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Sex, Politics, and Operation Dildo Blitz

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  Sex, Politics, and Operation Dildo Blitz John Michael Greer I planned on posting an essay on a different subject today. In fact, I had another essay all written and revised, waiting for whatever fame and fortune a weekly blog post by a writer well out on the cultural fringes can expect these days. That essay is going to be cooling its heels for another two weeks before it gets its day in the sun, though. A comment I made during a recent speaking gig, which was duly recorded and posted to the internet, sparked quite a little tempest in a couple of minor online teapots. I don’t follow social media, but I have friends who do, and several of them happened to tell me about certain saliva-flecked rants responding to the comment. It’s a normal experience if you’re a blogger who doesn’t just parrot somebody’s party line. If people want to denounce me, of course, I have no problem with that. I’ve criticized various people fairly harshly over the twenty years I’ve been blogging, and it wou...
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When Argument Becomes Opium: Amartya Sen, Indian Paralysis, and the Indianization of the West

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  When Argument Becomes Opium: Amartya Sen, Indian Paralysis, and the Indianization of the West Words without actions and the magic of turning defeat into victory Hua Bin I wrote an essay titled “The Myth of India Becoming the Next China” last November to debunk a popular but fallacious Western narrative. https://huabinoliver.substack.com/p/the-myth-of-india-becoming-the-next The essay continues to get views and feedback. A reader recommended the 2005 book The Argumentative Indian , by an Indian author Amartya Sen, to understand the cultural roots of the state of affairs in the self-claimed Bharat empire. I got a copy and skimmed through. While Sen’s title seems to suggest a cultural weakness, his central argument is the opposite. India, Sen argues, possesses a millennial tradition of public debate, skepticism, and pluralism. This argumentative heritage, far from being a weakness, is the true source of Indian democracy’s resilience. It is why famines have been prevented, why secul...
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