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The Long View

The Long View 2007-11-17: Surge in Oil Helps Surge in Iraq; Traditionalism Blog; The Papal Executive; Testable Theory of Everything; Imperial Transhumanism

John links here to his great book review The Future of the Papacy, which points out that the Papacy isn’t really meant to function as an executive, but that historical circumstances have forced it to do so. The papacies of Benedict XVI and Francis have been united in that

The Long View 2007-11-15: A Real Mortgage Crisis; Confucian Christianity; Hillary's Harridans; Ron Paul & Eurasianism; Social Security 401(k) Hoax; Shadowless Invader; The Coming Military Buildup

Combined with John J. Reilly’s historical analysis of universal states was the observation that political entities follow the economy. Accordingly, he expected that a possible future universal state would need to incorporate features of the cultures of both ends of Eurasia. A Real Mortgage Crisis; Confucian Christianity; Hillary'

The Long View: Empire by Orson Scott Card

I listened to Orson Scott Card’s Empire [Amazon affiliate link] as an audiobook when it came out. I remember how devilishly hard it was to find audiobooks back in 2006. Now, there is a surfeit of riches when it comes to popular books done well. I remember being a

The Long View 2007-11-13: Holy Demographics; The Markets & The Surge; The Return of the Emperor of the Last Days; Federal Cases

That Jerry Pournelle and John J. Reilly were both of the opinion in 2007 that prison sentences were too harsh is a remarkable lost opportunity. Holy Demographics; The Markets & The Surge; The Return of the Emperor of the Last Days; Federal Cases Iran is spoiling for a fight with

The Long View 2007-11-06: New Jersey Election; The White Hart; Sox; Theopolitics; Mary Ann Glendon

John makes a reference here to his essay, “The Coming Age of Cathedrals”, written in 1997(!), but which seems prescient now. This is of course because millenarian thought is always with us, but John was talking about the 1970s instead of 2020 when he referenced “decaying cities, a ruthless ruling

The Long View 2007-11-04: President Emeritus; The Closing of the American Mind; The Decay of Atheism; Barzun Forever

Great books or a classical canon is very much an Anglosphere kind of thing. John J. Reilly was more interested in the canon which comprises the Old and New Testaments than in anything that came out of the University of Chicago. The creation of a classical canon is mostly a

The Long View 2007-10-31: Halloween Pandering; Sidney Reilly; Rational Choice; Dark Star Scandal

When I read this post the first time, I didn’t really see what John was getting at: The increasing incidence of zombies is not a good sign, I think. Vampires are evil (or penitent) and werewolves have pathos, but zombies are just meatpuppets. They do not imply a moral