Reflections LI - Messages from the Beast

An obvious human weakness is how we openly relinquish our free will to the tyranny of accepted opinion.

Most educational curriculum is centered on conformity at the expense of critical thought.

While your body may pay a price for resisting the insanity your soul is by contrast rewarded.

The destruction of the economy by Marxist principles is only matched by the evisceration of reason by post-modernism.

Life courtesy of its very essence has meaning. 

The barbarian hordes are forever at the gates. They have patience as they know that bad governance is not far away.

The evolution of sporting strategy involves the ongoing effort to neutralize skill by deliberate mechanical counterbalance. For great periods of time tedium dominates over flair.

Reflections L - Causual Observations

What is most tragic about the fine arts is that it likely peaked in the 17th century with a slight boost given to it by the Impressionists two centuries later.  Since then the decline looks to be terminal. AI may be the final nail in a once ornate coffin.

Anything perceived as free to use, will be ultimately abused by the public. Many people simply can’t help themselves.

The tragedy of the modern is that we are drowning in a sea of unoriginal sludge.

In an insane world it is even more important that one’s thoughts be focused, rational and reliably conceived.

To an extremist the danger is not the directly opposing viewpoint but the very truth itself.

A sad observation is that most people fail to understand the limits of science including many scientists themselves.

Any religion that uses excommunication as a weapon to ensure conformity has no understanding of the God-Person relationship.

A declining society has no problem relegating the truth to a position behind popular sentiment. The eventual aim is to eventually replace the former fully with the latter.

Reflections XLIX - On the Diabolical

Russia’s strength has always been both the size of its population and the vastness of its territory. This has afforded them the luxury of absorbing great errors of judgement that would destroy almost any other state.  For most of its history it has acted as a bottomless pit that can swallow its own incompetence

A problem of American foreign policy architects is that they regularly overstate the demand for freedom  abroad that they so value in their own country.  They have yet to come to terms with the notion that the authoritarian impulse is well received and in many cases welcomed globally.

It is all very well connecting the dots but you have to connect them in the right order.

Just as Jerusalem serves as a gateway to spiritualism in the world, Los Angeles occupies the niche as a monument to narcissism.

Structuring a society based on kindness alone produces self destruction as it blindly rewards incompetence.

For all of my life the fundamental policy of leftist governments is to enhance, support and grow welfare dependence. To this end they have succeeded.You can indeed fool most of the people most of the time. This is done regularly at elections.

The problem with bad ideas is that they seem to have an infinite shelf life.

Relections XLVIII - Lessons from History

One problem with technology is that it can make stupid people and bad ideas seem reasonable. It has a seemingly endless ability to obfuscate.

China will make Russia in the contemporary world seem relevant, so long as it supplies it with resources and can be used as a cudgel against the west. For the Russian nation that has been in decline since the end of the Cold War, any support is welcome. Beggars can’t be choosers.

Empires rarely last for a long period of time as they cannot resist the impetus to rot from within. Corruption motivated by self interest sits at the heart of human frailty.

The inherent flaw of globalism is that it is predicated on the notion of universally shared values. This is grounded in wishful thinking not reality.

Very few societies have performed better following the mass exodus of Jews, yet it is the unifying cry of many a bigot.

There should be a special Hades for those who deliberately choose not to see beyond their own  narrative of choice.

A question that is almost never asked is when does the marginal utility of formal education kick in?

The primary focus of many academics is to build linguistic word towers of nebulous quality to prevent outsiders from seeing the vacuum that exists from within.

No matter how evil an act is there will always be somebody who can rationalize it within the context of a greater good.

New Lists #1 - The Top 100 Movies that I Personally like

These are movies that really resonated with me and that I would clearly watch over again (something I rarely do). I am not a film critic so I will not pass judgement and their production brilliance. This is all about personal taste and comfort. (Yes I know that Godfather should be #1 or #2.... Citizen Kane and Casablanca are on my list to watch as is Scarface and The Untouchables).

1. Back to the Future (the first movie not the sequels)

2. Silence of the Lambs

3. Casino

4. Goodfellas

5. Interstellar

6. High Noon

7. Gran Torino

8. Raiders of the Lost Ark

9. Glengarry Glen Ross

10. Downfall

11. Pulp Fiction

12. Ten Commandments

13. Star Wars a New Hope

14. Schindler's List

15. The Unforgiven

16. Jurassic Park

17. Once Upon a Time in America

18. The Spy who Loved me

19. Dredd

20. Gone with The Wind

21.Blood Diamond

22. Apocalypse Now

23. Saving Private Ryan

24. Empire Strikes Back

25. Demolition Man

26. The Right Stuff

27. Sleuth (the original)

28. Trainspotting

29. Gladiator

30. American Beauty

31. Inception

32. The Party

33. Spartacus

34.  Grease

35. When Harry Met Sally

36. Goldfinger

37. The Matrix

38. Dodgeball

39. Gangs of New York

40. Fury

41. Where Eagles Dare

42. Rocky 

43.  The Chosen

44. Carry on Doctor (My favourite Carry on Movie)

45. Airplane

46. The Great Escape

47. In Time

48. There's only one Jimmy Grimble

49. Ford v Ferrari

50. Life of Brian

51. The Godfather

52. The Dark Knight

52. People v Larry Flynt

53. Whiplash

54. The Notebook

55. Amadeus

56. Wolf of Wall Street

57. The Red Violin

58. Platoon

59. Exodus

60. Jaws

61. Wild Geese

62. Karate KId

63. Prisoners

64. American Pie

65. White Men Can't Jump

66. Full Metal Jacket

67. The Departed

68. Judgement at Nuremberg

69. The Holdovers

70. Escape to Victory

71. Rush

72. Ice Cold in Alex

73. Top Gun

74. Princess Bride

75. Donny Brasco 

76. Rear Window

77. Chariots of Fire

78. Seven

79. Rambo

80. Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1939)

81. Boogie Nights

82. Fargo

83.The Doors

84. Angel Heart

85. The Hangover

86. The Secret of My Success

87. The Death of Stalin

88. Inglourius Bastards

89. Rocky III

90. Tropic Thunder

91. Murder on the Orient Express (1974)

92. Home Alone

93. Annie Hall

94. Batman (1988)

95. Bohemian Rhapsody

96.  Higher Learning

97. Coming to America

98. Enter the Dragon

99. My Cousin Vinny

100. Superman II

Reflections XLVII - Making Sense of the Narrative

 The greatest weapon that the elites have in a democratic system is that they can almost always rely on the stupidity of the voter.

The obvious weakness of rationalism is that on a practical level it doesn’t scale as well as emotion.

The surest way to destroy an economy is to fleece the wealth of the job creation class in the name of a supposed equality.

Our biggest enemy at times is our own ego. If not kept in check it will pave out a dangerous road for us to take.

China has built itself into an economic power by systematically defeating every US Presidential Administration since Richard Nixon in the great game of trade. The US paved the way for its recovery from the disasters of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution.

If Americans took a break from their two party partisan politics model to objectively analyzing the aspects of specific policies they might see the improvements they would like. Unfortunately this aspect of their national landscape is unlikely to change. If anything it is more inclined to worsen.

Individual intelligence counts for little if you are prone to the hysteria of the masses.

The problem with management is that they have an innate need to complicate processes to justify their net being.

Progress (whatever that nebulous term means) only makes some sense if our trajectory is understood else it can very easily lead you along a course of self destruction. Progressivism as a political movement in the United States has erred in this regard many a time.