Saturday, August 17, 2024
Friday, August 16, 2024
"Wolfe’s goal was to be like Balzac, not JD Vance...."
An offhand comment by David Brooks in an article on Tom Wolfe.
The comment is more than a little weird. Wolfe probably heard of Vance, since Vance came out with his bestseller, Hillbilly Elegy a couple of years before Wolfe died. Why would a renowned writer of Wolfe's stature want to be like a random guy with his first book?
In any case, it was more likely that Vance was trying to be something like Wolfe, not the other way around. I haven't read Vance's memoir, but given its genre, it would be something like what Wolfe did: He would entertainingly describe people and events. He may have wanted his readers to come to certain conclusions, but he didn't directly tell the reader what he personally thought about any of it.
This is in contrast to Brooks. He tells you as much as you need to know, so that he can tell you what he thinks about it.
Vance is sort of bifurcated, he wrote about his life experiences, but now he is a man of action: He made money in venture capital, was elected Senator from Ohio and is on the ticket to be vice president. He's now the sort of person Wolfe might write about, if Wolfe was still alive and working.
Brooks probably feels superior to Vance and yet Brooks doesn't DO anything and Vance is DOING things. Meanwhile Brooks stands to the side with commentary. Why can't Vance know his place and be a poor-man's Wolfe? What gall to aspire to be somebody off the pages of a Wolfe book!
Thursday, August 15, 2024
Wednesday, August 14, 2024
One Of These is a Big Problem
People like to dunk on the US over the 19,592 died by firearm homicide in 2022 (the latest figures I could find. They are also fond of including Over 26,993 people died by firearm suicide, as if these have any moral connection to each other.
Did you know that Canada, often compared very favorably compared to the US has a lot of assisted suicide?
In 2022 there were 13, 241 medically assisted suicides in Canada. The country has about 1/9 that of the US, so that would be about 120,000 per year.
Which is more horrifying? Well, our 46,585 were all considered crimes. So, they're bad and we have the decency to call them bad. Their, equivalent of, 120,000 are legal and officially something to be proud of.
Maybe it's just me, but I find the latter to be much, much more horrifying.
Our Founding Document and the Right to Bear Arms
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,
That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
We have the right to overthrow any government that is not securing our rights. A government that makes clear it wants to disarm citizens is a problem for two reasons:
1. Without arms, the people will not have the power to overthrow the government.
2. A government taking active measures to avoid being overthrown is telegraphing that they no longer intend to serve the public interest of protecting the liberty of it's citizens.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
We can and should put up with a lot but disarming is a bright red line. Once disarmed, you've lost the ability to meaningfully resist further tyranny.
