Een recent Telegraaf artikel wekte mijn interesse: Steeds meer 65-plussers laten traditionele media links liggen: ’Je moet deugen tot je erbij neervalt, niet te hárden’. In Amerika wordt dit onderwerp vaak als culture war betiteld; bij ons heet het dan een cultuurstrijd. In een recent Axios artikel (zie #2) stelt Quentin Fulks, een voormalige senior medewerker van...
Arrogance vs ignorance
Every country has the government it deserves
21 Nov, 2024
My blog title is an English translation of a French saying (ie, “Toute nation a le gouvernement qu'elle mérite”) by French philosopher Joseph de Maistre (1753–1821). That French saying is getting relevance considering the (very) remarkable choices for the forthcoming 2025 U.S. Administration. I suppose such choices reveal their priorities. If not, those choices seem...
Are young generations anti-democratic??
12 Nov, 2024
An American expert at The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies claims that voting by "anti-democratic young generations" is a reason for Trump's 2024 victory. See his recent comment on Dutch BNR Newsradio. In my view, "anti-democratic young voters" is a rather silly and even a contradicting concept. As a child (1960), my parents once explained that it was common that...
Did ignorance beat arrogance?
11 Nov, 2024
"Ignorance is bliss", according to an 18th-century poem by Thomas Gray. Listening to ignorance can be quite funny, unlike arrogance. Hence, I wonder if the ignorance of the conservative-right has beaten the arrogance of the liberal-left on November 5. To some extent, the same is happening in Europe. The arrogance of the liberal-left manifests itself in topics like...
Wealth is a poor metric for wisdom
9 Oct, 2024
My blog title is borrowed from a recent PS article that caught my interest. Wealth has always been a metric for Power. It’s very hard to imagine that Big Tech billionaires could - let alone would - be considered a metric for wisdom. Nevertheless, the quote below suggests differently. “In an America where wealth has increasingly become the primary source of social...
Why is China creating so many enemies?
1 Oct, 2024
Increasingly, it looks like every nation is an economic, geopolitical, and/or military enemy of China, once their national interests collide with Chinese interests. Remarkably, China is now also creating domestic adversaries. I cannot imagine that China needs and/or wants such adversaries or enemies. Hence, the explanation must be about (extreme) beliefs. Such...
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