Category: History

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 →

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 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 →

Fire in the water: ‘Pacific Rim’ and tectonic geopolitics

Guillermo del Toro is a remarkable film director. From Pan’s Labyrinth to The Shape of Water del Toro has delighted viewers and critics alike with spectacle, intrigue, and (for want of a more precise word) humanity. So when he made a science fiction blockbuster about great big beasts (Kaiju, from the Japanese, ‘giant beast’) emerging … Continue reading Fire in the water: ‘Pacific Rim’ and tectonic geopolitics →