While I'm offline camping medieval style with @britbenjamin and 10,000 other historical re-enactors at the Pennsic War, which my dad conveniently started 47 years ago, here are some deep articles to ponder for the week. http://www.pennsicwar.org/penn47/
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First,
@JTLonsdale writes in@TheEconomist: "The core ideas of the West hold many of the answers we seek today in response to a populism which rages on the left and on the right."https://www.economist.com/open-future/2018/08/03/western-civilisation-is-an-idea-worth-defending-and-reapplying …1 reply 0 retweets 0 likesShow this thread -
"Instead of being the source of society's ills, the values of Western Civilization are part of the cure...a great artifice that restrains most forms of tribalism and lets us prosper by serving others regardless of their identities."
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"Incomes in the West for all but the wealthiest have stagnated. As in the feudal system before liberalism, the strong prey upon the weak. The West is failing precisely where its core liberal values do not hold sway."
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Next,
@peterthiel has been doing a series of talks and interviews in Europe. This hidden gem in@Weltwoche ranges from the hilarious to the profound. The hilarious: https://www.weltwoche.ch/ausgaben/2018-29/artikel/en-hypnotische-massenphanomene-die-weltwoche-ausgabe-29-2018.html …1 reply 1 retweet 2 likesShow this thread -
"I think there are many things that are more important than politics...but if you cannot even have differences of opinion in politics, things are very unhealthy. In a democracy, we believe the average person should be able to make some judgements:
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"Do you like the funny man with the strange hairdo, or the mean grandmother for president in the United States? These are common sense things that people should be able to debate. And if you are not allowed to, then you should probably not be allowed to think about anything."
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On identity: "Identity is a very strange concept. It can mean two opposite things. It can mean that which makes you unique and it can mean that which makes you identical...You don’t want to pretend that it does not exist and you don’t want to make it all-important..."
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"It is very hard for us to find the right way to talk about this. As a gay person I don’t want to be in the closet, but I also don’t want to be in the ghetto. The closet and the ghetto are exclusive, but I hope they are not exhaustive, those are not the only two."
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Finally, if you're interested in the West's roots,
@britbenjamin & I are thinking of leading an Ancient Greek/Early Roman camp next year. If you're not just an armchair Stoics but a true philosopher interested in living for a week as Epictetus would have, DM me for info.0 replies 0 retweets 0 likesShow this threadThanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
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