Confucius Condemns Neoliberalism

A philosophical experts on Aquinas considers the applicability of The Analects to today’s catastrophically atomized society.

What is essential to a well-functioning society? In a famous passage from The Great Learning traditionally attributed to Confucius (551-479 B.C.), the philosopher says:

The ancients who wished to illustrate illustrious virtue throughout the kingdom, first ordered well their own states. Wishing to order well their states, they first regulated their families. Wishing to regulate their families, they first cultivated their persons. Wishing to cultivate their persons, they first rectified their hearts. Wishing to rectify their hearts, they first sought to be sincere in their thoughts. Wishing to be sincere in their thoughts, they first extended to the utmost their knowledge. Such extension of knowledge lay in the investigation of things.

Things being investigated, knowledge became complete. Their knowledge being complete, their thoughts were sincere. Their thoughts being sincere, their hearts were then rectified. Their hearts being rectified, their persons were cultivated. Their persons being cultivated, their families were regulated. Their families being regulated, their states were rightly governed. Their states being rightly governed, the whole kingdom was made tranquil and happy.

From the Son of Heaven down to the mass of the people, all must consider the cultivation of the person the root of everything besides. It cannot be, when the root is neglected, that what should spring from it will be well ordered.

These words from the great man of the East would be warmly endorsed in the West by ancient thinkers like Plato and Aristotle and medieval thinkers like Thomas Aquinas. But they run counter to the modern West’s liberalism, including the libertarian brand of liberalism that too often passes for “conservatism.” The liberal attitude is that the moral character of individuals does not matter for social order so long as the right rules and institutions are in place. Part of Confucius’s point, and that of any conservatism worthy of the name, is that rules and institutions are ineffectual without individuals willing to subordinate their desires to them. And individuals who do not seek the good (so as to “rectify their hearts”) and the true (thus pursuing the “investigation of things”) can neither curb bad desires nor cultivate good ones. The brute force of legal coercion cannot substitute for this missing moral fiber. As we read in chapter 2 of The Analects:

The Master said: “Lead them by political maneuvers, restrain them with punishments: the people will become cunning and shameless. Lead them by virtue, restrain them with ritual: they will develop a sense of shame and a sense of participation.”

And again:

Someone said to Confucius: “Master, why don’t you join the government?” The Master said: “In the Documents it is said: ‘Only cultivate filial piety and be kind to your brothers, and you will be contributing to the body politic.’ This is also a form of political action; one need not necessarily join the government.”

And in chapter 12:

The Master said: “I could adjudicate lawsuits as well as anyone. But I would prefer to make lawsuits unnecessary.”

In such passages, Confucius reminds us that the personal is the political, not in the totalitarian sense that absorbs the personal up into the political and tries to mold attitudes and actions via state coercion, but on the contrary in the humane sense that devolves the political down to the personal level, in the recognition that social order depends more fundamentally on prevailing morals and mores than on legislation.

Wisdom comes in many forms. And it is remarkable how often wisdom from wildly disparate sources ultimately direct us toward the same conclusion.

Tuesday PM Arktoons

STONETOSS Episode 11: Cannibalism

THE AWAKENER Episode 15: The Final Journey

Bounding Into Comics breaks the news with details on some of the new series that will debut on Arktoons in the near future:

Chuck Dixon and Arkhaven Comics publisher Vox Day continue their partnership as Dixon will be bringing a brand new western to Arktoons, Arkhaven’s webcomic platform.

Dixon’s partnership with Day and Arkhaven runs deep as he’s currently penning new Midnight’s War stories. He also has Chuck Dixon’s Avalon, Alt-Hero Q, Something Big, Go Monster Go!, and more on the webcomic platform.

Not to mention, Dixon has also been curating a number of classic comics to incorporate on the platform that include a number of different genres such as mystery and war.

The new western is titled Snakehand and sees Dixon team with artist John Neal to tell the story of Texas lawman Joe Wiley as he attempts to bring law and order to the hive of scum and villainy known as Mercury Wells….

Arktoons will also be launching a new science fiction series called Faraway Wars. No details on the creative team or what the story is about were revealed, but Vox Day did share a sample page revealing what looks to be three heroes being celebrated in a futuristic world that includes flying cruise ships.

Bindery Campaign Update 21

Days Left: 7

Status: 88.4 percent of goal.

The Iliad: 303/500

The Odyssey: 290/500 

As requested, we have also added an additional support option for those who wish to support the creation of the Castalia Bindery but a) don’t want the actual books, b) can’t afford them, or c) prefer a pure support option that doesn’t impose any production costs.

So, we’ve added the Leather Ebook option for the final week of the campaign. For $50, buyers will receive both ebook editions of THE ILIAD and THE ODYSSEY, as well as an SG Bindery badge. Please note that it is NOT necessary for those who have already bought one of the books – or the German HEIDI, for that matter – to buy this option, as they will also receive the ebooks and the badge when they become available.

DISCUSS ON SG

It’s a Mystery

It’s like watching a super-detective team of Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, and Sherlock Holmes in action:

A New York resident died on Sunday morning shortly after receiving the COVID vaccine, but state health officials maintain that “the vaccine is safe,” the New York Post reported.

The elderly man, who was in his 70s, collapsed about 25 minutes after being administered the COVID vaccine as he left the Jacob Javits Convention Center vaccination site in Manhattan, Dr. Howard Zucker, the New York state health commissioner, said in a statement obtained by the Post.

The statement from Zucker also suggested “the man did not have any allergic reaction to the vaccine,” as no adverse effects or signs of distress were observed during the 15-minute observation period following his inoculation.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention maintains that severe adverse reactions to the COVID vaccine occur “rarely,” saying the chance of this happening is 10 cases in over 4 million first doses of the drug.

Zucker said in the statement to the New York Post that first responders assisted the man “within seconds,” but he later died at a nearby hospital. The cause of death has not yet been determined.

In related news, 85 people in Chicago were shot last weekend. 24 of those people died of unknown causes that have not yet been determined.

China Shows Up for the Future

Unlike Americans since 1965, China actually pays serious attention to its demographics because its leaders understand that the makeup of the population is what determines the health and capabilities of the country.

China on Friday passed a law amendment which allows each couple to have three children and stipulates supportive policies for childbearing, with observers believing it indicates China has officially moved from restricting births to encouraging births, paving the way for not only the third-child policy’s full implementation across the country, but also potentially encouraging even more births.

It took less than three months for the policy to be made into law after it was first announced on May 31 at a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, revealing the urgency and gravity of China’s population development beset by falling fertility rates, a shrinking workforce and increasing aging population, Chinese observers said.

The comprehensive supportive measures for the shift of the population policy – which were not highlighted in the last revision – show China’s strong determination in actively tackling its population challenges and building a fertility-friendly society, and more detailed measures are expected to be introduced soon, they said.

The amendment to the Population and Family Planning Law was passed at a session of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee on Friday. 

The amendment says one couple can have three children, and it cancels relevant restrictive measures, including social maintenance fees and fines on couples who violate the law to have more children than permitted.

Twenty-one provisions were amended, deleted or added to the law, and the amendment took effect immediately after its announcement on Friday, the Xinhua News Agency reported. 

One can always tell that a China skeptic is totally clueless if they mention “the one-child policy” or make the ridiculous assertion that China is somehow demographically doomed. The Chinese birth rate was much higher than the US or any of the European states until 1992. It’s now marginally lower due to the one-child policy established in 1979, but that was eliminated in 2015. And between the aggressive pro-family policies now being instituted and the strong nationalist restrictions on immigration, imports, investment, and business ownership, the Chinese are already in a vastly stronger position for the future than beleaguered Americans, who are on the verge of being outnumbered in what used to be their own country.

Remember, the future belongs to those who show up for it.

DISCUSS ON SG

FDA Approves Pfake Vaccine

Comortality, or rather, Comirnaty, as the Pfizer fake vaccine has been formally dubbed after being approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, is now ready for the next propaganda push:

Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccine has been known as the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, and will now be marketed as Comirnaty (koe-mir’-na-tee), for the prevention of COVID-19 disease in individuals 16 years of age and older. The vaccine also continues to be available under emergency use authorization (EUA), including for individuals 12 through 15 years of age and for the administration of a third dose in certain immunocompromised individuals.

“The FDA’s approval of this vaccine is a milestone as we continue to battle the COVID-19 pandemic. While this and other vaccines have met the FDA’s rigorous, scientific standards for emergency use authorization, as the first FDA-approved COVID-19 vaccine, the public can be very confident that this vaccine meets the high standards for safety, effectiveness, and manufacturing quality the FDA requires of an approved product,” said Acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock, M.D. “While millions of people have already safely received COVID-19 vaccines, we recognize that for some, the FDA approval of a vaccine may now instill additional confidence to get vaccinated. Today’s milestone puts us one step closer to altering the course of this pandemic in the U.S.”

I wonder what the odds are on Comirnaty being “voluntarily withdrawn” by Pfizer faster than Vioxx was withdrawn by Merck five years and four months after being FDA-approved? At least 2-1, I’d think.

Now that Comirnaty has been formally declared to meet the US government’s high standards for safety and effectiveness, there is obviously no need for Pfizer to be provided any more immunity from legal liability, right?

UPDATE: Karl Denninger notes that the FDA broke the law with this approval, and furthermore, has rendered the administration of both the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines illegal.

So the FDA has “fully approved” the Pfizer jab for Covid.

In doing so standing alone they have broken the law and thus have irrevocably destroyed their authority and any reason for anyone to ever do anything based on them ever again.

Let me explain.

Under black letter law an EUA is illegal if there is an alternative that is considered safe, effective and available. This was the reason the FDA did not (for 18 months!) run the studies and evaluate them on other early-intervention drugs for Covid-19. We all know what they are. I’m living proof they work too, as are millions of others worldwide.

But, more-importantly, this “full approval” voids all other vaccine EUAs for Covid-19. That is, under the law the Moderna and J&J instantly became illegal to offer or use within the United States.

The makers can apply for full authorization, of course, but the EUAs are void as of this morning and under black letter law cannot be administered to anyone in the United States as they are now unlicensed and unlawful products in human beings until and unless they are given full approval themselves. No medical provider can offer or administer any other than the Pfizer Covid-19 shot in the United States as of the moment of that approval.

You can bet the law will be ignored; note MRNAs stock price this morning. It should have instantly been cut in half.

In addition the FDA broke the law itself when it issued the “approval.” The law requires a full hearing and the data from the full set of trials; the trials are not capable of being completed until early 2022 by the original submissions and they deliberately did not hold the hearing. This is a black letter violation of the law as well, but nobody cares.

DISCUSS ON SG.

Why the Hospitals are “Full”

A nurse explains on the Market Ticker:

You are thinking the hospital is filled to capacity due to a flood of COVID cases. That might not be the case at all. There is an another explanation that will make sense as soon as it is suggested.

The beds may be closed because the hospital does not have the staff to take care of the patients who could possibly fill those beds. The hospital could be closed and there may be a multitude of empty beds in those hospitals.

Short staffing is one thing. Critically short staffing is something totally different. A hospital might push a double ratio for care. But do you think they are going to risk triple or quadruple?

Can we spell medical malpractice attorney dream for slam dunk litigation and can we spell massive hospital liability risk? Of course we can.

Nurses along with all the other health care professionals are burnt out and exhausted. Add to that dynamic the vaxx mandates. Hospital staff are beyond fed up. These folks have worked over the last 20 months using just personal protective equipment and standard infectious disease precautions. That approach was just fine for nearly two years, but now these same health care workers must be vaxxed or they can’t work? These front line health care workers have seen with their own lying eyes the COVID vaccine injury fall out. Do you think they want to roll the dice for themselves?

I am getting offers for up to $55,000 from hospital systems across the country. That’s sign on bonus, relocation expenses and so forth. Salary and benefits are not part of that dollar amount and I am sure there is plenty of time print along with those recruitment offers. The health care organizations are usually hidden by the recruiting outfit. You don’t know where you are applying to until you apply, but I could guess. So I could go work in Texas, Virginia, Indiana – you name it – anywhere across the country.

I have a question. Would you take a revolver with three chambers loaded (jabb numbet one, jabb number two and booster shot) … Put it in your mouth and pull the trigger three times? For $55,000? For $100,000? For $500,000? For $1,000,000? Well would you?

My answer is hell no. The “wise ones” who run these health care systems have now set up a situation where they will not be able to hire staff/ recruit at any price.

DISCUSS ON SG.