It's about the very human desire to be part of something larger than ourselves, and the danger of attaching that desire to power. Pyle believes so completely in his own good intentions that he can't see the harm he's doing in their name. But also about what happens when our faith in institutions begins to collapse while our longing for purpose and belonging remains intact.
It is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but their social existence that determines their consciousness. And yet every age believes the opposite — that it thinks its way into its conditions, rather than being thought by them.
It is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but their social existence that determines their consciousness. And yet — a ghost in this machine — there remains the individual who refuses the mold of his era, who thinks against the grain of his own formation.
The last of these — the progressives who simply couldn't admit that billionaire-funded private industry could build something powerful enough to endanger humanity — were the strangest of all, since their refusal to acknowledge the effectiveness of AI basically put them in an alliance with libertarians, hawks, and Trump.
The tendency to claim God as an ally for our partisan value and ends is the source of all religious fanaticism, hatred, and persecution, and also the cause of the vulgar pursuit of success as a proof of divine favor.
It is a far, far better thing to have a firm anchor in nonsense than to ride with the tide of events and be swept along by the prevailing winds of fashion and expediency. Almost nothing in economics is more evident than the desire to believe that the world will be safe for those who are best at the game of competitive self-interest.
It is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but their social existence that determines their consciousness.
They see degrowth as a grand project to unify and reinvigorate the political left — a Big Idea to fill the hole left by the collapse of communism in the 20th century. Each buzzword or stock phrase is a shout-out to a particular faction of the European left — 'decolonial' leftists angry about colonialism, climate activists, old-line socialists still angry about 'neoclassical economics', unionists who want job guarantees, social democrats who care about housing and education and welfare, and so on.
I believe that in the 20th century, under the leadership of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the United States devised the single best governing ideology that any country has ever created: liberal nationalism.
From the perspective of the far right, the Hardy brothers serve as the ideal embodiments of this fantasy: strapping young white males who are strong of body and clear of mind, resourceful and courageous and self-sufficient, willing to go to any length to protect their community from enemies who are often "dark" in appearance and of foreign extraction.
Underscored — save the words that stop you in your tracks.
Start saving quotes →