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

The State of the World at Present - Part 1 - The US

 The United States

1. The United States is a deeply divided country but still remains as the best hope for the West

2. Both the Republican and Democratic Parties are bleeding support from their traditional center to the Populist voices at the extremes. MAGA dominates the former and the far left is increasingly calling the shots with the latter. In each case the normative center is being squeezed.

3. Globalist forces  have less of a stranglehold in the United States than they do in Western Europe but the country is being pulled strongly in two opposing directions. It remains to be seen if the center will hold. 

4. Large Urban centers are facing a rot bought about by the Fentanyl Epidemic, poor city governance, corruption, white flight, a drop in law and order and illegal immigration that has run rampant. The Far Left dominates most of the power structures in the immediate center with corporate investment moving outward.

5. Gen Z is being radicalized by both the far left (socialism, Communism etc) and radical right (fascism). Identity politics of both an ethnic and religious type have infused both sides.Radicals are driven by romantic ideals that are dismissive of the necessary complement of empricism and racism that has historically definted the classical liberal and Burkean conservative heritage of the nation.

6. The trajecctory has a negative prognosis unless cooler and more calculating heads can prevail. There is an urgent need for an emergent and non-compromised centrism.

7. Donald Trump is a divisive President but so were Messrs Bush II, Obama and Biden. However Trunp's policies on reinforcing border control, rolling back DEI and flexing US muscle against his BRICS adversaries is most welcome. Whether these policies hold for the reamainder of his term or are reversed by a future Democratic Party leadership remains to be seen.

8. Without a strong US on the global front international politics will be dominated by China, Russia and the various Middle Eastern powers. This will likely lead to more turmoil. US hegemony is not a perfect solution (far from it) but it is a better option than the alternatives of America rebranding itself as a European analogue (viz. Germany, France or Britain) or even worse still adopting an American First policy that will needlessly empower authoritarian forces across the globe.

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15 Well Established Organizations that have been corrupted by ideological rot

 (Will add to this later)

1. United Nations and its sister organizations

 2. WHO

3. CDC - can hopefully be turned around under Trump although I doubt it

4. BBC, ABC (Australia), CBC (Canada).

5. New York Times

6. Harvard and Colombia University

7. The US Democratic Party

8. The British Labour Party

9. The British Conservative Party

10. British Policing Infrastructure

11. Harvard and Colombia Universities

12. CNN

13.The Canadian Liberal Party

14. ICJ

15. The Australian Labour Party

16 Pro-Russian Information sources in the Western Media

All of these individuals consistently mouth pro-Putin talking points in the media. All of them need to be viewed through this lens. While they may have moments of insight elsewhere they are mot to be trusted within the Russian/Ukranian or Middle East context.

1. Tucker Carlson 

2. Glenn Greenwald

3. Julian Assange

4. Jeffrey Sachs

5. Dave Smith

6. Max Blumenthal

7. Scott Ritter

8. Abby Martin

9. Kim Iverson

10. Jack Posobiec

11. George Galloway

12. Jackson Hinckle

13 Douglas Macgregor

14. Breaking Point Team

15. Aaron Mate

16. Katie Helper