The Good Old Days

Our music was so much better than that noise the kids are listening to these days. Graphs from the Washington Post.

I want to begin by posting a few quick follow-ups to some previous pieces.

The Omnicause: Recently, I did a Symposium podcast with writer Alysia Ames about the left-wing phenomenon of the “Omnicause,” and I was surprised to see it get a prominent mention in The Free Press within days.

The Trough of Disillusionment: I mentioned recently how artificial intelligence has entered the Trough of Disillusionment. I forgot to include a little snippet I had cut from a previous article: Perhaps the most amusing misuse of AI is highlighted in a recent study which indicates that a significant percentage of academic peer review responses might by AI-generated. This is less an indictment of AI than of academics, some of whom apparently view peer review less as a sacred obligation to maintain the intellectual standards of the field and more as a bit of drudgery to be given the least possible effort.

The Paradox of Heterodox Orthodoxy: I wrote about the late stage of the Intellectual Dark Web, in which heterodoxy is turning into an orthodoxy of its own. I want to point you to a subsequent piece by Cathy Young exploring this “paradox of heterodox orthodoxy”—man, I wish I had written that phrase—and particularly how its grave concerns about threats to freedom from the left contrast with its “‘no enemies on the right’ blind spot.”

“Somebody Offered Me Something”: I’ve been looking around at coverage of Donald Trump’s speech at the Libertarian convention. I sometimes think maybe I should write a work of political satire or parody, but then I think: Why bother? What could I come up with that could compete with the absurdity of real life? Trump’s speech at the Libertarian Party convention had everything. He asked for the party’s nomination but hadn’t filed the paperwork. He declared, “I sure as hell am a Libertarian now” specifically because he has been indicted on multiple felonies. Libertarians leaned into that part of their reputation by choosing, as one of their top demands, that he free Ross Ulbricht, who ran a “dark web” drug market. And to stay on brand, one of the Libertarian candidates, Michael Rectenwald, admitted that the reason he bailed out of a candidates’ forum, declaring that the questions were “boring,” is because he had taken a dose of edible marijuana. “I’m at a Libertarian Party convention. Somebody offered me something.” This really sums up the directionlessness of the party, doesn’t it?

The Worm in the Brain: All of that pales in comparison to a story I haven’t had a chance to comment on yet, partly because I’m not really sure what more there is to say about it: the news that Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., had a worm eat part of his brain. My only question is: Are we sure he’s the only one?

O Tempora, O Mores!

All of this might have you throwing up your hands and exclaiming, “O tempora, o mores!” Yet I just came across an absolutely brilliant bit of analysis in the Washington Post that warns against the dangers of false nostalgia.