Sublime
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The growth of politics is the opposite of the growth of liberty. When liberty grows we get increased individual enterprise and expansion of free markets. We create more goods, services, and benefits to society. The pie gets bigger. But politics is not about creating more goods, services, and benefits to society. Politics is about dividing them up.
... See moreP.J. O'Rourke • A Cry from the Far Middle: Dispatches from a Divided Land
Classical Liberalism has had a good run. Now it’s about to get run over by a bus full of stupid “post-capitalist” political trends—the new socialism, the new nationalism, the new trade war mercantilism, and the new social media platforms that drive this bus.
P.J. O'Rourke • A Cry from the Far Middle: Dispatches from a Divided Land
to participate in the great decisions of government. There was, Lippmann brooded, no “intrinsic moral and intellectual virtue to majority rule.” Lippmann’s disenchantment with democracy anticipated the mood of today’s elites. From the top, the public, and the swings of public opinion, appeared irrational and uninformed. The human material out of wh
... See moreMartin Gurri • Revolt of the Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium
Also, lacking civil liberties and property rights, representative democracy is left with nothing to represent except the will of the mob or—as it’s called these days—“activism.”
P.J. O'Rourke • A Cry from the Far Middle: Dispatches from a Divided Land
Code of A Modern Gentleman 1. Never strike anyone so old, small, or weak that verbal abuse would have sufficed. 2. Never steal anything so small that you’ll have to go to an unpleasant city jail for it instead of a minimum security federal tennis prison. 3. Remember, the truth is rude. Consider the truth about where babies come from, especially som
... See moreP. J. O'Rourke • Thrown Under the Omnibus: A Reader
One person who was willing to risk political suicide was the visionary systems thinker Donella Meadows – one of the lead authors of the 1972 Limits to Growth report – and she didn’t mince her words. ‘Growth is one of the stupidest purposes ever invented by any culture,’ she declared in the late 1990s; ‘we’ve got to have an enough.’ In response to t
... See moreKate Raworth • Doughnut Economics: The must-read book that redefines economics for a world in crisis
Government and politics are different. Government is . . . words fail me . . . government. Politics is the fight over who runs the government. And the fix is in because, as you may have noticed, every time politicians stage that fight a politician wins.