Sublime
An inspiration engine for ideas
As often happens in civil wars, the national government would split in two. Every federal institution—from Congress, federal courts, and the various executive departments to the armed forces, intelligence agencies, and border patrol—would abruptly and awkwardly rupture according to personal loyalties.
Neil Howe • The Fourth Turning Is Here: What the Seasons of History Tell Us about How and When This Crisis Will End
Parag Khanna • Great Protocol Politics
The first topology is a "politics of symmetry" perhaps best exemplified in the modern era by the symmetrical conflicts between the Soviets and the Americans, or earlier between the Allied and Axis powers. But this mode of political conflict was gradually superseded by a second one, in the second half of the twentieth century, which might
... See moreAlexander R. Galloway • The Exploit: A Theory of Networks (Electronic Mediations)
Prior to Trump, the hegemonic bloc that dominated American politics was progressive neoliberalism. That may sound like an oxymoron, but it was a real and powerful alliance of two unlikely bedfellows: on the one hand, mainstream liberal currents of the new social movements (feminism, antiracism, multiculturalism, environmentalism, and LGBTQ+ rights)
... See moreNancy Fraser • The Old is Dying and the New Cannot Be Born: From Progressive Neoliberalism to Trump and Beyond
our standard historical meta-narrative about the ambivalent progress of human civilization, where freedoms are lost as societies grow bigger and more complex – was invented largely for the purpose of neutralizing the threat of indigenous critique.
David Graeber • The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity
An ideology is usually a high-minded mask for a group’s itch to take power and resources from other social groups.
Howard Bloom • The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition into the Forces of History
Tyler Cowen on the Great Stagnation’s End
open.spotify.comPeter Zeihan, geopolitical strategist and one of my favorite thinkers, has recently raised the point that the underpinnings of the economy have broken apart. Indeed, what happens when our measurements of the economy (inflation) are no longer accurate, and our tools for controlling the economy (interest rates) no longer work?
When measurements chang
... See moreJasmine Bina • A Time to Build Tight Brands in the Chaos of Loose Cultures
Our analysis points to four structural drivers of instability: popular immiseration leading to mass mobilization potential; elite overproduction resulting in intraelite conflict; failing fiscal health and weakened legitimacy of the state; and geopolitical factors. The most important driver is intraelite competition and conflict, which is a reliable
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