14 Thoughts on the Charlie Kirk Assassination

1. Nobody should be violently attacked let alone killed for exercising their right to freedom of expression. If you want to defeat a person you dislike then do so with rational argument.

2. People celebrating or justifying such violent action need to check their moral compass. I have unfortunately seen this with people I know personally.

3. Advocating tit-for-tat violence in response to such an attack or killing is deplorable as well.

4. Unless you are advocating violence I don’t believe a person should be canceled from their job even if their opinions are tasteless. Those using their platforms however to spread hate on this issue to a captive audience (school children) need to face the consequence of their actions as per the mandate of the specific institution that employs them.

5. Now to the specifics....Charlie Kirk was not a saint and he had, like all of us, his faults. However I do believe that he was a good man with great qualities who was making an honest attempt to change the dialogue on campus which unfortunately been compromised by wokeness, cancel culture and divisive identity politics.

6. Kirk was not an ethnic identitarian which is why both the Far Left and Far Right (check out the Groypers) didn’t like him. Nick Fuentes was a persistent critic and I don’t believe his crocodile tears for a second.

7. He was an unapologetic Christian and was consistent in his Christian belief. He was not however a Christian Nationalist and supported the model of the Republic consistent with the US Constitution.

8. Youth outreach was his bread and butter and his energy, verbal fluency and positive demeanor were well served.

9. I agreed for the most part with Charlie Kirk in his opposition to illegal immigration, support of free debate and meritocracy. He was correct in calling out various failures in our modern cultural world and was on target when taking on DEI and other bad ideas which have become part and parcel of the intellectual and sociological milieu.

10. I disagreed with him on his strong stance on abortion as I don’t believe that life begins with conception and I think that his take on gun rights were too dismissive of background checks. However I respect the consistency of his stance. His platforming of Tucker Carlson on TPUSA was a mistake. However he did pride himself on not promoting a one thought bubble. So such an invitation ought to be viewed within this framework.

11. On foreign policy he was usually on the ball despite the best efforts of American Isolationists to push him into their camp. Having said that I think he would admit that foreign policy was not his strongest area.

12. Kirk was a huge fan of the Jews and a great ally of Israel. There are clips going around criticizing him from either side on this issue but almost always these are fully de-contextualized for click bait purposes.

13. I wish his family all the best and hope that others will take on the mantra where he left off. He seems to be a man of character who had friends on all sides of the spectrum. He was not racist or homophobic but like all public figures was often straw manned as such.

14. In short I see Kirk as a Classic Liberal albeit as one schooled in the Burkean Conservative mode. The problem is that the overton window (range of ‘allowable’ opinions) especially on universities has shifted so far to the left that for many people such a take is seen as extreme when they are really just mainstream conservative takes for the general public.

Reflections XXVI - Sunday Thoughts

The United Nations is a toothless beast that became irrelevant less than a decade of its founding. If it weren’t for a global longing of what it ought to be (but won’t) then it should have been euthanized some time ago. Today it is a country club catering to the worst of humanity.

Extremists have a tendency to oscillate from one polarity to another for they have a mindset drawn to bad ideas regardless of where they reside on any political spectrum. Mussolini for one went from Socialism to Fascism while Peron in Argentina entertained all sorts of bad ideas.

Sometimes I think that the story of history is a tale of recovery from bad ideas implemented.

Every leader given enough time will come crashing down from their pedestal.

The function of bureaucracy in the modern state is to protect the power structure from radical change and circumvent reform. Democracy is the illusion sold to the public that the change is possible.

Reflections - XXV - Necessary Reflections

The modern world has been built on the notion that materialism is realism. This has had the consequence of imprisoning us in a convenient thought cage.

Media News is designed to elicit emotion. Transmission of Information is at best an afterthought. Nuanced accounting is never desirable.

An act of unapologetic evil is easily identified. This is not the case with those who produce harm through supposed good intention which makes the latter all the more dangerous in the long run.

Once you have accepted the fact that your control is limited then life’s jigsaw starts to make more sense.

You can sell any lie by addressing it in enough pomp. This is the business model for large swathes of organized religion.

Reflections XXIV - As Summer enters the twilight

 Surviving a genocide does not necessarily make that individual a good person in and of itself. Plenty of morally questionable were the victims of awful people.

If hell did it exist it should have a floor reserved for those who take the political opinions of celebrities as gospel.

Anti-Semitism has a unique characteristic to mutate and morph into a different form. In an echo of McLuhan’s message it can readapt to the medium of transmission which is why it has become go to clickbait for any half-baked you-tuber and podcaster out there.

Its really tragic to see how some great science fiction universes with dynamic power structures have been mauled by the poor story and plot lines that were set around them. Star Wars is of course being the most obvious example. Star Trek in its rebirth was not far behind.

There is no more assured way of destroying a superhero character then by granting them too much power and apparent invincibility. This was Superman’s problem from the start. The miracle of the series was how he has been kept going as a cultural icon with such an obvious flaw.

Reflections XXIII - August Insights

Russian history would be dull if it weren't for the national culture of paranoia - both justifued and unjustified.

The unspoken gift of globalization is that it globalizes problems.....makes them universal tradgedy when they could be local.

A crime against all future generations is the deliberate distortion of the actual truth. It is also a crime that largely goes un punished.

The party wanted us to believe the narrative not the facts.

Faith in humanity is the short road to disappointment.

Juan Peron's Argentinian regime demonstrated with action how fascism and comminism could exist similuateneously under the banner of statism.

No people have a greater admitation for human competency and efficacy of  outcome than conspiracy theorists

What books would you recommend for those interested in reading more on the topic of Physics in general?

 This would be my top fifteen:

1.The Elegant Universe – Brian Greene – an excellent introduction to the fundamentals of Modern Physics.

2. Hyperspace – Michio Kaku - wonderful take on extra dimensions by a strong narrator.

3. The Ideas of Physics – Ernest Hutten - an oldie but a goldie – discusses key ideas that shaped the discipline.

4. Fearful Symmetry – A. Zee - Looks at the Beauty in Physics.

5. Physics of Immortality – Frank Tipler - a bit over the top but highly entertaining, nevertheless.

6. Theories of Everything – John Barrow - Low key but well written.

7. Feynman Lecture Series – Richard Feynman - A struggle for the layperson, but if you can get through a third of it, your effort will be rewarded.

8. The Trouble with Physics – Lee Smolin - an important critique of the groupthink that has worked its way into particle physics.

9. Physics – Douglas Giancoli - Doesn’t matter what the edition is; its treatment of classical physics is splendid.

10. The Flying circus of Physics – Jearl Walker – Challenging problems that force one to really think deeply about everyday physics.

11. Relativity Simply Explained – Martin Gardiner – Its title says it all.

12. The First Three Minutes: A Modern View of the Origin of the Universe – Steven Weinberg- Still one of the best treatments of the Big Bang.

13. The Constants of Nature – John Barrow – Delves into the details of these definitive constants that so encapsulate our universe.

14. Thirty Years that Shook Physics: The Story of Quantum Theory – Gamow is a great storyteller, and he didn’t disappoint with this useful read.

15. Fifty Physics Ideas – Joanne Baker – Lots of fun and really easy to navigate

Overriding learning philosophy from my book Navigating the Chaos

It isn't easy to make sense of the chaos that is modern-day reality. Transformational change, information deluge, and a preponderance of bad ideas often leave us feeling isolated in a world that seems to be edging closer to an expedited collapse.

Post-truth has made itself heard across virtually every intellectual discipline, leaving one navigating a turbulent pathway to a workable clarity.

It is my experience that if you wish to live a life of meaning that you also have to adhere to beliefs that are well thought out, clear, and based on sound reasoning and logic.

I would say that my eventual goal is making sense of the universe. A cynic would claim that such a task is futile, fraught with obstacles, and ultimately a bridge to eventual disappointment. Perhaps this is true, but I would not renege on the journey, its path may be convoluted, but the serendipity that it invites is overwhelmingly rewarding.

Navigating the chaos is a formed-in-the-fire product of me wrestling with a multiplicity of understandings that I have come across in my stay on the planet so far. It is a consequence of both my practical experience and independent inquiry that reflects issues as diverse as the nature of science, the ebbs and flow of history, and the trajectory of our future.

Much of what I write here is based on my judgment that I have endeavored to substantiate with evidence and reasonable speculation. I will admit when I am at a loss and most certainly welcome the reader to challenge my conclusions.

Over the years, I have learned that all issues are not as clear-cut as their champions make them out to be, and in virtually every case, one's personal position is a derivative of the net information available. While it is necessary to have principles, it is equally important to listen to contradictory standpoints, which is why the exchange of ideas is so critical to any debate.