Marx vs. Luther: Will China and the West clash?

Penned for INK student magazine (print edition) in 2018 during my tenure as politics editor. Imagine yourself in Wittenberg, Saxony, 1517. Western Europe is uniformly Catholic and, reminiscent of the once-mighty Roman Empire, the “Holy Roman Empire” presides over what is now modern Germany. One day, you notice a young theology professor nailing a lengthy … Continue reading Marx vs. Luther: Will China and the West clash? →

Fear: Why everyone downplays the China crisis

It puzzles me that almost every conversation I have with people about China involves people downplaying a number of aspects of the threat this growing great power poses to world peace: 1. China’s power, 2. The possibility or probability of war between America and China, 3. The potential danger of that war, 4. The ability … Continue reading Fear: Why everyone downplays the China crisis →

Will China Replace America? Observations from 2017

The following text was given at a talk in 2017, initially published on my legacy blog, Principia Politica, before the commencement of Trump’s trade war with China which continues to this day under the Biden administration. In 1823, US President James Monroe asserted that North and South America ‘are henceforth not to be considered as … Continue reading Will China Replace America? Observations from 2017 →

Shadows of truth: The world is poetry

I have noted a distinction between artistic expressions and statements of fact. But I think these are the same thing. The world is a fleeting image, a mirage — a poem. The world is poetry, not prose. It is artistic expression, not a statement of fact. To make this case, let me draw on a … Continue reading Shadows of truth: The world is poetry →

The foundation is love

I want to talk I want to dance Love. The foundation. I’d like to be With you But I’m so confused And yet clear I am found

The racism of antiracism: The University of Cambridge’s ‘Legacies of Enslavement’ Report is a totalitarian subversion of history for the purposes of reproducing slavery in contemporary capitalism

The Advisory Group on Legacies of Enslavement final report is one of the strangest things I have ever read. It opens with the call to 'eschew [...] the creation of set narratives', but proceeds to unfurl just such a narrative. The preceding sentences note: 'We know from preceding and present examples that history is too … Continue reading The racism of antiracism: The University of Cambridge’s ‘Legacies of Enslavement’ Report is a totalitarian subversion of history for the purposes of reproducing slavery in contemporary capitalism →

How to prevent violence and secure peace

In many ways my lifelong mission is to save the world from two things: war, and slavery. This is a paradox. It is sometimes claimed that freedom and security are opposites, that one must sacrifice one to save the other. I would like to disagree. I think we can have both peace and freedom. Here … Continue reading How to prevent violence and secure peace →

The Future Is Me

You wondered What is the future In the beginning But you were mistaken For I am not the future The future is me Now Do you see Khaleesi

The cathedral of capital: Why the West is fruitlessly prolonging the war in Ukraine while stoking war in the South China Sea

Why? Why must so many die and so little be achieved? It makes so little sense to me, but I am beginning to grasp the reasons for the disgraceful behaviour of western countries, elites, academics, and countless supporters of the Ukraine’s bloody imitation of resistance movements in ages gone by. I think it has to … Continue reading The cathedral of capital: Why the West is fruitlessly prolonging the war in Ukraine while stoking war in the South China Sea →

Miles Davis, the Beatles, Blackpink, Michael Jackson, Lisa, and the Origins of Wambop

It is a somewhat audacious claim that a new genre of music is beginning. I don’t expect anyone will believe me for some time, as the genre still looks too similar to the immediate preceding genres of hip hop and its pop superstructure. Blackpink is often identified as a pop group, but also as a … Continue reading Miles Davis, the Beatles, Blackpink, Michael Jackson, Lisa, and the Origins of Wambop →