legal limits of 40 hours of work per week and 36 hours maximum overtime per month
I too was an exploited worker Read More »
The US government’s debt: “102,984 for every person living in the U.S.”* How’s that for secular Original Sin? Suppose you’re an infant just born into this world. You haven’t done anything yet — but you’ve inherited the financial misdeeds of earlier generations and will spend the rest of your life paying for them. * Source:
Government debt as secular original sin Read More »
From the still-hilarious files. Changing times. Rembrandt van Rijn (1653) and Michael Crawford (1992).
Aristotle with a Bust of Homer, Then and Now Read More »
I’m a fan of Arnold Kling and Nick Schulz’s From Poverty to Prosperity: Intangible Assets, Hidden Liabilities and the Lasting Triumph over Scarcity. I wrote about it here. It’s about Economics 2.0, as they call it, one key feature of which is putting the entrepreneur front and center — in contrast to much of traditional
Entrepreneur and Un-entrepreneur characteristics Read More »