The Post-Partisan Emporium

Human Sacrifice, Then and Now BY  JEFFREY A. TUCKER   I've spent the last three days in awe of the temples of Teotihuacan, Mexico, which are beyond description in size and scale, challenging even the pyramids of Egypt for inclusion in wonders of the world. They are all the more impressive because we can observe their geographic context as part of a large and once-thriving community, including the ruins of roads and housing complexes.  The age of the temples date from the 1st century and before, even long before, and the town itself was a massive cultural and commercial center until about the 8th century, when the population migrated elsewhere.  We like to find connections between our lives and theirs and we find it in the everyday ways of the people, who, like us, had families to feed, water to find and keep, and life struggles to overcome with the assistance of trading relationships, folkways, tools, community leaders, and traditions. It’s all very beautiful and remarkable, and al

Futures That Work John Michael Greer Among the most curious features of the current predicament of industrial society is that so much of it was set out in great detail so many decades ago. Just at the moment I’m not thinking of the extensive literature on resource depletion that started appearing in the 1950s, which set out in painstaking detail the mess we’re in right now. I’m thinking of those writers who explored the decline and fall of past civilizations, in the vain hope that ours might manage to avoid making all the usual mistakes.  In particular, I’m thinking of Arnold Toynbee. Arnold Toynbee, contemplating the idiocy of failing elites.  Toynbee’s all but forgotten these days, but three quarters of a century ago his was a name to conjure with. His gargantuan 12-volume work  A Study of History  set out to trace the histories of all known civilizations and, from that data set, determine the factors that drove the rise and fall of human societies. One- and two-volume abridgements l

So, You Wanna Be a Kingpin? Thanks to COVID, Big Pharma is on the verge of ruling the world. Karen Hunt aka KH Mezek Biggy Smalls “Never get high on your own supply.” -- Biggy Smalls You’d be surprised how many respectable millionaires and billionaires made their fortunes thanks to drug smuggling. It’s become quite convenient to blame China for every evil. But as I have pointed out in essays like  The Chinafication of the Western World ,  this is the height of hypocrisy. Western nations, the United States chief among them, pretend to care about human rights and the environment while reaping the rewards of doing business in China where the rules are laxer. If we truly believed in human rights, honest scientific research and clean energy, we would stop the lies and corruption. But we don’t believe in these things. We believe in the almighty dollar. Success means Big, Bold, and Beautiful. Success means getting rich any way you can. The only crime is getting caught. Those who do get caught