“The Freedman”John Quincy Adam Ward. 1863. Displayed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The phrase “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter” is a truism long accepted. I do not question the general truth this phrase attempts to convey, but I sometimes find it obscures more than it reveals. Men on opposing lines of […]
Category Archives: Tyranny
It Is Time To “Take The Internet Back”
Renowned tech security specialist Bruce Schneier* has declared it is “time to take the internet back”: “The US government has betrayed the internet. We need to take it back“ Bruce Schneier. The Guardian. 5 September 2013. Government and industry have betrayed the internet, and us. By subverting the internet at every level to make it a vast, […]
Despots Near and Despots Far
Which is worse – the tyrant who lives afar or the tyrant who lives next door? Tyranny from local powers is often worse than the tyranny of more distant despots. Yet local tyrannies, as oppressive as they may be, face limits to their power that larger tyrannies need not fear. Man will wield power. Its form may change with time and place, […]
Notes From All Over (14/5/2013) – Historical Linguistics, Guanxi, and Scary Government Data Bases
A collection of articles, essays, and blog post of merit.This one is a bit smaller than normal; there are a few other posts or essays that deserve to go here, but I hope to devote entire posts to them at a later date. TOP BILLING:“An Introduction to Historical Linguistics’ – Terry Crowley and Claire Bowern. Part […]
Notes From All Over (14/4/2013) – Digital Feudalism, Macrohistory, and Energy
A collection of articles, essays, and blog post of merit. This collection is a large one. TOP BILLING Our Internet Surveillance StateBruce Schneier. Schneier on Security. 25 March 2013. The Internet is a surveillance state. Whether we admit it to ourselves or not, and whether we like it or not, we’re being tracked all the […]
Separation of Powers is Dead
“The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, selfappointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” I ask my readers to pause for a moment and ponder this statement. It was penned by James Madison in […]
Changing a Political System That Is Rigged Against You
In a recent post titled “The Rule of Law and the Ruling Class in American History” I suggested that observing which parts of the American people could break laws with impunity and which parts were certain to be punished for doing so can shed light on the inner workings of American society during any particular […]
The Political Theater of the CCP
This week the Nobel Prize Committee awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to Liu Xinbao, Charter ’08 author and Chinese dissident. The Chinese Communist Party did not take this news well. Blog-friend Zenpundit offers the following reflections: China is Vulnerable to 4GW and 5GW Mark Safranski (“Zenpundit”). Zenpundit.com. 11 October 2010. The Chinese governmentβs hamfisted and […]
If You Only Read One Essay Today…
It should be this one. Read it. Then pass it on to every American you know who might possibly give a wit. And then pass it on to all those you know who obviously do not. In this Republic tyranny should not be stood for.
Notes From All Over 21/08/2010
THE REPUBLIC An Uncomfortable Intimacy Joseph Fouche. Committee of Public Safety. 4 August 2010. This is an important piece that addresses many of the themes found on this site. In good time I hope to write a response to it. Though the author does not claim as much, it lays bare one of the fundamental […]