Tag: socialism

David Lammy, the UK’s new Foreign Secretary, who made sure to mention in his very first speech in the post that he is “a descendant of enslaved people.” (Image source; UK Parliament website)

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England swings like a pendulum do.
Bobbies on bicycles two by two.
Westminster Abbey, the tower of Big Ben.
The rosy red cheeks of the little children.
— Roger Miller, “England Swings”

And so, as they say, it begins. Labour’s predicted landslide in last week’s United Kingdom general election proved to be just that, with the party winning 412 seats out of the parliamentary total of 650. It is the second-largest Labour majority in history in a general election which had the second-lowest voter turnout (a pathetic 52%) in that same history. (more…)

1880 cartoon showing the “Solid South” being forced to carry Ulysses S. Grant and the Reconstruction regime at bayonet point.

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Part 3 of 3 (Part 1 here, Part 2 here)

Creating & Expanding the Solid South

The end of Reconstruction did not immediately lead to segregation or the disenfranchisement of sub-Saharans in the South or any other part of the country. In 1878, segregation and sub-Saharan disenfranchisement seemed impossible — especially since the South had just barely thrown off a military occupation government. In parts of the South, in fact, sub-Saharans outnumbered whites. South Carolina even had a white minority. (more…)

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English original here

Následující text je překladem přednášky F. Roger Devlina z jarního setkání Counter-Currents 2023

Termín populismus se v Americe hojně rozšířil od vzestupu Donalda Trumpa, v Evropě pak ještě o něco dříve, jako negativně zabarvené zastřešující označení protiimigračních protestních stran. Po všelidovém hlasování o Brexitu a zvolení Trumpa prezidentem se v anglicky hovořícím světě vyrojily knihy o populismu jako houby po dešti. Vsadil bych si, že za mnoha z nich stojí zadání vypočítavých vydavatelů, kteří doufali ve snadný zisk z náhle módní materie. (more…)

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English original here

Už tak velice nízká porodnost v Jižní Koreji se v roce 2023 dále propadla na pouhých 0,72 dítěte na ženu, což je přibližně jen třetina hodnoty nutné pro zachování velikosti populace (2,1). Na webu BBC se dokonce objevil článek, jehož autorka si klade otázky, proč se tolik Korejek rozhodlo zůstat bezdětných. (more…)

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England is not the jewelled isle of Shakespeare’s much-quoted message, nor is it the inferno depicted by Dr. Goebbels. More than either it resembles a family, a rather stuffy Victorian family, with not many black sheep in it but with all its cupboards bursting with skeletons. — George Orwell, “England, Your England”

Evening has fallen, the swans are singing.
The last of Sunday’s bells is ringing.
The wind in the trees is sighing,
And old England is dying.
— The Waterboys, “Old England” (more…)

South Korean teens in Jongno, Seoul. (Photo courtesy of Flickr)

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Czech version here

South Korea’s birth rate per woman, which was already low, fell even lower in 2023 to 0.72, which is roughly a mere third of the country’s replacement level of 2.1. The BBC even published an article exploring why women in South Korea are choosing not to have children. (more…)

The Fabian Window is a work of stained glass which portrays prominent socialists as religious figures. The goal of the Fabian Society was to achieve socialist principles through the Fabian Strategy — to achieve their aims by inches and through stealth. Their symbol was a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

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Part 2 of 2 (Part 1 here)

Metapolitical action

America emerged from the Second World War as the premier superpower. The nations of Europe were starving and in ruins. Japan was likewise wrecked. Even the victorious British were reliant on American aid. But American society was beset with three different kinds of problems. The first was that the economy was shackled by the New Deal, although this was not yet fully understood at the time. (more…)

Phil Eiger Newmann, Jack London, 2021

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Spanish version here

Jack London was born John Griffith Chaney in San Francisco on January 12, 1876. An adventurer and Jack of all trades in his youth, London achieved fame and fortune as a fiction writer and journalist. (more…)

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Part 2 of 2 (Part 1 here)

There are many reasons to think that we are living in the world of Atlas Shrugged. Doesn’t it seem today as if literally everything is broken or in freefall? Manufacturing, transportation, infrastructure, public safety, the justice system, housing, education, the food supply, journalism, the arts, and more — these are broken in our world of today, and broken in the world of Atlas Shrugged. But how they got broken is, in many ways, quite different from what Rand depicts. (more…)

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Part 1 of 2 (Part 2 here)

See also: “Colonel McCormick,” “America First 1939-1941,” “Wind Down the Empire of Nothing,” & “America’s Endless Wars” (more…)

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It’s been 80 years since Ayn Rand’s novel The Fountainhead was published by Bobbs-Merrill, and almost exactly 37 years since I first read it. I was in college at the time and, although I did not realize it, searching for some source of meaning in my life. The previous year I had gone through a Satanist phase, occasioned by reading Anton LaVey’s Satanic Bible and failing to see the humor in it. That had been followed by a very, very brief Marxist phase. (more…)

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The second half of last weekend’s stream was an Ask Me Anything with host Greg Johnson and long-time activist Matt Parrott (Telegram, Substack), which is now available for download and online listening. (more…)

YMMV. Courtesy of Stonetoss

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Part 2 of 2 (Part 1 here)

Marx 101

Here we get John Galt’s speech — albeit of a very different type — in miniature. (more…)