Author: Brandon Christensen

Nightcap

Brandon Christensen Links , , ,
  1. The beguiling, troubling future of work Diana Pho, Wired
  2. “College is a distraction for most kids” Rick Weber, NOL
  3. Indonesia in the Cold War Ben Bland, War on the Rocks
  4. Pandemics in the Ottoman Empire Isacar Bolaños, Origins

Nightcap

Brandon Christensen Links , , ,
  1. How American couples are struggling through the pandemic Rafael Nam, NPR
  2. The thing party (GOP) vs. the idea party (Dems) Scott Sumner, EconLog
  3. Karl Marx was right (pretty much) Jacques Delacroix, NOL
  4. Does Max Weber’s theory hold up today? Corey Robin, New Yorker

Nightcap

Brandon Christensen Links , , ,
  1. The self-made British working class Helene Guldberg, spiked!
  2. India and the Mughal Empire William Dalrymple, Literary Hub
  3. On decolonization in Africa Sindre Bangstad, Africa is a Country
  4. Federalism in Europe, America, and Africa (pdf) Jörg Broschek, F&D

Nightcap

Brandon Christensen Links , , ,
  1. What’s wrong with “libertarian environmentalism”? Ed Dolan, Open Society
  2. European empire, fractured? Theodore Dalrymple, Law & Liberty
  3. On democracy and the “liberal world order” Manuel Reinert, Duck of Minerva
  4. Why I am a socialist Sam Adler-Bell, Hedgehog Review

Nightcap

Brandon Christensen Links , , ,
  1. Migraines, operating rooms, and the common good Irfan Khawaja, Policy of Truth
  2. Zheng Guanying’s democratic trade war Gabriel Groz, JHIBlog
  3. World War I and the ideology of empire Andrew Bacevich, Cato Unbound
  4. The curse of being a Bhutto Isambard Wilkinson, Spectator

Nightcap

Brandon Christensen Links , , ,
  1. An insomnia epidemic? Katherine Lucky, Commonweal
  2. Childhood: facts versus fads John Simmons, LARB
  3. The many lives of Túpac Amaru Miguel La Serna, Age of Revolutions
  4. The legacy of Yevgeny Zamyatin Jacob Howland, New Criterion

The politics of The Expanse

Brandon Christensen Culture, Politics , , , ,

I am rewatching The Expanse, which is a deservedly popular science fiction show on Amazon Prime. It’s very good. As I said, I am rewatching it, mostly in anticipation of the new season, which comes out next month.

It’s good because I like my science fiction to be science-y. I prefer realistic scenarios. So Star Wars is not really my thing (even Star Trek is a stretch, to be honest, but DS9 is amazing).

One thing that strikes me as wrong in The Expanse is the politics. In the storyline, there are three political units: Earth, Mars, and the Belt. Earth and Mars are sovereign, and the Belt (based out of the asteroid belt) is semi-sovereign with a distinct and viable “nationalist” movement there. This is a sophisticated storyline for television. It’s better than DS9, which bore the standard for great science fiction television until The Expanse came along.

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But I can’t stop thinking: why would the political alignment of the solar system be based on planets? If it were to be truly realistic, then Earth would not be a sovereign political unit. Instead, we’d have a dozen or so political units from Earth, some political units from Mars, and several from the Belt. Factions in the form of sovereign political units would dominate the political landscape, not planets.

Now, The Expanse does a good job confronting the issue of faction. Earth’s democratically-elected dictator has to deal with several factions, and Mars and the Belt both have factions, too. And several excellent subplots deal significantly with the issue of faction. But there’s not enough sovereignties in The Expanse. It doesn’t mean the series isn’t the best science fiction television series of all time (it is), but it does leave me wanting more.

Nightcap

Brandon Christensen Links , , ,
  1. How would Wolf Blitzer respond to Savannah Guthrie on a road trip? Ryan Davis, 200-Proof Liberals
  2. What we owe to Donald J Trump Branko Milanovic, globalinequality
  3. Japan’s fragile monarchy Kenneth Ruoff, Japan Times
  4. Amy Coney Barrett on Lochner and the 14th Amendment Damon Root, Reason

Nightcap

Brandon Christensen Links , , ,
  1. What is the human being? Jon Stewart, Aeon
  2. Premature imitation and India’s flailing state (pdf) Rajagopalan & Tabarrok, TIR
  3. Is it time to strike back at empire? Tony Barber, Financial Times
  4. Adam Smith: a historical historical detective? Nick Cowen, NOL

Nightcap

Brandon Christensen Links , , ,
  1. Value judgements John Peeler, LA Progressive
  2. Value judgements Alex Mackiel, Quillette
  3. Theater in the time of COVID Noah Millman, Modern Age
  4. Federal futures in India and Nepal Shneiderman & Tillman

Nightcap

Brandon Christensen Links , , ,
  1. Sovereignty and the modern treaty process (pdf) Paul Nadasdy, CSSH
  2. How states wrest territory from their adversaries (pdf) Dan Altman, ISQ
  3. Farage’s dangerous appeal Chris Dillow, Stumbling & Mumbling
  4. Decomposing the nation-state (pdf) Murray Rothbard, JLS

Nightcap

Brandon Christensen Links , , ,
  1. Election day Rick
  2. Your vote is your voice–but actions speak louder than words Kevin
  3. Offensive advantage and the vanity of ethics Kevin
  4. A short non-political note Brandon

A short non-political note

Brandon Christensen Current Events , ,

I have not been paying attention to the election news cycle. I have dropped out of that system. I am lucky that I was born in the United States. I marvel at the underpinnings of the American constitutional order (an internationalist order). I understand that self-government and elections go hand-in-hand (if only we were all enlightened anarchists).

But I don’t pay attention to the horse race for the presidency. It makes a mockery of all the good things the republic stands for.

I have been taking advantage of the Covid pseudo-lockdown. (Thanks to Nick for the Zoom lesson in opportunity costs.) I wrote one scholarly essay and six short stories. I submitted them to journals. The scholarly essay was accepted for publication in The Independent Review after going through an unusually thorough peer review process. The short stories were all rejected. I am disheartened because I have been trying (slowly) to leave behind scholarship in favor of literary pursuits. I cannot practice my writing craft because the scholarly article (ungated rough draft here) is also the focus of a Special Issue in an open source academic journal (which also happens to be one of my favorite journals: Cosmos + Taxis).

So, I have another 16 months of challenging scholarly work ahead of me. I love this blog. It’s been good to me. I don’t know if the literary journals rejected me because of my style or my substance. I felt like I was tackling difficult topics, but I also know my writing style is a bit old school. I think maybe the rejections were a combination of old school style and old school substance, both of which are not exactly what literary journals are looking for these days.

Nightcap

Brandon Christensen Links , , ,
  1. Libertarians and localism Lauren Hall, RCL
  2. The emerging world order (pdf) Michael Lee, Survival
  3. The last jihadi superstar Thomas Hegghammer, War on the Rocks
  4. A Canadian-American merger? J Dana Stuster, Foreign Policy

Nightcap

Brandon Christensen Links , , ,
  1. Was liberal imperialism ethical? Kenan Malik, Guardian
  2. The world is trapped in America’s culture war Helen Lewis, Atlantic
  3. That was some election! Scott Sumner, Money Illusion
  4. California’s far Left governor sends his kids to private school Politico