Year: 2012

The Myth of the Noble Savage

Brandon Christensen Books, History , , , , ,

Although most academic books and even standardized textbooks for American “students” in public schools no longer explicitly condescend to minorities in this country, there is a certain sense of condescension that still underlies the Left’s rhetoric when it comes to non-European peoples. Jacques Delacroix has given as good an explanation as any, so I’ll just outsource to him on that question, but what I’d like to do is highlight just how much human beings have in common.

When I was in Santa Cruz I found a fairly rare book that I had been looking for forever in one of that wonderful town’s many used bookstores, and it hasn’t disappointed. From Daniel K. Richter’s book The Ordeal of the Longhouse, a book about the Iroquois confederacy and how it dealt with the European factions that arrived in the Americas :

“[…] Champlain and a handful of French musketeers accompanied an army of Algonquins and Montagnais to somewhere near Ticonderoga, north of present-day Albany, to do battle with his native allies’ enemies, the Mohawks.  That hostile encounter was probably the first time [1609] an Iroquois had laid eyes on a European, but it certainly would not be the last (51).”

The French soldiers were essentially mercenaries at this point in time, and albeit mercenaries that had the blessing of the Crown.  Further along in the book, Richter writes on Iroquois slavery practices: Continue reading →

Karl Marx and Special Interests

Brandon Christensen History, Politics , , , , , , , , , ,

[Note: this is an old musing of mine written back in May of 2011. I hope it is still as fresh today as it was back then.]

Karl Marx’s economic theories have long been disproved (theoretically as soon as they came out, and practically with the fall of the Berlin Wall), and tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of individuals have perished under communist regimes.  People were either murdered, “relocated”, or starved to death through the attempts of Marx’s acolytes to remake man in their image.

Despite this horrific record, his theories continue to persist throughout modern political discourse.  In the United States his myths are still promoted in the academy and among the hard Left, but very few take them seriously (unfortunately).  However, in much of the rest of the world his ideas are still prevalent in everyday political action.  In order to go about showing you why this is may be the case, I am going to switch from Marxist economic theory (the labor theory of value is so out of step with reality and public discourse that I feel it is unnecessary to debunk it here) to Marxist political theory.

In fleshing out Marx’s political thought, I hope to show my loyal readers (all two of you) a couple of things: 1) that Marx’s ideas on political organization were nothing new (in fact Marxist thought on political organization is actually very old), and 2) that although Marxist ideas on political organization are not taken seriously by most Americans, the few who do take them seriously are very smart people in very high places.  Failure to recognize the subtle exposition of Marx’s political thought in public discourse could lead to dangerous consequences if we are not more aware of what it is that Marxists are attempting to destroy and what it is that they are attempting to replace it with. Continue reading →

My New Book

Michael Adamson Current Events, History, Links , ,

Don’t think I’ve mentioned my book on the history of Pasadena-based Charles Pankow Builders, a “design-builder” of many commercial buildings, mostly in LA, SF, and Honolulu, including the MTA tower at Union Station; it is forthcoming from Purdue University Press in January. It combines a study of entrepreneurship and best practices in construction. Check out its page in the Purdue UP catalog.

It’s gotten some good advance praise by industry leaders, as you can see from its Amazon page.

Of closer interest, perhaps, to this group, I also have an essay (Chapter 4: see TOC) on Columbia “money doctor” Carl Shoup’s financial missions to Cuba (in the 1930s) in “The Political Economy of  Transnational Tax Reform: The Shoup Mission to Japan in Historical Context,” forthcoming in March 2013 from Cambridge UP.

I’ve now cracked open Why Nations Fail. . . . Will get back to you as I make progress.

Pour le Nouvel An juif

Jacques Delacroix Liberty

Voici une communication de mon copain Antoine Casublo,  avocat a la cour:

Je sais, je vous ai souvent raconté ma vie-mon œuvre, mais, là, je vous invite à acheter le Journal du Dimanche de cette semaine.

Alors que je finissais ma formation d’avocat, stagiaire au cabinet de mon ami Francis CHOURAQUI, Nathalie NEUMAN est venue nous voir pour nous raconter l’histoire de son père Emile, de ses grands parents, Sarah et Mordka, disparus à Auschwitz.

Arrivés de Pologne dans les années 30, les parents d’Emile avaient acquis un petit lopin de terre à Villepinte dans la banlieue parisienne afin d’y faire un potager qu’ils entretenaient le weekend et durant les vacances d’été.

Hélas, raflé en 1941, déporté par le convoi n°6 parti de Pithiviers le 17 juillet 1942, Mordka n’aura pas eu le temps de beaucoup profité de ce potager.

Restée seule avec ses deux enfants Emile et Reine, Sarah est allée se cachée sur ce terrain de Villepinte dans la cabane en bois, au fond du potager. Mais en 1943, à son tour, sûrement dénoncée par des voisins, elle fut arrêtée devant sa cabane, sous les yeux d’Emile par des gendarmes français qui la conduire à Drancy. Continue reading →

Not Quite

Brandon Christensen Current Events

I just came across a fascinating read this morning. I’ve been busy as hell, so the link and the analysis will have to wait, but I’ll give you a hint: it has to do with “neoliberalism” and the authoritarian state.

I promise I’ve got a bunch of good stuff coming up. It’s all just sitting in the ‘drafts’ file of the blog, waiting to be finished up. School is a bitch this quarter though, so forgive me.

Around the Web

Brandon Christensen Current Events, Liberty, Links ,
  1. Must Libertarians Be Amoral?
  2. Monkey Jesus  (h/t Angus) I know what I’m going to be for Halloween!
  3. An Interview with the world-renowned Edward Luttwak

I have a post I’ve been working on for like, three weeks now, and I just can’t seem to finish it. Stay tuned!

Is Liberalism Dead?

Brandon Christensen History ,

Co-editor Fred Foldvary kicks off the discussion:

The word “Liberal” comes from the same root as “liberty.” Liberalism is the ideology of equal individual freedom, the natural right of all persons to do anything that is peaceful and honest. It is implemented by a constitutional law that prohibits coercive harm to others and avoids restricting or imposing a cost on all other human action.

In the modern era, liberal philosophy blossomed after the publication of John Locke’s Two Treatises of Government […]

Internationally, liberalism became a global ideology with the recognition of universal human rights by the United Nations. But during the early 1800s, liberalism already started losing its way. While it marched forward for civil rights, such as the equal right to vote, liberalism became confused in the economic front.

Classical liberalism called for freedom on all fronts, including the economic, where it opposed state-imposed monopolies as well as restrictions on trade. Pure liberalism implies a truly free economy […] Liberalism also includes the spirit of tolerant generosity, the acceptance of diverse viewpoints. Tolerance is the heart of liberalism. Economic liberalism died with the Great Depression of the 1930s, and now we are witnessing the death of liberal tolerance.

Do read the whole thing, as he has much to say about anti-Semitism in Europe and the demise of libertarian strains of thought.

Patriotism, the Last Refuge of Scoundrels

Jacques Delacroix Liberty , , ,

I have Obama ennui and petroleum fatigue so, here is a story.

In spite of its title, this story is largely about feces so, if you have a weak stomach, stop right here. It’s also about my war, stretching over several years, against raccoons.

I live close to downtown on a parcel that includes four bearing fruit trees. This ought to make me gloriously happy because I was reared in a big city where I always longed for the countryside. Now, for me, on a small scale, the old wish that cities ought to be built in the countryside has come true. The problem is that a tribe of impudent raccoons lives nearby on an untended cliff. For half the year, one or another of my trees is bearing fruits and the raccoons make nightly visits, singly or in groups. Generally, that would be OK with me: Share and share alike, I say. However, raccoons apparently feel the need to defecate soon after they eat, nearly always on my property, in this case. In fact, they are so regular (so to speak), that they always do it on the roof of a low shed adjacent to a lovely small sun-deck. I spent significant money two years ago to build a grape arbor above the sun-deck. I had visions of myself writing outdoors and lazily reaching up for my own dangling grapes.

In the past, I have won indecisive victories with a b.b. gun used at close range. I say indecisive because, one particularly ornery old mama I had shot in the ass several time retaliated by leaving a turd right plum in the middle of my bathroom’s skylight. Continue reading →

A European Union of More Nations?

Brandon Christensen Liberty , , , , , , , , ,

Wouldn’t that be so bad ass? Or am I just a geek?

The New York Times picks up on concepts that libertarians have been talking about for years. From the article:

The great paradox of the European Union, which is built on the concept of shared sovereignty, is that it lowers the stakes for regions to push for independence.

Has the NYT been reading Notes On Liberty? That’s a tongue-in-cheek question, of course, but one that makes me feel smug and sexy at the same time!

I have largely addressed the crisis in Europe from a political standpoint on this blog, and I don’t see that changing much over the next few years. Fiscal responsibility and civil society can only flourish if political institutions are well-defined.

The NYT article decided to quote a scholar at the European Council on Foreign Relations (which is not *sigh* a think tank dedicated to furthering the interests of a small, elite circle of bankers and industrialists) instead of me: Continue reading →

Socialism and Free Speech: Forget About It

Brandon Christensen Current Events, Liberty , , , , ,

Fascists Arrest Woman Blogger

Links to the Spanish and English language blogs of a brave Cuban blogger have been on this blog for years. This courageous anti-dictatorship woman’s name is Yoani Sanchez. She was arrested recently by the Castro fascist police. Below is her communication from the English language blog. Notably, I was unable to reach her Spanish blog today.

Read the rest, and do your part to help spread the word. Thugs like Castro would have been gone a long time ago if more people like the arrested blogger had stood up and said ‘no’ the first time around.

It doesn’t help that thugs in DC put sanctions on the Cuban state, either, but I am digressing…

Is Christianity Radical?

Brandon Christensen History, Religion , , ,

This is a rhetorical question, of course, but one that I don’t think is taken seriously enough in the West anymore.  A lot of this has to do with the fact that factions within Christianity have given this religion a very bad name over the centuries, as has the work of left-wing intellectuals to discredit this good religion’s name and accomplishments.

Without going into too many details, I think it would be good to take a step back and view where most of humanity’s scientific, intellectual, and economic progress has taken place over the last five hundred years.

On top of this remarkable feat, I think it would be safe to assume that Christianity also has provided the room for a vast array of religious sects and altogether different religious beliefs to flourish under its domain.  Just think of the influence that Atheism has on today’s Western society.  Although I consider Atheism to be a branch off of Judaism (and as such, a fraternal religion to Christianity), it would not have been able to flourish or exert the influence it has today without the extensive influence of Christianity on the thought of the West’s greatest thinkers over the past 800 years.

And just think of the influence that Protestantism has had on  not only the West but the whole world over the past 500 years as well.

But what is it specifically about Christianity that makes it so radical?  Is it the focus on the individual?  Don’t Daoism and Buddhism also stress individual importance?  The focus on Jesus of Nazareth’s teachings?  Or is it, as I suspect, the fact that Christianity harbors a tone of dissidence about it that is unrivaled among the other large religions of the world?  I think that a strong case can be made for a general mood in Christianity’s doctrines that stress the importance of disobedience.

What do y’all think?  I’d love to hear your thoughts on the matter!

Whither Hobsbawm’s Left?

Brandon Christensen Current Events , , , , ,

Self-described socialist Mike Beggs writes:

Academic survival is, of course, cold comfort. Does Marxism have a political future? Hobsbawm is clearly not optimistic […] Those of us who have come so very late to the party, so to speak, inevitably have a different perspective. We discovered Marx long after the flaws of Marxism and “really-existing socialism” had become obvious, in a period of protracted recession in the labor movement. And yet, we still found something of value. Many, probably most, of us learned much of our Marx at university, deeply impressed by that intellectual flowering of the 1970s which Hobsbawm sees as the high-water mark. The course of his life has followed an epic rise and fall which naturally shapes his conclusions. For us, there is a lot more future to come.

You can read the rest of the article here. EJ Hobsbawm was a prolific Marxist historian, and I have come across his own work in my studies on national identity. You can find a decent list of his books here. RIP.

Around the Web

Brandon Christensen Links , , , , , , , , , ,
  1. How Government Sort Of Created the Internet. Fascinating read from the Freeman.
  2. What Happened? Will Wilkinson asks the tough question in the aftermath of a debate which I missed, but heard that Romney roundly is perceived to have won.
  3. The Next Industrial Revolution (it’s going to be in goods and services). Arnold Kling has written about this before. (h/t Tyler Cowen)
  4. Beirut: Security, Surveillance, and Navigation. As I’ve gotten deeper and deeper into anthropology, I’ve found that many anthropologists never get past the glorified journalism aspect of the discipline associated with introductory courses. This is a good example of that, but still worth a gander.

Separatism (Secession) in Spain, and the Rest of the World

Brandon Christensen Current Events, Liberty , , , , , , , ,

Separatist agitations in Spain have prompted some observers to reconsider the concept of secession as a viable option in politics again. The BBC has a very good report here, and the Economist has an even better one here.

When I was taking an Honors course on Western civilization and we got to the European Union, a thought immediately came to my head and I shared it with the class: does the European Union mean the demise of the big nation-states of Europe?

My hope is that it will, but my Professor and my Left-leaning classmates either thought ‘no’ or had not thought about this question at all. One sexy girl did think it was possible, though I think she was just humoring me so that I would ask her out on a date (yes, I did, but she couldn’t get into UCLA, though, so she ended up at Berkeley!).

I thought about the confederation of states in Europe that the EuroZone has created, and remembered that many regions within the nation-states of Europe have harbored separatist sentiments since being absorbed into the nation-states of Europe (sometimes hundreds of years ago, sometimes decades ago), as well as the peaceful split-up of Czechoslovakia into two states within the EuroZone.

The purpose of the nation-states was to streamline trade between regions by standardizing trading policy and eliminating parochial tariffs that regions within the nation-states had erected over the course of centuries. So, in what is now Germany, for example, there were hundreds of small states that each had their own economic policies, and most of these states had erected protectionist tariffs, even on neighboring states. The German state standardized trading policy in what is now Germany so that a tariff-free zone of trade eventually emerged within Germany. The federal set-up of the United States accomplished the same thing.

Now, though, the European Union has essentially taken the place of the nation-state as the chief entity in charge of standardizing trading policies in Europe. My line of thought leads me to conclude that this political setup is a great opportunity for regions that have been absorbed into larger nation-states to assert more fiscal (local taxes) and political (local elections) independence because of these region’s new interdependence with a larger part of the European economy thanks to the elimination of tariffs between the larger nation-states currently in place. In short, the confederation has provided the opportunity for smaller states to emerge while at the same time eliminating the parochial and self-defeating aspects (trade policy) of small state polities that often accompanies “smallness.” The best of both worlds has the chance to flower: local governance and total participation in world trade.

I realize that the EuroZone shot itself in the foot with the creation of a central bank and the attempts to delegate to itself ever more political power, but with these two blemishes notwithstanding the European Union is a good thing for both peace and prosperity.

The question of secession in political science has recently emerged as a good one for many scholars, but unfortunately their focus has tilted heavily towards Europe and Canada (Quebec and Nunavut). If we apply this concept to other regions of the globe – especially China, Africa, the Middle East and India – then the notions of violence and despotism that Westerners largely harbor towards these regions disappears.

I hope this makes sense. If it doesn’t you know where the ‘comments’ section is!

Updates

Brandon Christensen Liberty

Been busy lately. My goal for the rest of the year is to post more often.

My laptop was stolen earlier this summer, so it has been tough for me, but I can manage now. I hope to have some cool stuff coming up soon.

Stay tuned y’all!