Victor Davis Hanson speaking on Biden, Afghanistan, and America’s decline
I haven’t yet watched the whole of this video – it’s long. But what I’ve seen seems excellent, if depressing. I suggest you watch (or just listen to, if you’re double-tasking) at least part of it. Sometimes, to save time with videos, I watch at faster speed – you can adjust the speed in the YouTube settings for each video.
In case you’re unaware of Hanson’s specialty, he’s a military historian:
Yesterday, at AmericanGreatness, VDH posted what is certainly one of his finest essays (“Wokeness: An Evil of Our Age”), in which he analyzes, with great subtlety and with admirable precision, the most dangerous of all viruses, for it is indisputable that far and away the most dire of all threats, not simply to our republic but to the entire civilized world, is not the Wuhan virus, serious though it may be, but the virus of “wokeness”, which has infected every institution and metastasized throughout the entire culture, nor does there seem to be, at the moment, any means of defeating it.
Good choice. John Anderson gives a good interview.
Well worth the time to hear the whole thing. VDH covers a lot of ground. Although not a large portion of the interview, I particularly liked hearing them discuss issues facing Australia as I had lived there for a year. Also looking forward to his upcoming book on citizenship.
Perhaps the most pernicious method for destroying a good people is to use their goodness against them. (what nation has been as charitable? as willing to sacrifice its young in service of protecting the liberty of other peoples…?) That’s what makes CRT so effective with the young. Naturally idealistic, naturally embracing simplistic solutions. Fairness and justice are huge factors in the minds of a young people raised in a free culture. Appeal to them by claiming them to be the victims of a pervasive injustice, while pointing to the chosen scapegoat as responsible for all that is wrong. Hitler did it with the Jews. Lenin did it with the bourgeoisie.
Jordan Peterson provides some insights into goodness: “The Best Men I Know Are DANGEROUS” (building a strong character)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSErYhxNLX0
Heinlein saw it: “But goodness alone is never enough. A hard, cold wisdom is required for goodness to accomplish good. Goodness without wisdom always accomplishes evil.”
There’s a reason why the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
It’s also available as an audio only podcast for download or streaming. I found it by searching, “John Anderson.”
Clearly, this wasn’t cleared through the GWB wing of the Republican party
VDH sees the world through the eyes of a military historian. He brings insight to his observations that few have. If I were in the DoD, I’d value his counsel.
He’s a man of the earth. He’s stayed on his family farm in spite of his advanced .education and lofty spot at the Hoover Institution. It has required courage as the San Joaquin Valley has been hit hard by drought and crime. The path of least resistance would be to sell out and move to greener pastures. He’s not about to do that. If California is ever to recover, it’s going to take people like him taking the lead
Anyone know if there’s a transcript of the VDH video? I read much faster than he talks. (Or, if transcripts are available for all u-tube vids, and if so, where?)
@ Geoffrey > Heinlein saw it: “But goodness alone is never enough. A hard, cold wisdom is required for goodness to accomplish good. Goodness without wisdom always accomplishes evil.”
Heinlein served in the Navy, although probably not for as long as he had intended, and never saw wartime action. However, the training back when was a bit more rigorous than it appears to be now, so that probably didn’t hinder his learning.
I would like to know what the demerits were for; probably something interesting.
Despite a long “acquaintance” with RAH, I didn’t know this:
This looks to be the closest that VDH came to being in the military, as opposed to writing about it (Wikipedia): “[he] held the visiting Shifrin Chair of Military History at the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland (2002–03)”
Apparently, Heinlein started out as a “flaming liberal” (according to Asimov) and “socialist” (campaigned for Upton Sinclair), but ended up as a pretty rock-ribbed conservative; strains of both competing ideologies are IMO evident in his fiction.
Interestingly, VDH also used to be a registered Democrat until 2000 (per Wikipedia), but was most likely a classic liberal rather than a socialist, as his research undoubtedly showed the problems with the latter political framework.
I suspect both would echo Reagan’s “I didn’t leave the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party left me.”
However, Reagan never repudiated his admiration for Roosevelt and the New Deal; he primarily objected to some of the later Democrat policies, which were already trending toward today’s unhinged ideology of taxation and welfare, and (shades of Antifa) the bullying tactics of the unions, especially when directed against himself.
As usual, he was one of those liberals mugged by reality, which may also be true of Hanson, due to the disastrous Democrat-delivered decline in California, but doesn’t seem to feature in Heinlein’s bio.
https://presidentialhistory.com/2015/05/why-ronald-reagan-left-the-democratic-party.html
Geoffrey Britain: I look forward to what Jordan Peterson has to say on the subject of goodness.
It struck me, last year, watching the BLM protestors, especially during the early weeks following the death of Floyd, how sober and sincere most of them appeared. They were doing the good thing, sending the good message. It seemed to me they wanted to be doing good, and maybe needed to get out in the streets showing their goodness. Of course the pandemic lockdown had its effect, but I think many people simply need to be *seen* doing good.
Is this partly because the power of religion in everyday life in the West has diminished over the decades? That humans have a longing for something beyond proveable reality, and without traditional religious ritual and belief we’re more vulnerable to cultish movements like CRT and wokeness? It seems clear that goodness in the context of religious practice is no longer enough, and that people have to prove their goodness through other means. Maybe this also explains the elevation of Floyd as an heroic martyr. I don’t know, I’m just wondering.