Domitian is dead

Congress just certified the election results. I guess this means that Joe Biden can LARP as Nerva for the next four years.

Or is it four months?

Unfortunately for the patricians, there doesn't seem to be any Trajan waiting in the wings. And the barbarians are already at the gates.

The plebeians just breached them.

The long hot winter of the Empire is coming. Woe to the vanquished! 

Tribe of vultures

I readily admit that I'm sick and tired of Daniel Quinn and his gorilla. Quinn tries to pass himself off as some kind of liberal. He is not. His program is deeply reactionary and misanthropic.

In this book, "My Ishmael", he proposes that homeless kids drifting in Seattle should be given official recognition as "The Tribe of Crow" and get permission to scavenge rubbish bins for food. In other words, instead of actually *solving* the problem of homelessness, high society should simply manage it, so it becomes less threatening to the middle classes. And since homeless kids presumably love drifting around in Seattle, that's liberal, right?

Wrong. What Quinn proposes is a strategy known as "harm reduction". It's usually used to "aid" drug addicts by giving them free needles, special parks where they can take their dope, or even free drugs. A similar kind of policy is to legalize prostitution, while making the prostitutes pay taxes, get free health controls, and so on. Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands are notorious seedbeds for "liberal" policies of this kind, which actually have the support of the entire political establishment, from left to right. This way, the governments can save money while letting the addicts and prostitutes go under - the real idea behind harm "reduction".

Quinn doesn't say anything about addicts and prostitution in his book, but I can well imagine...

Another proposal in "My Ishmael" is to abolish public schools. The only important school subjects are the three R's, and kids can learn how to read even without schools. All other subjects are useless, but those who wish can study them in their spare time. That's "liberal", right?

Wrong again.

The idea that public schools should be abolished is a far right-wing idea, always couched in "humanitarian" language about "working class kids who don't really want to study, why not be merciful and let them get a job" blah-blah-blah. Of course, the hidden agenda is that the middle class and upper class should have their own very own private schools with tuition fees. *They* wont simply learn the three R's. In this manner, they will remain in charge, while the working class kids are busy finding lousy jobs (or scavenging in Seattle).

And yes, Ishmael wants Third World peoples to starve to death ("food control").

A picture is beginning to emerge, a picture based on all Quinn's books. The Third World, the domestic poor and the workers should be dumped. Those who wish to drop out, should be allowed to do so. However, they should continue to pay their taxes! (Explicitly stated by Quinn in "Beyond Civilization").

If stripped of all the high sounding "Green" and "primitivist" phrases, this sounds like a Neo-Con dreamland. The tribe of vultures, as it were.

Not recommended.