Category Archives

Archive of posts published in the category: History

Fanaticism Defined

The world of ideas tempered by a realistic notion of human nature, moral considerations, and actual experiences is illuminating and useful. Attempting to bend human reality to theories in isolation is the definition of fanaticism.

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Genuine Insight on Race

“Genuine insight generally doesn’t make you angry and anxious. It makes you smile, and generates gratitude.”

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History Can be Discovered but not Dictated

“It is unprofessional for historians to view the multifarious and complex motivations of millions of people over hundreds of years through a single prism, as for example the 1619 Project does in its attempt to view all American history solely through the monstrous story of slavery. Similarly, although more and more people believe in conspiracy theories, they do not make good history. If there is a choice between a conspiracy and a mess, the truth is usually the mess. Or a messed-up conspiracy.”

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The Journalistic Malfeasance of the 1619 Project

The 1619 Project is shoddy history and shoddy journalism, debasing an honest accounting of slavery and racism in America; rewriting history to support a narrative rather than illuminating a problem. As we have progressed in racial understanding we seek to slay smaller and smaller dragons. Magnifying these dragons does not make them larger; it only appears so.

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History on Trial- The 1619 Project

Slavery in the American experience is worthy of study and analysis; it is a smear on our historical and political culture and is detestable enough in its incontestable reality.  There is no need to distort the reality, disregard accuracy and fabricate facts unless your purpose is an agenda other than truth and understanding.  

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Historians Counter the 1619 Project

“Slavery required a culture that held labor in contempt. The North, with its celebration of labor, especially working for money, became even more different from the lazy, slaveholding South. By the 1850s, the two sections, though both American, possessed two different cultures.”

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Ignorance and Certitude

“I do not believe that only those who fail to study history are doomed to repeat it. Plenty of people who study history are entirely capable of making the same mistakes as their ancestors, and worse ones, too. “

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The 1619 Project is Anti-History

Thus 1619 Project from the NYT is the opposite of history; it is anti-history.  Instead of studying the past to learn about the present, it projects current passions on the past.  Confirming events are generalized to be the sole motivation,  non confirming events are ignored or minimized as inconsequential.

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Anti-History and History

I look at a news story and wonder of the likelihood of today’s headline ever being noted in a history book. The 24-hour news cycle is an outrage machine designed to generate clicks. It is not to inform and certainly not to provide perspective or understanding.

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Year End Thoughts 2018 12 30

At 66 I am more inclined to accepts my flaws than work hard to correct them. Again, tipping to Churchill I would hope to limit my annoying virtues and be less ashamed of my admirable vices.

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Putting Trump in a Historical Perspective

Can America survive Trump?  Charlie Munger of Berkshire Hathaway commented that a business that can not withstand a little bad management is not that great a business.

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The Roots of American Partisanship

The XYZ Affair brought us to the brink of war and stunned Jefferson when it was released. The author Gordon Woods compared it to the paranoia that gripped the west coast after Pearl Harbor that led to the internment of Japanese Americans.  The XYZ memo destroyed public support for the pro French Republican party of Jefferson.

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The Greater Threat to Stability

“A strong executive, De Lolme wrote, was the best check against the ambitions of the aristocracy, which always posed a greater threat to the stability of the constitution. Too much democracy did not lead to anarchy but to oligarchy or aristocracy.”

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Progressive Individualism

“To curb the forces in business which would destroy equality of opportunity and yet to maintain the initiative and creative faculties of our people are the twin objects we must attain.”

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Humble Capitalism- Observation on the Berkshire Hathaway Meeting

Patience is a virtue and a vice for Americans.  We can be suckers for simplistic formulas, excess leverage, and delusions of certainty. Buffet and Munger avoid these traps.  Our obsession with finance distracts from the effective and efficient production of goods and services, engagement with the customer, and the patience and faith to adhere to sound principles.

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HKO Observations 2018 04 19

The patronage and influence of the first Progressive Era has only morphed into lobbyists and regulatory capture. But the real threat is the control they exert on government or the democratic process. 

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Trump and Jackson

“Like the chief of a military junto, he did not check backgrounds or discriminate against idiosyncrasies, he required only absolute loyalty. Hence he could accept the perpetual flux of his supporting coalitions and advising associates and extract the greatest benefit from them.”

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The Origin of Ideology

“As Adams explained it, the French philosophes had invented the word, which became a central part of their utopian style of thinking and a major tenet in their “school of folly.” It referred to a set of ideals and hopes, like human perfection or social equality, that philosophers mistakenly believed could be implemented in the world because it existed in their heads. Jefferson himself thought in this French fashion, Adams claimed, confusing the seductive prospects envisioned in his imagination with the more limited possibilities history permitted. “

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Jeffersonian End; Non Jeffersonian Means

Irony is almost synonymous with history.  Jefferson feared a large central government, but could not foresee a central government with Jeffersonian values.

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The One and the Few

Adams feared the aristocrats (the elite). Jefferson feared the monarchs.  Each thought the other an existential threat. Evan after the constitution was signed  we were unclear what kind of government we had and what kind we wanted.  We have been trying to complete the job every since.

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