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A new book suggests that the mood in Paris under the Nazi occupation was far from dismal. It was one big orgy.
Sounds likely to me. The Nazis were no sexual prudes. They opened government-run bordellos for the working class.
Generally speaking, totalitarian governments are all for the common human vices. It keeps people's minds off politics, and it implicitly endorses the government's own lack of ethics. Give them lots of vodka, lots of sex, lots of circuses. Host an Olympics; build fun parks.
Sexual freedom is in practice more or less the opposite of political freedom.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Monday, May 26, 2008
Speech after Long Silence
A few—a very few—have complained about the lack of posts hereabouts recently.
There are two reasons. First, things have been busy at work, and work must come first. This is not even my hobby; it is one of my hobbies.
Second, I have recently felt less burning need in my gut for this blog. I have the growing conviction that the culture wars are coming to an end. The good guys have won.
In the US, for all the trouble the Republicans face, I think that John McCain will take the presidency. And he will be a very good president—good enough to influence the tone of society. In any event, most of the most influential columnists and commentators in the US are now conservative. The New York Times and CBS News, the old liberal flagships, are dying. That is a complete turnaround from just a few years ago.
In Canada, I don’t see anyone dislodging Stephen Harper for a long time. He has about him something of WL Mackenzie King—a brilliant political tactician who knows that, in Canada, bland works. On top of the National Post, Maclean’s, an established national institution, has gone right—a sure sign the prevailing winds have shifted. Quebec, the old Liberal heartland, has gone largely right, with the new ADQ. Saskatchewan, the NDP’s heartland, has gone right. The current scandal of the Human Rights Commissions vs. everyone is the sort of thing that, I think, will end up discrediting the left for a generation. It is worse than McCarthy ever was in the US, and this will come out. Because if you have something to hide, you don’t pick fights with the press; you don’t pick fights with anyone who buys their ink by the gallon. I expect it will soon be embarrassing in Canada to admit in polite company to ever having been a liberal.
Even in Europe—look what just happened in Britain’s local elections. A Tory is mayor of London. Polls and election results both predict that the next government will be a Conservative majority. This new Conservative government will join a solid block of conservatives now running “Old Europe,” the original ECM six: France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. Concerns over large new Muslim immigrant populations are turning Europe conservative pretty quickly. I think they are even likely, in reaction, to rediscover their Christian roots.
“New Europe,” Middle and Eastern Europe, have of course already discovered them, and their influence as ties with the West grow is also a significant rightward-trending factor.
Terrible things are still happening. More innocent men, women and children will die. But we are past the El Alamein moment. The end is in sight, and we know who is going to win.
There are two reasons. First, things have been busy at work, and work must come first. This is not even my hobby; it is one of my hobbies.
Second, I have recently felt less burning need in my gut for this blog. I have the growing conviction that the culture wars are coming to an end. The good guys have won.
In the US, for all the trouble the Republicans face, I think that John McCain will take the presidency. And he will be a very good president—good enough to influence the tone of society. In any event, most of the most influential columnists and commentators in the US are now conservative. The New York Times and CBS News, the old liberal flagships, are dying. That is a complete turnaround from just a few years ago.
In Canada, I don’t see anyone dislodging Stephen Harper for a long time. He has about him something of WL Mackenzie King—a brilliant political tactician who knows that, in Canada, bland works. On top of the National Post, Maclean’s, an established national institution, has gone right—a sure sign the prevailing winds have shifted. Quebec, the old Liberal heartland, has gone largely right, with the new ADQ. Saskatchewan, the NDP’s heartland, has gone right. The current scandal of the Human Rights Commissions vs. everyone is the sort of thing that, I think, will end up discrediting the left for a generation. It is worse than McCarthy ever was in the US, and this will come out. Because if you have something to hide, you don’t pick fights with the press; you don’t pick fights with anyone who buys their ink by the gallon. I expect it will soon be embarrassing in Canada to admit in polite company to ever having been a liberal.
Even in Europe—look what just happened in Britain’s local elections. A Tory is mayor of London. Polls and election results both predict that the next government will be a Conservative majority. This new Conservative government will join a solid block of conservatives now running “Old Europe,” the original ECM six: France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. Concerns over large new Muslim immigrant populations are turning Europe conservative pretty quickly. I think they are even likely, in reaction, to rediscover their Christian roots.
“New Europe,” Middle and Eastern Europe, have of course already discovered them, and their influence as ties with the West grow is also a significant rightward-trending factor.
Terrible things are still happening. More innocent men, women and children will die. But we are past the El Alamein moment. The end is in sight, and we know who is going to win.
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