But there are still conservative communities—not necessarily as radical as the Amish, just see e.g. a quiet, out-of-the-way Central or European town—that are allowed to practice pretty much what they practiced centuries ago just as long as it doesn’t infringe too much upon the modern concept of human rights.
Say, if you opened a transgender strip club in such a community for some reason (unlikely to be anything but trolling of sorts), and advertised it, and refused to compromise when the town elders came knocking… why, I suspect that they could, given the will to and some organization, sue you right out of the place.
Many of the things that would have horrified our centuries-ago ancestors are closely entangled with the modern concept of human rights.
Those quiet, out-of-the-way towns are so far sunk in sin that they do not burn witches, sodomites, or even heretics. Their men are so weak and unmanly that they effectively never engage in duels to the death, even when grossly insulted. They can be relatively safely cuckolded — with harm to reputation, yes, but with very little chance of loss of life on anyone’s part, even the adulteress’s. And so on …
BTW, while the wackier Christian fundamentalists are certainly an example of people in the present horrified by the way we live now, I mainly had in mind people like Moldbug, and the things that he is horrified by.
Mencius Moldbug? Thanks for informing me of his amusing crankery. I remember reading a few comments by him on OB, mainly about how there was really a communist conspiracy to exploit/destroy the US, but didn’t investigate his screeds further.
EDIT: Jeez, it’s not (blatant) crankery, looks like! Updating...
EDIT: Yep, it is. No matter how clear-sighted he might be about some of the world’s problems, his logic is basically a mirror opposite of, say, William Burroughs’.
The same. I’ve read most of his blog, although I don’t follow it assiduously. I find him quite sound, to an extent, on the things he is against; less so on what he is for. There is a certain enlightenment experience to be had from reading him (whether one agrees or not), after which, like the FedEx arrow, certain things are never quite the same again. To then read (to take a random example) something like blogs.plos.org, is to see his Modern Structure poking through here and there, like an enormous mountain range under the ocean, that would otherwise seem to be but a few insignificant islands.
But there are still conservative communities—not necessarily as radical as the Amish, just see e.g. a quiet, out-of-the-way Central or European town—that are allowed to practice pretty much what they practiced centuries ago just as long as it doesn’t infringe too much upon the modern concept of human rights.
Say, if you opened a transgender strip club in such a community for some reason (unlikely to be anything but trolling of sorts), and advertised it, and refused to compromise when the town elders came knocking… why, I suspect that they could, given the will to and some organization, sue you right out of the place.
Many of the things that would have horrified our centuries-ago ancestors are closely entangled with the modern concept of human rights.
Those quiet, out-of-the-way towns are so far sunk in sin that they do not burn witches, sodomites, or even heretics. Their men are so weak and unmanly that they effectively never engage in duels to the death, even when grossly insulted. They can be relatively safely cuckolded — with harm to reputation, yes, but with very little chance of loss of life on anyone’s part, even the adulteress’s. And so on …
BTW, while the wackier Christian fundamentalists are certainly an example of people in the present horrified by the way we live now, I mainly had in mind people like Moldbug, and the things that he is horrified by.
Just saying.
Mencius Moldbug? Thanks for informing me of his amusing crankery. I remember reading a few comments by him on OB, mainly about how there was really a communist conspiracy to exploit/destroy the US, but didn’t investigate his screeds further.
EDIT: Jeez, it’s not (blatant) crankery, looks like! Updating...
EDIT: Yep, it is. No matter how clear-sighted he might be about some of the world’s problems, his logic is basically a mirror opposite of, say, William Burroughs’.
The same. I’ve read most of his blog, although I don’t follow it assiduously. I find him quite sound, to an extent, on the things he is against; less so on what he is for. There is a certain enlightenment experience to be had from reading him (whether one agrees or not), after which, like the FedEx arrow, certain things are never quite the same again. To then read (to take a random example) something like blogs.plos.org, is to see his Modern Structure poking through here and there, like an enormous mountain range under the ocean, that would otherwise seem to be but a few insignificant islands.