Interesting review of a book from Jonah Goldberg’, “Suicide of the West: How the Rebirth of Tribalism, Populism, Nationalism, and Identity Politics is Destroying American Democracy.”

Jonah Goldberg is from the National Review and is no fan of Trump so maybe you leftist will keep reading as he’s something of a Benedict Arnold to us on the Right.

Homo sapiens are between 200,000 and 300,000 years old. Yet the modern world, with all the conveniences that we take for granted (I wrote this article sitting on a plane 8 kilometers above ground, using an internet connection provided by a satellite orbiting 37,000 kilometers above the surface of the Earth), is merely 250 years old. Put differently, for the first 99.9 percent of our time on earth, progress was painfully slow. Then everything suddenly changed.

The Miracle emerged, probably by chance and after hundreds of years of trial and error, in the splendidly quirky island of Great Britain. It then spread, however imperfectly, into other parts of the world.

I’ve not read the book but knowing Goldberg, I assume The Miracle is a combination of freedom and capitalism that unleashed the creative human mind.

I believe that, conceptually, we have reached the end of history. We are at the summit, and at this altitude [political] left and right lose most of their meaning. Because when you are at the top of the mountain, any direction you turn – be it left toward socialism or right toward nationalism … the result is the same: You must go down, back whence you came.”

True? Have we gone as far as we can go? In the book of Genesis, the story of the Tower of Babel relates a method God used to prevent mankind from advancing. His method was language which instantly divided people into groups. Over time we’ve found ways to overcome language differences and now basically the entire world can communicate. So here’s a thought just popped into my head this Sunday morning, is identity politics a new version of the Tower of Babel? It’s a way that blocks us from communicating. I don’t understand antifa rioters, militant transgenders, BLM fanatics anymore that I would understand someone speaking Greek.

Is identity politics our Tower of Babel?

That’s my point. You look at Trump as the one who created identity politics, I look at Trump as the one who relies on it the least. It’s almost as if you never heard of Hilary’s deplorables or Obama’s “clinging to religion and guns”, or Biden’s “chumps” and virtually everything Kamala says.

You point out a few identities you can’t communicate. You use the phrase white supremacist group to broadly categorize millions of people. You include me and my family in the group. Do you really think I hate black people? Do you think I reject medical advice from a black doctor? We are not white supremacist by any stretch of the imagination but it’s a simple tasks to ignore and dismiss any thoughts from this “group” and you in particular lump 74 million people into that category.

I in turn lump you into the leftist group who side with those lacking any understanding of the historical value of this nation and are determined to destroy what’s been the most successful nation on earth

Face to face, yes, we used to be able to have conversations but I think the internet has destroyed that. Now you can be eating a meal at an outside restaurant and lumped into your white supremacist group by people who unlike you, have no problem with a physical confrontation.

The question remains. Have we reached the top? Everywhere we turn is down and the only response is to blame those outside of the group we belong to, the group whose “language” we speak?

Is that where we are?

As an example in objecting to your thoughts, I present Greta Thumberg, David Hogg, etc.   These are the types who are allowed access to the rest. If there’s a hidden, underground nation-wide communication network we’re unaware of, I’d like to hear about it.

Find me a kid who doesn’t “care” and I’ll show you a lump of clay about to be shaped into the pre-approved package.

Didn’t you hear the story about the girl when 15, was recorded using the N-word in a popular phrase by some punk kid who saved it for three or four years?  After being accepted to Univ of Tennessee, he send it to them and they kicked her out. Because some ache “activist” kid saved it because he wanted to be vindictive against her. A Major university went along with it. Objections to what the University did were a whimper.

This girl is not a racist white supremacist but many, most, will label her with that because those with access says she is.

You tell me how a few strong, independent younger kids with a broader view of the world are going to influence anyone?

WebsterMark wrote on 01/03/21 at 04:33:18:



I think that wiht this topic you hit te nail on the head (ducht expresion)
about what is happening in the world richt now.

Black, gay, white, yellow, red, you cant love them for that reason, nor hate them for that reason.
You like the person ore not.
PERIOT

To any noticeable degree that would cause a college administrator to have second thoughts about rejecting a student after receiving a video showing a current political incorrect activity from when they were 15? No.