The Hidden Underachievers and the Limits of the Meritocracy

A week does not go by without headlines decrying the sorry state of America’s education system, such as stories about how U.S. students are either falling behind foreign peers or are failing to meet basic proficiency standards. Or how high school students cannot do algebra. Or college students being unprepared. Seeing such headlines, one may… Continue reading The Hidden Underachievers and the Limits of the Meritocracy

The Decline of Social Conservatism: What Happened

Richard Hanania describes social conservatism as hopeless and says that “secularization and cultural liberalism are inevitable.” The crux of his argument is that social conservatism is rejected by a lot of people, and thus it needs to be imposed by force. “Still, the regime is extremely unpopular, at least with the urban elite that forms… Continue reading The Decline of Social Conservatism: What Happened

Tucker and Kanye

From Unz Review, Tucker Carlson’s Virtue-Signal with Kanye West Backfired—But Exposed Regime’s Rampant Social Credit Canceling. I think Derb is off the mark here. Conservatives who are respectable enough to have their own TV shows—a category that obviously includes Tucker—live in terror of being thought hostile to blacks. They want thirteen percent of their guests… Continue reading Tucker and Kanye

Philosophical ramblings: Creativity, Authenticity, Stoicism, and Wealth and Happiness

There is nothing wrong with selling out or being a hack, per say. Most creative-type people are never going to be in a position to sell out. And those who do can take their profits and reinvest them in causes they care about but are unpopular. People seem to think that making money is as… Continue reading Philosophical ramblings: Creativity, Authenticity, Stoicism, and Wealth and Happiness

The end of cult figures

From an autobiography of Buckminster Fuller: His last book was a group biography of three science-fiction authors (Robert Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and Isaac Asimov) and the writer-editor John W. Campbell. These men, like Fuller, interpreted advances in specialized fields for the public, making forceful arguments about the future, which they said would be science-driven,… Continue reading The end of cult figures