Working 80 hours per week, day after day, to make someone else rich, is not excellence. It is for bugs and beasts. Actually, just for bugs. Even the beast rests when satisfied. The droning bug keeps going, going, going.
They think they are the nation and the meaning of life is making them richer. Pass. I’d turn to a life of crime before I’d spend my life in drudgery.
"A nation is a collective vehicle fueled by a shared culture that gives support and enforces meaning for a population."
These things have effectively disappeared from Western countries over the past decades. And that is why anyone with the power and influence can step in and implement their very own vision of a nation. "Nation" in the Western context today is an almost empty term, a shell that those in power put on and take off, filling it with whatever they desire—whatever fits the moment. And contemplation as a building block of a nation is something these people have decisively rejected. As you said, the green line must go up. Too much thinking only harms that goal.
Contemplation is also dangerous to those in power, as contemplation can free you from the distraction of consumption.
In general, the current system doesn’t tend to tolerate transcendent ideals unless they can be re-purposed towards boosting work and life ‘productivity’.
there's a lot of American citizens who would gladly (and many currently) seeking ways to eliminate the managerial system of our economic zone. Better to live in a nigh post-apocalyptic nation than live in an economic zone that hates you.
Absolutely. Dissatisfaction is growing steadily and the managerial state can only delay its end. How long it can hold out remains to be seen. But I think the more prosperity falls in those parts of the population that keep the whole system running, the faster we will see fundamental changes. In this respect, the whole H1-B thing is contributing to the weakening of the system.
Even that fails. A nation is a large collection of families related by blood and culture, not a group of people who happen to be living in the same place. Civic nationalists are simply slow globalists and deserve the same platform to dance on.
I was a "math tutor" for almost a decade. I taught very little math to anyone. It should be called "test prep." It's 100% test taking technique. Vivek loves it because it makes the number (test scores) go up. But a test is just a mini job and once it's over the kids move on to something else and forget all about the last job. Maybe I should write an essay about this
I did that for awhile. The young people who are a joy to teach are the ones least likely to need instruction. Waiting tables and cooking pizza was more rewarding, tbh.
Scholars twist themselves into pretzels trying to define Western Civilization, but that is all so silly. It is very simple: Western Civilization is whatever White people are doing. No White people, then no Western Civ. Similarly, no Chinese people, then no Chinese Civilization. No Romans, then no Roman Civilization, und so weiter. It's nearly axiomatic.
I don't know why this simple truth is so difficult for people to understand. Who really believes non-Westerners could ever sustain Western countries? It's ludicrous, absolutely blithering! I suppose it's the intense judeo-brainwashing that has turned everyone's brains into mush. Nescio.
"There is no conflict between the Faustian spirit and the contemplative life. The drive to conquest and victory in mental and scientific enterprises has driven Western thought for centuries."
Unless I'm misunderstanding this, if the Faustian spirit is the same spirit today, in the post-Christian and secular-humanist stage of history, that existed during the Western Middle Ages, either it's responsible for the greatest period in human history or the historiography is wrong, because I can't see the Faustian sprit being one and the same with an enchanted civilization and a disenchanted "civilization." Something changed here, it can't be the same culture as before. And whatever changed, it IS conflicting with the contemplative life, which has been broadly extinguished in the West since the 1800s. Hope I'm making sense.
You sound like a member of the Church of the Subgenius, which has been at the forefront of exposing the conspiracy to steal our Slack. Or perhaps you're a practicing Dudeist. In any event, Make America Chill Again.
Our problem with Rawaswamy shouldn't be that he is an *Indian*-American, but that he is an Indian-*American*.
Compared to the Western mind, Indian philosophy is usually rationalistic, idealistic (in the metaphysical sense), and Parmenidean -- the static and the eternal are more real than the dynamic and sensory. When Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan reflected on the West, he found the occidental man too individualistic to worship God as God. The Western world must always be redeemed through individuals such as Prometheus and Christ.
For a second-generation American like Ramaswamy, the problem isn't that he didn't assimilate, but that he assimilated too much, becoming a parody of a white Protestant. Even God has enough sense to rest on the seventh day. Indian immigrants are vulnerable to this since they're being globalized and deracinated not once (through Mongol-Turkic Khanate culture, which was globalism 1.0), but twice.
Vivek Ramaswamy is most certainly a pastiche of American civic ‘nationalist’ boomers, carefully run through the LinkedIn filter.
India itself is in many respects fallen — the original Indo-Aryan stock which brought the philosophy into the subcontinent has been through sheer numerical superiority outbred by and absorbed into the mixed Dravidian and Australoid populations.
This reminds me -- Ramaswamy also forgets about the Kshatriya (warrior) class. While the intellectual-priestly class usually ruled India, it was not the sole social type. He strikes me as a man too busy jumping through hoops (and scamming people) to understand anything.
India was civilizationally healthy prior to the Mongol-Turkic invasions. What is now Tamil Nadu in the south was crushing it around 900-1200 and still has many two-hundred-foot temples from the period to show for it. (A lot of old stuff in the north was destroyed during the fiercely-resisted invasions). It can also boast of Ramanuja (1077-1157), as crucial to India as Aquinas is to the West, as its greatest thinker.
Khanate culture (again, globalism 1.0) had an expansionist, globalist, winner-take-all mentality, both on the battlefield and in the marketplace, and, evidently not believing in ideas, took a pragmatic approach to them. This lack of both vision and civilizational and intellectual unity set the table for the English to slowly dominate the economic space.
Also, Indians usually have enough good sense to place some critical distance between themselves and the English system of "liberty," given their three-hundred-year experience under corporate rule, specifically, the British East India Company. The invisible hand was quite visible when destroying India's globally dominant high-tech industry. (Textiles were high-tech at the time.) This is why India has always remained friendly with countries outside of the Anglo orbit, even though we might not like it, such as Russia. But Ramaswamy? Burgerland cheeseburgered his brain. He thinks the English dominated India through spelling bees or freedom or some nonsense.
Working 80 hours per week, day after day, to make someone else rich, is not excellence. It is for bugs and beasts. Actually, just for bugs. Even the beast rests when satisfied. The droning bug keeps going, going, going.
They think they are the nation and the meaning of life is making them richer. Pass. I’d turn to a life of crime before I’d spend my life in drudgery.
"A nation is a collective vehicle fueled by a shared culture that gives support and enforces meaning for a population."
These things have effectively disappeared from Western countries over the past decades. And that is why anyone with the power and influence can step in and implement their very own vision of a nation. "Nation" in the Western context today is an almost empty term, a shell that those in power put on and take off, filling it with whatever they desire—whatever fits the moment. And contemplation as a building block of a nation is something these people have decisively rejected. As you said, the green line must go up. Too much thinking only harms that goal.
Contemplation is also dangerous to those in power, as contemplation can free you from the distraction of consumption.
In general, the current system doesn’t tend to tolerate transcendent ideals unless they can be re-purposed towards boosting work and life ‘productivity’.
there's a lot of American citizens who would gladly (and many currently) seeking ways to eliminate the managerial system of our economic zone. Better to live in a nigh post-apocalyptic nation than live in an economic zone that hates you.
Absolutely. Dissatisfaction is growing steadily and the managerial state can only delay its end. How long it can hold out remains to be seen. But I think the more prosperity falls in those parts of the population that keep the whole system running, the faster we will see fundamental changes. In this respect, the whole H1-B thing is contributing to the weakening of the system.
Even that fails. A nation is a large collection of families related by blood and culture, not a group of people who happen to be living in the same place. Civic nationalists are simply slow globalists and deserve the same platform to dance on.
Read the American room my fellow Americans, the only room you’ve got.…or get voted off the island into the Void.
I was a "math tutor" for almost a decade. I taught very little math to anyone. It should be called "test prep." It's 100% test taking technique. Vivek loves it because it makes the number (test scores) go up. But a test is just a mini job and once it's over the kids move on to something else and forget all about the last job. Maybe I should write an essay about this
I did that for awhile. The young people who are a joy to teach are the ones least likely to need instruction. Waiting tables and cooking pizza was more rewarding, tbh.
"The solution is even worse." We are spiraling into chaos and there is nothing we can do about it, right?
Brings to mind the Oompa Loompas in Tim Burtons rendition of Charlie’s chocolate factory…
Scholars twist themselves into pretzels trying to define Western Civilization, but that is all so silly. It is very simple: Western Civilization is whatever White people are doing. No White people, then no Western Civ. Similarly, no Chinese people, then no Chinese Civilization. No Romans, then no Roman Civilization, und so weiter. It's nearly axiomatic.
I don't know why this simple truth is so difficult for people to understand. Who really believes non-Westerners could ever sustain Western countries? It's ludicrous, absolutely blithering! I suppose it's the intense judeo-brainwashing that has turned everyone's brains into mush. Nescio.
"There is no conflict between the Faustian spirit and the contemplative life. The drive to conquest and victory in mental and scientific enterprises has driven Western thought for centuries."
Unless I'm misunderstanding this, if the Faustian spirit is the same spirit today, in the post-Christian and secular-humanist stage of history, that existed during the Western Middle Ages, either it's responsible for the greatest period in human history or the historiography is wrong, because I can't see the Faustian sprit being one and the same with an enchanted civilization and a disenchanted "civilization." Something changed here, it can't be the same culture as before. And whatever changed, it IS conflicting with the contemplative life, which has been broadly extinguished in the West since the 1800s. Hope I'm making sense.
That does make sense and it will be good for me to work on these ideas further and parse them out
Protestant: Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man, healthy and wise
Hindu:
Late night driving taxi, late delivered app, don't worry about bug, we have tech support for that
You sound like a member of the Church of the Subgenius, which has been at the forefront of exposing the conspiracy to steal our Slack. Or perhaps you're a practicing Dudeist. In any event, Make America Chill Again.
Regarding your first footnote, what about "postliberal"?
Nathan Pinkoski's "Actually Existing PostLiberalism" was sitting on my table at home and made me think of it.
When I see Weberposting, I click!
Our problem with Rawaswamy shouldn't be that he is an *Indian*-American, but that he is an Indian-*American*.
Compared to the Western mind, Indian philosophy is usually rationalistic, idealistic (in the metaphysical sense), and Parmenidean -- the static and the eternal are more real than the dynamic and sensory. When Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan reflected on the West, he found the occidental man too individualistic to worship God as God. The Western world must always be redeemed through individuals such as Prometheus and Christ.
For a second-generation American like Ramaswamy, the problem isn't that he didn't assimilate, but that he assimilated too much, becoming a parody of a white Protestant. Even God has enough sense to rest on the seventh day. Indian immigrants are vulnerable to this since they're being globalized and deracinated not once (through Mongol-Turkic Khanate culture, which was globalism 1.0), but twice.
Vivek Ramaswamy is most certainly a pastiche of American civic ‘nationalist’ boomers, carefully run through the LinkedIn filter.
India itself is in many respects fallen — the original Indo-Aryan stock which brought the philosophy into the subcontinent has been through sheer numerical superiority outbred by and absorbed into the mixed Dravidian and Australoid populations.
>India itself is in many respects fallen
This reminds me -- Ramaswamy also forgets about the Kshatriya (warrior) class. While the intellectual-priestly class usually ruled India, it was not the sole social type. He strikes me as a man too busy jumping through hoops (and scamming people) to understand anything.
India was civilizationally healthy prior to the Mongol-Turkic invasions. What is now Tamil Nadu in the south was crushing it around 900-1200 and still has many two-hundred-foot temples from the period to show for it. (A lot of old stuff in the north was destroyed during the fiercely-resisted invasions). It can also boast of Ramanuja (1077-1157), as crucial to India as Aquinas is to the West, as its greatest thinker.
Khanate culture (again, globalism 1.0) had an expansionist, globalist, winner-take-all mentality, both on the battlefield and in the marketplace, and, evidently not believing in ideas, took a pragmatic approach to them. This lack of both vision and civilizational and intellectual unity set the table for the English to slowly dominate the economic space.
Also, Indians usually have enough good sense to place some critical distance between themselves and the English system of "liberty," given their three-hundred-year experience under corporate rule, specifically, the British East India Company. The invisible hand was quite visible when destroying India's globally dominant high-tech industry. (Textiles were high-tech at the time.) This is why India has always remained friendly with countries outside of the Anglo orbit, even though we might not like it, such as Russia. But Ramaswamy? Burgerland cheeseburgered his brain. He thinks the English dominated India through spelling bees or freedom or some nonsense.
Vivek didn’t bomb Pearl Harbor, he strafed Americans JOBS.