On Freedom and Slavery

If you are living alone on a remote island, untouched by anyone, then you are free. But you are free for nothing; your freedom is meaningless. Freedom is a concept that belongs to a world that is full of human beings where there exists a threat of slavery. People realize the value of freedom when they face the threat of slavery. In any place where there is no possibility of slavery, there will be no need for freedom.

The Captured Conquerors of History

Commenting on the Hellenization of Rome, Horace, the historian in the age of Augustus, said, “Captured Greece has captured her savage conqueror.” The trend of the conquering nation being culturally captured by the nation that it has conquered can be found in all periods of history. For instance, the culture of the most successful conqueror of our time, the USA, has been influenced by the ideologies of Europe, East Asia, and the Middle East where it fought wars and attained political and economic dominance. Today’s American culture contains elements of nazism, fascism, communism, and islamism.

Philosophical Theory and Practice

To preach a philosophy is human; to live by the teachings of a philosophy is divine. The world is full of preachers of philosophy, but there has never been a man who lives by the teachings of a philosophy. All philosophers have sinned and have fallen short of their own teachings.

Consequences of the End of Capitalism

The liberals are bragging about the imminent end of capitalism as if the end is a great achievement, but they are concealing an important fact: capitalism is being abandoned by the children of capitalism, who don’t know how to survive without the products of capitalism. The end of capitalism means the end of liberalism.

The Wolves of 2020

The political and intellectual establishment speaks in one voice; they are the pack, the pack of wolves. They howl together. A line in Rudyard Kipling’s poem applies to them: “the strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack.” In 2020, the political agenda is being set by the howling of the pack of wolves. The politicians and their crony intellectuals are the wolves (the predators), and the masses are the prey.

Brave New World of Microchip Implants

The future? There is no future except a brave new world of humans implanted with a microchip, which detects their geolocation and health related information, and communicates the data in real time to a central grid. 

In two years, we will see a campaign to create a public opinion in favor of microchip implants—we will be told that the microchip will save society from crime, by making it easier to track people with criminal background, and from pandemics, by identifying individuals who show symptoms of communicable diseases. And people will accept that the microchip implant is a good thing and they will eagerly line up to have it surgically implanted in their body. 

My prediction is that in ten years, close to twenty-five percent of the population in advanced countries will have the microchip implant, and in twenty years, ninety percent will have the implant. 

People will choose to have the implant not only because they will be convinced that it will make society safer but because they will find that without an implant they cannot work in government organizations or big corporations; they cannot fly, take a train ride, or even hire a cab; they cannot go to areas where people gather in large numbers—schools, malls, theaters, beaches, hospitals. 

The few people who refuse to have the implant will be forced to exist in the fringes of society, like the “proles” that Orwell has described in his novel 1984.

On Optimism and Pessimism

I view “optimism” and “pessimism” as “isms” or philosophies. Optimism is the philosophy of the feeble-brained Pollyanna who believes that all problems, big or small, are mere blips and that in the long run things will turn out to be just fine. Pessimism is the philosophy of men with practical experience who understand that the world is a hard place and that if they do not conduct themselves with wisdom and care, they will make bad choices and their life will be ruined. Optimism turns a man towards utopianism and liberalism; pessimism turns a man towards conservatism and republicanism.

Mystery is Vital for a Platonic Atlantis

Plato says that the republic of the children of the mind lies “beyond the last peaks and all the seas of the world.” To the republic of the children of the mind, Plato gives the name “Atlantis,” which is not modeled after any existing society and represents a new spirit of humanity, a venturing into a higher level of civilization. An Atlantis cannot be founded in a known continent which is filled with the madding crowd of humanity—it needs a new place, which, as Plato puts it, lies “beyond the last peaks and all the seas of the world.” Atlantis implies a place that is surrounded in mystery.

The First Twenty Years

The first twenty years of the twenty-first century can be summed up in these words: terrorism, leftism, religious fundamentalism, neoliberalism, neoconservatism, climate change-ism, nihilism, fascism, minority-ism, sexism, neo-racism, revisionism, pandemic-ism. The world has not made any major scientific, technological, industrial, or political advancement in the first twenty years of this century.

2020: The Year of Frankenstein

The history of the year 2020 will be a long history; long will be its months, long its days, and long its hours. After five or ten years, when historians start writing the history of 2020, they will analyze this year, hour by hour, and day by day, instead of having an overview of all the 366 days. The historians might call 2020, the year of Frankenstein. Underneath the complexities related to healthcare, politics, and economy, 2020 is breeding an enormous mob of Frankensteins. I believe that in one or two years, the Frankensteins bred by 2020 will flood the streets and extort an immense political price.

When Marx Shaves his Beard

Question: What happens when Karl Marx shaves his beard?

Answer: The smiling face of Comrade Josef Stalin is revealed.

François Mauriac's Vipers' Tangle

If you are feeling miserable for any reason (the lockdowns or something else), read François Mauriac Vipers' Tangle, which is the story of Monsieur Louis, whose great misery will make you forget your own. Monsieur Louis, an embittered aging lawyer, is fabulously wealthy and is dying, and he is being driven to wretchedness by his estranged family who are waiting for him to die so that they can seize his property. He writes a journal to make his family realize why his heart is a tangle of poisonous vipers. But the book has a sort of blissful climax—during a hailstorm, by the blessing of god, the realization dawns on Monsieur Louis that his torment is due to his preoccupation with profit and property, and he detects in a corner of heart the semblance of something that he identifies as love. “How strange it is that when life is just beginning for us, and when a little happiness comes our way, no warning voice is heard.”

Healthy Society Versus Unhealthy Society

In a healthy civilization the weeds disappear while the useful plants and trees remain, but in an unhealthy civilization the law of reverse-evolution operates: the useful plants and trees disappear while the weeds remain. Civilization in the year 2020 is in an extreme state of unhealthiness: our politics, academia, mainstream media, and big business are swamped with weeds, and the useful plants and trees are nowhere to be found. Mankind is doomed.

On Environmentalism

Environmentalism taking centerstage in politics is a sign of a nation’s decline. When a nation is on the rise, its politics is oblivious to the environment; its people are filled with lust for defying the environment. They build roads, factories, megacities, train lines, airports, dams, power plants, ports, oil refineries, and try to break through the sky to reach the moon and planets. The spirit of defying the environment is a necessary condition for a nation’s progress, but environmentalism weakens this spirit by depicting human activity as a threat of nature.

On Flattening the Curve

The leaders who are trying to “flatten the virus’s curve” have failed to flatten their own curve—they display a grander potbelly, chubbier face, and fleshier hands. The big initiatives for “flattening the curve” are being taken in North America, Europe, and Asia—in the nations in these three continents most politicians have gained weight in the last four months.

The Mistakes of the Libertarian Philosophers

The philosophers of libertarianism have caused great harm to capitalism by their endless argumentation on the subjects of liberty, free markets, and minimum government. Their writing is dry as dust. Their arguments are soulless logic-chopping. Their books and papers fuel the suspicion that the conceptions of liberty, free markets, and minimum government are the abstractions of a utopian mind which cannot or does not want to comprehend the real world. Instead of making people enthusiastic about libertarian ideas, the libertarian philosophers drive them into the opposite direction—away from liberty, away from free markets, away from minimum government, and into the arms of socialism and neoliberalism.

Thomas Aquinas on Patriotism

Thomas Aquinas preaches that patriotism is a moral virtue and its absence is moral vice. Here’s an excerpt from Summa Theologiae (translation by Alfred J. Freddoso)

"A man becomes a debtor to others in diverse ways in accord with the diverse types of their excellence and the diverse benefits that he receives from them.  In both these regards, God occupies the highest place, since He is the most excellent of all and the first principle of both our being and our governance.  But in second place, the principles of our being and governance are our parents and our country, by whom and in which we are born and governed.  And so, after God, a man is especially indebted to his parents and to his country.  Hence, just as [the virtue of] religion involves venerating God, so, at the second level, [the virtue of] piety involves venerating one’s parents and country.  Now the veneration of one’s parents includes venerating all of one’s blood relatives... On the other hand, the veneration of one’s country includes the veneration of one’s fellow citizens and of all the friends of one’s country."

Oracle of Delphi on America-China Conflict

When Croesus, the King of Lydia, went to the Oracle of Delphi and asked if he could win a war against Persia, the Delphic priestess replied that when he went to war, he would destroy an empire. By the Oracle words, Croesus became convinced that it was written in the stars that he would destroy the Persian empire. He went to war, but his army was vanquished at the battlefield and the empire that was destroyed was his own. Coming to our own time, the Oracle of Delphi has predicted that an empire will be destroyed if there is a military conflict between America and China. But which empire will be destroyed: the American empire or the Chinese?

Animosity Inspires Imitation

The animosity between civilizations runs hand in hand with imitation. The civilizations which hate each other often try to learn from each other. They imitate each other and develop similar moral, intellectual, political, and militaristic standards—this usually implies a lowering in the standards of the civilization whose way of life is more advanced.

On National Character

Nations, like individuals, have such a thing as a character. The world is home to several types of national characters. There are instances where the difference in national character is drastic, almost antithetical, but in other instances, the difference in national character is relatively minor. How is a nation’s character formed—is it linked to the history of its civilization, the race and religion of its dominant population, its geographical features, its intellectual and scientific achievements, its political and economic system, its art and culture? Does national character determine a nation’s culture, politics, and economy, or is it the other way round? Can a nation’s character be transformed or subverted, or does it last till the nation is in existence?

A Paradox of Human Nature

It’s a paradox of human nature that the youngsters who have an easy and prosperous upbringing, on becoming adults, turn their face to immoralism, nihilism, and apocalyptic cults, while those who are born without sufficient resources and, from their early years, have to work hard to get their daily bread, on attaining adulthood, turn their full-face to good life, morality, and the idea of human progress through intellectualism, good culture, liberty, and innovation.

Philosophy and Play; Individualism and Collectivism

A community will not have good philosophy until it has good sports. The Ancient Greeks were the world’s first philosophers and they were the world’s first people to organize global sporting events. The first Olympic Games was organized in Ancient Greece and is traditionally dated to 776 BC. 

A community will not have individualism, unless it has collectivist institutions. The Ancient Greeks were the first to philosophize on individualism, and they were the first to train their soldiers (hoplites) to parade with full disciple, wear common uniform which included metal body armor, and fight shoulder to shoulder in a military formation (phalanx).

Liberals and The Great Dumbing Down

If people learn to think for themselves, the surest prop of liberal political power gets demolished. This is why the control of the mainstream media, academia, and entertainment industry is of critical importance to the liberals—in the last hundred years, they have been using these three sectors to ensure that people become incapable of critical thinking, especially on politics and culture. In countries with powerful liberal political movements, the  population gets dumbed down through the years, and there eventually comes a stage where most people become so dumb that they cannot notice that they and those around them have been dumbed down, and that their culture is in the hands of yahoos.

On Faith

The knowledge that we get through the faculties of reason or intellect is partial. This knowledge will tell us about the material aspects (how much, from what, from where, when, and how), but it will not tell us about the values (moral or immoral; sublime or corporeal; artistic or vulgar; certain or doubtful). We cannot have full understanding of existence through the use of reason or intellect. We have to look at another resource to fulfill our need for understanding the values, and that resource is faith. Faith is not opinion. It is not the conclusions that we reach by rigorous application of reason or intellect—it’s something different, something quite unique.

The Duel Between Physics and Biology

At a cosmic level there is a conflict between physics (matter) and biology (life)—physics, as we understand it, says that the universe had a beginning (Big Bang) and it will come to an end when all its energy gets exhausted (Big Crunch). But biology wants to know that if the universe, with all life in it, will one day end, then why did life evolve? The question is: Should the considerations of physics be allowed to override the interests of biology? Physics (matter) is concerned with the mathematical and scientific aspects, but biology (life) aspires to transcend the mathematical and scientific so that it might exist forever.

Do I Read The Newspaper?

Someone asked me: “Do you even read the newspaper?”
My answer: “No, I only look at it.”

The USA Versus China

If there is a serious military confrontation between the USA and China, the USA will ultimately win, but in a peaceful or “cold” confrontation between the two nations, China has a clear advantage. In the last thirty years, China has made several inroads into American society. The Chinese control a chunk of American art, movies, academia, media, big business, and politics. In a cold confrontation, the Americans will not be united, as they will be in a serious military confrontation, and so they will be fighting not only the China that exists outside their borders but also the pro-China elements who hold commanding positions in their own society.

The Experience of the Sacred

Religion is not about god. It is about the experience of the sacred, which is the driver of intellectualism and morality. When the atheists deny religion, they are suppressing and desecrating the sacred. This makes them alienated from the intellectual and moral roots of their society. The communities in which atheism takes root are unintellectual and immoral.

The New Terra Incognita

The planet earth is fast becoming terra incognita. In name of battling the pandemic, most nations have barricaded themselves against the truth. Only the politically connected voices are being heard. Every dissenting voice has been silenced.

A Bit Of Machiavellian Wisdom

Machiavelli says in The Prince that whoever becomes the cause of another becoming powerful, ensures his own ruin. This Machiavellian wisdom implies that when a community sacrifices its intellectual, political, and financial achievements to raise the standards of a backward community, then it will, at some point of time, itself become backward.

Who is in Belly of the Trojan Horse?

The moral defenders of good culture are hiding in the belly of the Trojan Horse; the nihilist destroyers of culture are in control of the fortress.

The Conservative Way Versus The Liberal Way

The conservatives are preoccupied with traditions and morals. Their preachers are traditionalists first and humanists next. Their insistent preaching is directed towards building of character. They exhort their youth to strive to be as good as their ancestors. 

The liberals are preoccupied with proving that the norms of traditions and morality are anti-freedom. Their preachers are alienated individualists first and nihilists next. Their insistent preaching is directed towards creating individuals who are alienated and nihilistic.

The World is Being Re-Barbarized

Whose fault is it that the world is what it is? We began in the Classical Age and worked without intermission for more than two millennia to create what? A number of fascistic democracies which are re-barbarizing the people.

A Good Nation is a River and Not a Pond

If a nation wants its history to keep flowing like a river, it must endeavor to raise itself to a higher level of culture, politics, economic progress, and technological excellence every fifty years. If the nation cannot manage that then its river will stop flowing. Its river will transform into a pond whose surface is covered with green algae and on whose banks there exist the “human scum” who have lost their intellect, enterprise, and sense of culture and morality, and who subsist by feeding on the pond’s rotten algae and fish and on the weeds growing on the land.

Human Nature and Morality

Morality should never entail a rebellion against human nature. Nothing that is impossible to human beings can be moral; it can, however, be immoral. All moral exhortations, which are against human nature, should be rejected.

Who is the Greatest Philosopher?

If I stand in front of the magic mirror and say, “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the greatest philosopher of them all?” The magic mirror will certainly reply: “Plato, but not Plato, alas! Aristotle, but not Aristotle, alas! Immanuel Kant, but not Immanuel Kant, alas!” Every great philosopher is a universe by himself, and it is impossible to decide which universe is the best.

Newton’s Third Law and Man's Mind

Newton’s third law of motion is applicable to man’s mind: Every tyrannical political action provokes an equal and opposite emotional reaction in our mind.

Why I Didn’t Watch the Movie Joker?

In Agatha Christie’s novel A Murder Is Announced, a character says, "I didn't want to kill her. I didn't want to kill anybody — I had to…” (The character is not expressing Christie’s political viewpoints, but attempting to defend herself.) After the 1960s, the neoliberal left has developed the ideological position that most criminals are a victim of the injustices and prejudices which are inherent in modern society. 

Like Christie’s character, the liberals say, “They didn’t want to kill anybody—they had to…” and they preach sympathy for the psychology of those who go on a killing spree. Recently, I saw the movie Joker, in which the protagonist, a man called Arthur Fleck (the Joker), is forced to become a psychopathic killer after being bullied and harassed for his financial, health-related, and psychological problems. 

I didn’t like the movie. The blatant way in which the movie tries to justify Arthur Fleck’s antisocial character and brutal crimes is enough to put me off.

Jean Valjean Versus Javert

In Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables, the cop Javert has the protagonist Jean Valjean trapped in a narrow street from which the only way of escaping is by climbing two perpendicular walls of great height. Jean Valjean is with Cosette (his foster child) but he manages to escape with her by the virtue of the massive strength of his arms and legs. Carrying her on his shoulders, he climbs over the two perpendicular walls and climbs down from the other side leaving Javert dumbfounded. But today’s man does not possess the strength and courage of Jean Valjean. If he is trapped by enemies in a narrow street, he will look for a ladder, which will never arrive.

On Whiners & Snarlers

The man who whines knows how to snarl. Today’s whiner is tomorrow’s snarler who will readily join violent mobs and indulge in looting, arson, and other kinds of disorderly behavior to force society to grant him the respect, wealth, and power that he does not deserve. Whining is not a sign of intelligence or virtue. It is a prelude to snarling and political vices.

The New Age of Anti-Capitalism

A new age of anti-capitalism has dawned. This time the nations are not discarding capitalism because they want to adopt socialism or communism but because they want to be free from the bondage of culture, constitution, and economics. They see every past and present value, the book of constitution, and the rules of economics as an instrument of oppression and want to live free in a nihilistic and anarchistic utopia. The liberal elite, who control the mainstream media, the digital industry, and the academic industry, are playing a major role in making a case for the utopia of nihilism and anarchism. Their propaganda has turned public opinion against all forms of democracy and capitalism.

Americans in 1991 Versus Americans in 2020

Americans in 1991 (after the fall of the Soviet Union): all nations will now accept the free market democratic system; history has come to an end; there will be no world historical conflicts in the future. Americans in 2020: free markets is racist; democracy is misogynist; there are 74 genders; truth is anti-minority rights; fossil fuels are evil; climate change will kill half of humanity, the other half will be killed by the virus pandemic; if you won’t support the lockdown and mask culture, you are a psychopath; Gone With The Wind is liked by racist-sexist dunderheads; cancel history, cancel classics. What a difference thirty years makes in a nation’s outlook?

Rejection of Aristotelian Biology in 2020

In his commentary on health and diseases, Aristotle follows his bent as a biologist and looks at how the body of the healthy members of any species works. He notes that the creatures which fail to match the standards of the healthy members of their species are unhealthy or diseased. Since the time of Aristotle, the field of medicine has accepted the health indices of the healthy men and women as the optimal standard for all human beings. But in 2020, the medical establishments in most nations have engineered a biological inversion. In the ongoing virus pandemic, they are using the health indices of the few unhealthy men and women to develop criteria which are applicable to everyone.

The Barbarians Who Disregard History

History is not a fairytale. It’s not a love story either. History the story of the achievements and the failures of our ancestors; of the terrors and cataclysms as well as the genius and grandeur; of the cruelties, persecutions, and wars as well as the achievements in philosophy, science, literature, engineering, art, and politics. History enables us to learn lessons from the past; it tells us who we are, what our proper place is in the universe. Those who despise history, those who try to distort or obliterate history, are the barbarians. Their rise in politics means the end of a civilization.

Green Shoots Versus Oak Trees

People look at the few green shoots in the cornfields and think that a new civilization is arising, but a civilization is not created by the weak and ephemeral green shoots—it’s created by the giant battle-hardened oak trees which carry the scars of the centuries. The political movements of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries (liberalism, communism, capitalism, neoliberalism, libertarianism, neoconservatism) are the green shoots, which are here today, gone tomorrow. The traditions and movements which have come down to us from the Ancient and Middle Ages are the giant oak trees which will keep supporting us for centuries in the future.

Unemployment and Revolutions

Unemployment has nothing to do with revolutionary activities. Most people join the revolutionary movements when they are young school or college students (the average age of the revolutionaries is between fourteen and twenty years). They come from well-to-do middle class homes, and many belong to the wealthy class. So there is no problem of livelihood for these revolutionaries. Those who face problems of livelihood have no time for revolutionary activities—they are busy looking for jobs or the means to start a small business.

From Where Does Power Grow?

For the communists, power grows out of the barrel of a gun; for the Antifa, power grows out of the butt of a gun. After being knocked down by the gun’s recoil, the weedy-wispy Antifa activists will surmise that the gun’s butt is the source of its power.

The Questions of Philosophy are Unanswerable

Philosophy has sustained itself for more than two thousand years by trying to find the answers to the fundamental questions raised by Socrates and Plato—on the nature of reality, man’s place in the universe, the relation between mind and matter, the ways of leading a moral life and creating a perfect society. But till now these questions have not been convincingly answered. There is little likelihood of them ever being convincingly answered. This can mean two things—one, the questions raised by Socrates and Plato are invalid and must be rejected; two, philosophy is an endless quest to find answers to questions that are fundamentally unanswerable.

Rereading Gone With The Wind

Rereading Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With The Wind: Thank you, liberals—for creating a hoopla and reminding me that more than two decades have passed since I read this great book, and that it’s time for me to reread it.