In Ancient Greek, the term phármăkon (φάρμακον) has a variety of meanings, some of them contradictory. In its most basic definition, the phármăkon is a drug that can either be curative or poisonous. Another definition, which folds these two meanings into one, is the phármăkon as a charm or spell, an object that captures the…
Read MoreWesterners who hope for re-civilization often have a nostalgic view of what it might look like. They often seem to assume that modern developments, both technological and governmental, will simply vanish as society re-civilizes and that we will then return to the insularity of old‑school village life. But this seems extremely unlikely. The process of re-civilization is undertaken by integrating aspects of one’s ancestral civilization with ultramodern innovations in both government and technology…
Read MoreToday’s consumer capitalist societies present us with a paradox: We are told year in and year out that living standards are rising, but many people—especially younger people—can feel their quality of life decline as time goes on. This feeling is palpable and can be seen in the hardest of the quality of life indices, such as the suicide rate and the rates of drug addiction and overdose. Noneconomic measures show a large decline in quality of life in recent years, but economic metrics show it is increasing. The old Marx Brothers phrase comes to mind: “Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?” It is time for economists to admit that their metrics are broken…
Read MoreOut of all the contemporary social and political movements extant in the West today, the sprawling “green” movement ranks as one of the most—if not the most—influential. As an ideology and a cultural zeitgeist, the green movement holds great sway among a large segment of the college-educated “knowledge workers” of Western economies. (Noticeably lower enthusiasm…
Read MoreThe war in Ukraine has exposed some serious misperceptions about the relative economic size and military power of major nations. Before the war, it was fashionable to say—usually sardonically—that Russia possessed an economy similar in size to that of Italy or smaller than that of Texas. “The Russian economy will be cut in half,” President…
Read MoreIn the mid-1860s, things were looking up for Karl Marx. After years laboring in poverty and obscurity in a small apartment in London, his fortunes seemed to be turning around. In 1864, his friend and benefactor Friedrich Engels became a partner in his father’s factory, gaining a generous income for himself and offering Marx a…
Read MoreRead in this light, the invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent alliance between Russia and China makes sense as part of a larger scheme to hasten ongoing American decline and accelerate the emergence of a multipolar world. Going forward, the core strategy of America’s rivals—already reflected in Russian rhetoric and diplomacy—will probably be to convince the rest of the world that their assessment of America is the correct one. The key question now is, how will America’s elite respond to this spreading perception of the country’s decline…
Read MoreFew today will dispute that inflation is a serious problem. The latest CPI number, from April 2022, came in at 8.3 percent. Core inflation clocked in at 6.2 percent. Although slightly below the highs of March, the last time we saw inflation numbers like these was in the early 1980s. What is even more shocking…
Read MoreOn February 26, 2022, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and the European Commission issued a joint statement that might very well change the global economy forever. In it, these countries pledged to freeze the Central Bank of Russia’s foreign currency reserves in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine two days…
Read MoreThe Oxford English Dictionary has two definitions of the word “conservatism.” The first defines it as a “commitment to traditional values and ideas with opposition to change or innovation”; the second defines it as “the holding of political views that favor free enterprise, private ownership, and socially conservative ideas.” The former definition strikes me as…
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