HOME | MERION WESTTHE LEFTCENTERTHE RIGHTABOUTOP-EDESSAYS Vahaken Mouradian. Help us improve the state of public discourse. Become a benefactor of Merion West. “New Atheism had taught me always to demand evidence; and the evidence revealed that, historically, political radicalism had been a major source of violence and inhumanity”. Gerfried Ambrosch 5/15/2021. IS INFLATION FINALLY GOING TO BE A PROBLEM? “Finally, the mere expectation of inflation can actually bring it to pass.” Editor’s note: This piece can be read as a companion to the author’s April 5th column “Is the National Debt Finally Going to Be a Problem?”. D uring their latest trips to the grocery store, gas station, or home improvement store, Americans have noticed that they are paying more than they were not long ago. AN OPEN LETTER TO THE RUMPUS I found that I could not write, even if I wanted to. When I went to The Rumpus website to check a few things, in the place of the glorious mantra urging me to write, it said, “Fight like a motherf—er.”. It seems to me, Ms. Siegel, that you do not know how to fight with much wisdom. As much as you and all people are entitled to criticize STOICISM OFFERS AN ANTIDOTE TO CANCEL CULTURE Stoicism, an ancient Greek philosophy, is perhaps not an obvious antidote to the increasingly observed tendency of angry social media mobs or “triggered” student activists attempting to de-platform people who have breached the boundaries of “acceptable” discourse. However, in many respects, that is exactly what Stoicism was designed

to do.

TIME TO GET VACCINATED...AGAINST PROPAGANDA The march was not covered because the lockdown is going to be painted as a glorious national success, and its critics as science-denying, grandma-killing, selfish, heartless, unpatriotic idiots. The media is getting its ducks in a row to peddle this insulting propaganda—insisting that the suspension of civil liberties and the

destruction of

GEORGE ORWELL’S VISION FOR A SOCIALIST BRITAIN: WHAT DID Orwell thought that none of the existing options were suitable for Britain. Fascism, which he despised, was merely “a form of capitalism that borrows from Socialism just such features as will make it efficient for war purposes.”. Socialism was represented by REVIEW: HELEN PLUCKROSE AND JAMES LINDSAY'S "CYNICAL The volume is an outstanding critical guide to several decades of Theory as well as postmodernism and what the authors call “Social Justice scholarship and thought.”. The book’s structuring and more sweeping chapters deal with a) postmodernism in its purest form (Chapter 1), b) the separate types of Theory, including Social Justice REVIEW: MICHAEL SHNAYERSON’S “BUGSY SIEGEL” Michael Shnayerson set out to write a book to keep the memory of Bugsy Siegel alive, filled with all the horror, evil, glam, and vision that has defined Bugsy Siegel ever since his death in 1947. Bugsy Siegel is much more than a book just about Bugsy. It is a short and gripping panorama of life in 1920s-1940s America, that defining epoch of IN REPLY TO TIM WISE: AMERICA'S PAST ON RACE SHOULD NOT BE 11/28/2020. (Jon Chase) “ The toxic consequences of drawing a crude line between America’s past and the state of our modern institutions cannot be understated.”. I n a blog post this past summer on Medium, progressive activist Tim Wise compared the supposedly self-evident existence of systemic racism in the United States to Isaac Newton WHY PEOPLE HATE JORDAN PETERSON SO MUCH (Elliot Ferguson/Postmedia Network) “Peterson continued, ‘So the Soviets really implemented and perfected the idea of class and ethnicity based guilt, and it’s a very bad road to walk down, and it’s something that we’re very much engaged in at the moment.'”. T o understand why people hate Dr. Jordan Peterson, the subject of my recent book Savage Messiah, I think it is best to let HOME | MERION WESTTHE LEFTCENTERTHE RIGHTABOUTOP-EDESSAYS Vahaken Mouradian. Help us improve the state of public discourse. Become a benefactor of Merion West. “New Atheism had taught me always to demand evidence; and the evidence revealed that, historically, political radicalism had been a major source of violence and inhumanity”. Gerfried Ambrosch 5/15/2021. IS INFLATION FINALLY GOING TO BE A PROBLEM? “Finally, the mere expectation of inflation can actually bring it to pass.” Editor’s note: This piece can be read as a companion to the author’s April 5th column “Is the National Debt Finally Going to Be a Problem?”. D uring their latest trips to the grocery store, gas station, or home improvement store, Americans have noticed that they are paying more than they were not long ago. AN OPEN LETTER TO THE RUMPUS I found that I could not write, even if I wanted to. When I went to The Rumpus website to check a few things, in the place of the glorious mantra urging me to write, it said, “Fight like a motherf—er.”. It seems to me, Ms. Siegel, that you do not know how to fight with much wisdom. As much as you and all people are entitled to criticize STOICISM OFFERS AN ANTIDOTE TO CANCEL CULTURE Stoicism, an ancient Greek philosophy, is perhaps not an obvious antidote to the increasingly observed tendency of angry social media mobs or “triggered” student activists attempting to de-platform people who have breached the boundaries of “acceptable” discourse. However, in many respects, that is exactly what Stoicism was designed

to do.

TIME TO GET VACCINATED...AGAINST PROPAGANDA The march was not covered because the lockdown is going to be painted as a glorious national success, and its critics as science-denying, grandma-killing, selfish, heartless, unpatriotic idiots. The media is getting its ducks in a row to peddle this insulting propaganda—insisting that the suspension of civil liberties and the

destruction of

GEORGE ORWELL’S VISION FOR A SOCIALIST BRITAIN: WHAT DID Orwell thought that none of the existing options were suitable for Britain. Fascism, which he despised, was merely “a form of capitalism that borrows from Socialism just such features as will make it efficient for war purposes.”. Socialism was represented by REVIEW: HELEN PLUCKROSE AND JAMES LINDSAY'S "CYNICAL The volume is an outstanding critical guide to several decades of Theory as well as postmodernism and what the authors call “Social Justice scholarship and thought.”. The book’s structuring and more sweeping chapters deal with a) postmodernism in its purest form (Chapter 1), b) the separate types of Theory, including Social Justice REVIEW: MICHAEL SHNAYERSON’S “BUGSY SIEGEL” Michael Shnayerson set out to write a book to keep the memory of Bugsy Siegel alive, filled with all the horror, evil, glam, and vision that has defined Bugsy Siegel ever since his death in 1947. Bugsy Siegel is much more than a book just about Bugsy. It is a short and gripping panorama of life in 1920s-1940s America, that defining epoch of IN REPLY TO TIM WISE: AMERICA'S PAST ON RACE SHOULD NOT BE 11/28/2020. (Jon Chase) “ The toxic consequences of drawing a crude line between America’s past and the state of our modern institutions cannot be understated.”. I n a blog post this past summer on Medium, progressive activist Tim Wise compared the supposedly self-evident existence of systemic racism in the United States to Isaac Newton WHY PEOPLE HATE JORDAN PETERSON SO MUCH (Elliot Ferguson/Postmedia Network) “Peterson continued, ‘So the Soviets really implemented and perfected the idea of class and ethnicity based guilt, and it’s a very bad road to walk down, and it’s something that we’re very much engaged in at the moment.'”. T o understand why people hate Dr. Jordan Peterson, the subject of my recent book Savage Messiah, I think it is best to let REVIEW: JOHN BOEHNER’S “ON THE HOUSE” The roots of Boehner’s more dour, pessimistic takes in On the House are in the rise of the “political terrorists.”. Whether it is “The Squad” on the Left or the Freedom Caucus-turned-MAGA base on the Right, Boehner detests those in Congress “peddling chaos and crisis so that everyone keeps paying attention to them.”. LESSONS FROM LABOUR’S 2021 ELECTION DEFEAT 05/08/2021. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham) “ It is a crushing defeat that signals that Labour’s loss of several of its Northern constituencies under former Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership in the 2019 general election was not a one-off occurrence that could be fixed with a new leader.”. O n Friday morning, we awoke to find that THE TWO-FACES OF CLASSICAL MUSIC: THE BUREAUCRATIC TYRANNY Justin Hall. 05/18/2021. (Mixon Hall, Cleveland Institute of Music) “The reasoning has nothing whatsoever to do with functionality; indeed, it has nothing whatsoever to do with viruses or health safety. The reasoning is about symbolizing conformity to bureaucratic rule.”. T his month at the Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM), two

students

THE MANY PROBLEMS WITH MARXISM The Labor Theory of Value. Let’s start with two central Marxian concepts: exploitation and surplus value. Marx saw the latter as a distillation of the former, an “increment or excess over the original value” invested in production, as described in Das Kapital. That increment was assumed to be a PENN’S IMPRISONED BLACK "GUINEA PIGS" DESERVE AN APOLOGY “Upon my father’s return, I was shocked by the change in his appearance. His arms and back were a series of scars and discolored blotches.” M y father, Leodus Jones, was a businessman, community activist, and leader in the prison reform movement in Philadelphia. He was also a human guinea pig who endured both mental and physical assaults at the hands of a prominent dermatologist GEORGE W. BUSH’S "OUT OF MANY, ONE": A MESSAGE OF There are various ways through which the native born can overcome our in-born gratitude deficit. Learning our nation’s messy, complex, tragic, and beautiful history is key, and so is engaging with stories like those that populate Out of Many, One —stories that remind us how lucky we all are to call ourselves Americans.. President Bush tells the stories of just about every type of immigrant WHY PEOPLE HATE JORDAN PETERSON SO MUCH (Elliot Ferguson/Postmedia Network) “Peterson continued, ‘So the Soviets really implemented and perfected the idea of class and ethnicity based guilt, and it’s a very bad road to walk down, and it’s something that we’re very much engaged in at the moment.'”. T o understand why people hate Dr. Jordan Peterson, the subject of my recent book Savage Messiah, I think it is best to let WHAT "THE MERCHANT OF VENICE" HAS TO SAY ABOUT JUSTICE Here, the Merchant of Venice undeniably shines as the struggle for love—specifically between Portia and Bassanio—is threatened by the turbulence of misfortune, revenge, and the legalities of justice. But love, in this play, is secondary to the thematic deconstruction of the strict legality of justice. Shakespeare, thus, is exploring the WHY KARL MARX IS WRONG (visitrhodeisland.com) “ Running a profitable enterprise is not the same thing as Smaug guarding a pile of gold.” O ne of the more regrettable developments in recent years is a resurgence of interest in the ideas of Karl Marx. For example, Matt McManus published an article earlier this year at Quillette about “Why We Should Read Marx.” More recently, Ben Burgis published an article at HOW SAM HARRIS CHANGED MY OPINION OF JORDAN PETERSON Sam Harris: Facts and Values. In Peterson’s opinion, the “new atheists,” such as Harris, Christopher Hitchens, and Richard Dawkins, take our moral rules for granted and do not give credit to the transcendent forces that— for Peterson —gave rise to these ethical systems. Peterson, of course, argues that without the mythological narratives he describes, our ethics (which are, in part

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Orwell and the Motives of “Socialists” The Left - “The typical socialist often had very little concrete experience with the actual conditions facing those they purported to care about. They were often middle class, well educated, and highly resentful of the rich.” Matt

McManus 8/14/2019

All voices welcome.

Learn more about Merion West. Where Hayek and Marx Part Ways The Left - “The most committed liberal would believe that perfection is unattainable, while the socialist would contend that it is not only possible but necessary.” Néstor de Buen 8/13/2019 Where Tolstoy Departs from Dostoevsky The Left - “Tolstoy was not naïve in thinking that social and political reform would end all forms of evil in human life. Like Dostoevsky, he was very well aware that much wickedness flowed from the pride and vanity of men like Napoleon or the Russian tsars.” Matt McManus 8/12/2019 “Frozen Desire” By James Buchan: As Relevant Now As Ever The Left - “The Romanticism of the 19th century was a direct response to not only the materialist underpinnings of the Enlightenment but also the increasingly monetary-centric worldview that subsumed all human relations.” Luke Rodeheffer 8/11/2019 Getting Consistent on Collective Blame The Center - “The Left cannot get enough of sociological explanations for all sorts of violence. It is never about individual responsibility; it is always about social structures.” Gabriel Andrade 8/10/2019 Rep. Seth Moulton: Mental Health in America The Left - “When he went to the VA to get help, they told him that their next mental health appointment was in 3 months—even though he was thinking of committing suicide that very night. That’s unacceptable.” John George and Erich J. Prince

8/9/2019

A Different Take on “El Chapo”

The

Left - “Modern society has always had a secret love affair with the criminal.” Elie Nehme 8/8/2019 The American Approach to College Is the Winning One The Left - “Although many of us may still be encouraged at family dinner tables to pursue stable and lucrative careers in high-paying industries, such as finance, consulting, and medicine, perhaps the curriculum of a general education can help some find their true interests.” Eva Hong

8/7/2019

Returning to the Case of Rubin “Hurricane” Carter The Center - “To DeSimone and his acolytes, two cold-blooded murderers were freed. To our system of justice, two persons, their innocence always in question, were unfairly tried and convicted.” Fred Martens 8/6/2019 Kevin Williamson, “The Bard of Anti-Socialism” The Left - “Perhaps Williamson’s own ability to overcome those obstacles has led him to underestimate how formidable a challenge they can pose, a clear example of upward mobility hardening the hearts of the precious few it bestows itself upon.” Elie Nehme 7/30/2019 Ricardo Rosselló Resigns, But There is Nothing to Celebrate The Center - “With this standard, if the private diaries or WhatsApp conversations of people were opened, prisons the world over would be swamped with inmates, and companies would fire half of its staff on a daily basis.” Gabriel

Andrade 7/26/2019

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