tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post411920007527768074..comments2024-03-27T18:24:19.683-07:00Comments on Steve Sailer: iSteve: The View from 1976Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger108125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-55819973321229195642014-01-03T07:22:19.866-08:002014-01-03T07:22:19.866-08:00http://www.breitbart.com/InstaBlog/2014/01/03/Cops...http://www.breitbart.com/InstaBlog/2014/01/03/Cops-Teen-Attacks-Parents-When-Father-Refuses-To-Lend-Her-His-Cell-Phone<br /><br />Affluenza? <br /><br />Smiley Circus certainly is. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-14902342054568427332014-01-03T07:20:52.298-08:002014-01-03T07:20:52.298-08:00"I've long thought that the Japanese are ..."I've long thought that the Japanese are more creative than any other East Asian group, but less creative than most European groups."<br /><br />Most European groups haven't been creative for a long time. When was the last time Greeks were creative? <br />And in Eastern Europe, creativity was often associated with Jews. In the Austro-Hungarian empire, most groups were not creative. <br /><br />And in America, white conservatives are terribly underachieving in creativity. A handful of homos made more cultural change than all of white conservative culture centered around Nashville. <br /><br />I've been around Polish, Russian, Serbian, and Greek communities in America but there's no interest in culture there. But even small Jewish communities I've hung around are filled with energetic people engaged in politics, culture, books, movies, etc. <br /><br />Do the facebook test. Make 'friends' with film people and a huge number are Jews and homos. <br />Be 'friends' with lots and lots of conservatives and you might find just a few who cares about anything outside Fox News. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-55644878482710984402014-01-03T07:10:11.191-08:002014-01-03T07:10:11.191-08:00"I wonder if comics are more popular in Japan..."I wonder if comics are more popular in Japan than many places because even if you don't know all the characters and ins-and-outs of literate Japanese writing, you can easily follow a comic?"<br /><br />If as a test-cramming student, you have to deal with books night and day, then, for recreation, you prolly want something breezier. <br /><br />Also, as Japanese privacy was more limited in small living quarters, comic books were a quiet way to enjoy's one's privacy. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-53861229754227965752014-01-03T07:07:23.145-08:002014-01-03T07:07:23.145-08:00"Japanese media is on the whole a tightly con..."Japanese media is on the whole a tightly controlled guild of a few mobsters, so good ideas don't get through."<br /><br />Like some others I can mention.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-39021738545622379862014-01-03T06:43:10.379-08:002014-01-03T06:43:10.379-08:00Yes, Wolf of Wall Street says something about the ...Yes, Wolf of Wall Street says something about the times and all of us.<br /><br />Americans celebrate excess in vulgarity, sexuality, decadence, hedonism, gluttony, what-passes-for-music, big dumb mindless blockbuster movies, the Fed printing money out of the air, regime change around the world, NSA spying all over the world, black friday mobs at walmart and target, government-elite-journalism collusion at the top, violent videogames, cheating in sports(barry bonds and lance armstrong), celebrity trash culture(kardashians and Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga, 50 cents), sewage porn, higher education as spa resorts and propaganda peddling institutes promoting both self-aggrandizing self-righteousness and self-loving self-esteem-pumping narcissism, etc. <br /><br />American exceptionalism is now 'excessionalism'.<br /><br />Wasp ideal of moderation and self-restraint are so dead. <br /><br />As Risky Business said... what the fuck. <br /><br />60s hedonism meets 80s materialism. <br />hippie-yuppie synergy. <br /><br />hippies rejected rules and rejected society. <br /><br />but the new formula was to break the rules and enter society. <br /><br />blacks gave us shameless twerking. <br />Jews gave us Lenny Bruce-Abbie Hoffman style capitalism. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-7715050697269340732014-01-01T12:49:26.417-08:002014-01-01T12:49:26.417-08:00"I wonder if comics are more popular in Japan..."I wonder if comics are more popular in Japan than many places because even if you don't know all the characters and ins-and-outs of literate Japanese writing, you can easily follow a comic? "<br /><br />No. It's about low barriers of entry for producers. Japanese media is on the whole a tightly controlled guild of a few mobsters, so good ideas don't get through. But anyone can come up with something good, draw and manga and publish it.spandrellhttp://bloodyshovel.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-188388328384329472014-01-01T08:56:39.147-08:002014-01-01T08:56:39.147-08:00Barcelona chairs give me a back ache.Barcelona chairs give me a back ache.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-41484156330879687652014-01-01T02:19:58.886-08:002014-01-01T02:19:58.886-08:00>>Bill:
I wonder whether the old WASP elite,...>>Bill:<br />I wonder whether the old WASP elite, if they could see forward to our time, would regret their decision to buddy up with the Jews and use the blacks against the Catholics.<<<br /><br />Presumably they would regret their 19th century decision to hand over the great northern cities to mass non-WASP immigration. Early on it helped them win the War Between the States, but they kept it going far too long and the result was that the Yankees no longer really exist as a distinct people, unlike the Southerners they defeated. There are still Yankees of a sort in rural New England, but they no longer have any cities. No Yankee cities = no Yankee civilisation.Simon in Londonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-1110544359223112812013-12-31T20:47:01.274-08:002013-12-31T20:47:01.274-08:00It seems the human creativity literature often ref...It seems the human creativity literature often references a standard test called the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torrance_Tests_of_Creative_Thinking" rel="nofollow">Torrance Tests of Creating Thinking</a> (TTCT).<br /><br />How good is this test? How correlated is it to IQ? What is it supposed to be measuring? Is it widely accepted as meaningful?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-52669799213874391352013-12-31T19:37:40.994-08:002013-12-31T19:37:40.994-08:00Of course a lot of guys who would never have amoun...Of course a lot of guys who would never have amounted to much in the 30s and before or the 90s and after were able to be kings of the hill with great cars and pretty nice houses in the 50s 60s and 70s. And it is kind of poignant for those of us who are able to remember those times to think about how they are gone for ever for all those guys and will never come back again on this earth. On the other hand the supply of friendship and health and beautiful women and good cigars and good wine is just as abundant now as then, and more importantly the good advice in the Bible is just as priceless now as it was then.vetrnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-31879739523751961952013-12-31T17:21:50.916-08:002013-12-31T17:21:50.916-08:00Like Japan, comics are popular in Mexico.
I wonde...Like Japan, comics are popular in Mexico.<br /><br />I wonder if comics are more popular in Japan than many places because even if you don't know all the characters and ins-and-outs of literate Japanese writing, you can easily follow a comic?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-72188437006225059582013-12-31T17:17:38.217-08:002013-12-31T17:17:38.217-08:00"...real guns, the things that changed histor...<i>"...real guns, the things that changed history forever, were entirely developed in Europe."</i><br /><br />Firearms evolved quite slowly from early fire-lances made of bamboo tubes into effective weapons. Much of the secret to effective gunpowder-based weapons wasn't gunpowder. It was metallurgy that enabled building powerful weapons that were also safe to use.<br /><br />Much of thermodynamics first arouse from problems encountered in boring cannons.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-52406094739090384872013-12-31T16:36:34.879-08:002013-12-31T16:36:34.879-08:00As a matter of history, Chinese civilization maybe...<i>As a matter of history, Chinese civilization maybe far less fissiparous than ours at this point, which, I believe, bodes well with regards to its long term survival;</i><br /><br />There's a tradeoff between stability/permanence and creativity/disruption.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-43686355595030959962013-12-31T16:15:20.103-08:002013-12-31T16:15:20.103-08:00I don't know which is worse: that "the wo...I don't know which is worse: that "the workers" as soon as they acquire a little surplus cash bury themselves in tchotchkas; or that the elite architects and designers try to force those same workers into a world that is utterly cheerless and cold by way of "streamlining."ricpichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01321511130788764861noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-43704883528216426582013-12-31T16:12:01.118-08:002013-12-31T16:12:01.118-08:00Americans looking for narrative creativity read li...<i>Americans looking for narrative creativity read lit fic, watch independent movies and, most typically, watch cable TV series like the Sopranos, Breaking Bad, etc. Cartoon series like the Simpsons, the Family Guy and South Park have some creativity in them too. </i><br /><br />Americans looking for narrative creativity tend to watch foreign films, not just independent films. They tend not to watch cartoons or mainstream TV series.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-88956838722484755172013-12-31T15:48:38.159-08:002013-12-31T15:48:38.159-08:00Wolfe concluded his 1976 article on the question w...<br />Wolfe concluded his 1976 article on the question where the Me Decade's individualism would lead. To answer that question in microcosm I give you, for one example, the range of viewpoints expressed in comments here on i-Steve.Auntie Analoguenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-4250533276237524242013-12-31T15:21:54.750-08:002013-12-31T15:21:54.750-08:00I heard about this on NPR. It is considered a ho...I heard about this on NPR. It is considered a holiday classic in Russia. Government Architecture plays a significant role. <a href="http://youtu.be/lVpmZnRIMKs" rel="nofollow"> The Irony of Fate</a>. Happy New Year.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-69260446242388260942013-12-31T14:11:38.025-08:002013-12-31T14:11:38.025-08:00"The printing press, which Spengler mentions,...<i>"The printing press, which Spengler mentions, is a perfect example of the Faustian tendency to take a techne and exploit it for all it was worth."</i><br /><br />There are other examples of this. The Chinese discovered gunpowder, but used it in firecrackers and with ineffective weapons. I don't think it's known whether Europeans came up with gunpowder on their own or not, but real guns, the things that changed history forever, were entirely developed in Europe. <br /><br />The Chinese built large ships, but failed to even discover most of the world in them, much less subjugate it.<br /><br />Some also talk about their unwillingness to systematize. They knew some geometry, but never made a Euclid-like system out of it. They gathered astronomical data, but did not come close to figuring out what most of it really meant.<br /><br />They're experiencing an incredible economic boom right now, but the only technological innovation they can show for it is that maglev line built for them by Germans. This is undoubtedly the future of expensive high-tech by the way - white engineering talent + non-white money and political systems. The tallest building on Earth is in Dubai. I think it was designed by a Chicago architectural firm. The tallest one under construction right now is in Saudi Arabia, designed by the same firm. Since the US and the EU will be bankrupt and PC-bound for the foreseeable future, anything grand - space elevators, cold fusion, trips to Mars, Lunar colonies, eugenics - will either be done through this combination or not at all.<br /><br />The official PC line is that the modern Western political system is the best that could ever be imagined (the end of history!) and that everyone is equally talented, maybe except for Europeans, who only ever steal ideas. The reality is completely opposite to that: all the talent is still in the West, where it's always been, but Western political systems are such a complete failure that already at this point, and probably for the foreseeable future the only way for this talent to accomplish anything really cool is to combine it with a non-Western (PC talk: undemocratic, totalitarian) political system. There are no commercial maglev lines in Germany. The only place German engineers could get one approved and financed was Shanghai. There are no and probably never will be any 1 km towers in Chicago, but <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqP5DjCx2r0" rel="nofollow">this guy</a> is now building one in Saudi Arabia.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-56127782528962509642013-12-31T13:11:01.388-08:002013-12-31T13:11:01.388-08:00Geek @ 7:18 a.m. -
First, yes, the quintessential ...Geek @ 7:18 a.m. -<br />First, yes, the quintessential American comic is, in fact, "centre[d] around rather moralistic superheros and somewhat less moralistic anti-heroes saving worlds, towns, people, etc. They have always been fairly formulaic . . ." It is, as you intimate, a feature and not a bug - but it can be, and is, far more than a tired formula. <br /><br />Jack Kirby and Stan Lee created a cultural artifact that, next to the cinema, stands as Faustian civilization's last art form in its Demotic and final age. <br /><br />Spengler posited that in the Fall period of a civilization you could have a return to classicism. However, such movements always have a melancholy, moldy air about them. But in their fight against morphologic gravity, Lee & Kirby brewed up this colorful concatenation adumbrated and influenced by Homeric heroes, sleeping kings, holy relics, Aggadeh, Norse gods, the Old Testament, 12th century Chivalry, Renaissance individualism, Nietzchean philosophy, futurism, all captured with ink on Bristol Board and four colors in a style that was like Michelangelo (albeit if he skipped a few classes on perspective) hopped up on espresso, and all topped by a dollop of space age enthusiasm. Sign me up!<br /><br />In an era where the virtues of Western civilization have been expunged and there is just enough left to excoriate them (and the civilization and race that birthed them), the Nietzschean Noblesse Oblige of Bruce Wayne, a superannuated Steve Rogers, and the flawed science hero Tony Stark are, actually, a last refuge of non-speaking truth like posers heroic ideals. Ideals we can identify with and represent exemplars of our civilization and its core values.<br /><br />Of course, DC and Marvel have been taken over by Frankfurt school useful idiots (looking at you Joe Queseda), so good luck finding any of that. Instead, you need to turn to the movies. <br /><br />There are actually a ton of exceptional US comics, just not coming out of DC/Marvel. You need to look for it. Keep away from most indie comics by women. Mostly on the basis that they can't f*ing draw. I would recommend "Pax Romana" by Jonathan Hickman; it is the year 2048 or so. Muslims are running amuck in the EU. Tired of that crap: the Vatican sends back a bunch of mercenaries back to 311 to save Rome and prevent its fall. There are a host great writers, many that publish through IMAGE comics: Greg Rucka (Lazarus), Kurst Busiek (Astro City; Arrowsmith), or Paul Pope (Battle Boy; Liquid). <br /><br />With regards to the plethora of Japanese comics. The Japanese might have a slightly better than Western ability in visio-spatial ability. Screw flying cars - I want giant transforming robots. As a kid in the 70's, I remember waking at 6:30 am on Saturdays to watch Star Blazers, and later, in middle school, running home to catch Robotech, Tranzor Z, and Voltron. Magna was few and far between at that point, but you could get Lone Wolf and Cub, Grey, Nausica, and Akira at the LCS (local comic shop). <br /><br />That being said, I have not been impressed with much of the anime on offer at Netfix here in the states. The manga on the shelves at the local Barnes & Noble seems aimed at 14 year old girls and, judging from the displays at the NY and Boston Comic Cons, just provide an excuse for dressing up. <br /><br />Now, Japanees Magna may have more variety than American comics. However, comics may just have a longer tail in Japan. That is, there is a lot of them and, as such, there is a magna for everyone and the amount of low volume stuff, jazz, wine or what not, exceeds the giant robot tentacle stuff. I am sure some straddles the line of art. However, you get the same thing with television in the U.S. You get millions of people watching "NCIS: Los Angeles" (Why god! Why?), but there still is enough market for shows like "Justified". It is a feature of the Demotic age - there is a lot cultural volume, noise basically. You can't always conflate volume with overall cultural creativity.Just Another Guy With a 1911noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-62952926433196739332013-12-31T13:04:10.447-08:002013-12-31T13:04:10.447-08:00"East Asians less creative than Westerners? I...<i>"East Asians less creative than Westerners? I don't think so, at least in the case of the Japanese."</i><br /><br />I've long thought that the Japanese are more creative than any other East Asian group, but less creative than most European groups. <br /><br />In the US comic books are for children and man-boys. It's a low-prestige, low-IQ medium, barely above the fake wrestling beloved by "Whiskey". Americans looking for narrative creativity read lit fic, watch independent movies and, most typically, watch cable TV series like the Sopranos, Breaking Bad, etc. Cartoon series like the Simpsons, the Family Guy and South Park have some creativity in them too. <br /><br />If comic books have higher prestige in Japan than they do in the US, then it's not an apples to apples comparison. <br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-12234936930798585382013-12-31T11:36:43.482-08:002013-12-31T11:36:43.482-08:00Japan didn't begin it's super growth till ...<i>Japan didn't begin it's super growth till around the mid-1950's.</i><br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aftermath_of_the_Korean_War#Japan" rel="nofollow">"Economically, Japan was able to benefit vastly from the war, and the Korean War greatly helped the rise of Japan's economy and its development into a world power. ...<br /><br />...Among those who thrived not only on orders from the military but also through American industrial experts, including W. Edwards Deming were Mitsui, Mitsubishi, and Sumitomo. ...<br /><br />...Japanese manufacturing grew by 50% between March 1950 and 1951, and by 1952, pre-war standards of living were reached and output was twice the level of 1949."</a>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-34875614915662886892013-12-31T11:28:03.098-08:002013-12-31T11:28:03.098-08:00Unrelated, vibrancy: http://elitedaily.com/news/wo...Unrelated, vibrancy: http://elitedaily.com/news/world/that-awkward-moment-when-your-landscaper-turns-out-to-be-a-drug-cartel-hitman/Anthonyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12389602137217799305noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-47150967752794899162013-12-31T11:26:53.174-08:002013-12-31T11:26:53.174-08:00Japan didn't begin it's super growth till ...<i>Japan didn't begin it's super growth till around the mid-1950's.</i><br /><br />The Korean war (1950-1953) was of tremendous benefit to the Japanese economy:<br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_post-war_economic_miracle#American_contributions" rel="nofollow">"Military hostilities in the Korean peninsula further boosted the economy in 1950 because the U.S. government paid the Japanese government large sums for "special procurement." These payments amounted to 27% of Japan’s total export trade."</a>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-15890711369270857692013-12-31T11:04:43.971-08:002013-12-31T11:04:43.971-08:00Blogger The Anti-Gnostic said...
[Bill said . . ....Blogger The Anti-Gnostic said...<br /><i><br />[Bill said . . .]<br /> "Harvard Professor Robert Putnam is a seriously interesting guy. The work that made him famous (measuring rapid decline in American social capital) is essentially about documenting the utter success of his WASP ancestors' policies vs the urban Catholic menace."<br /><br /> I hear this canard a lot. The urban cores were destroyed when life-tenured federal judges ordered integrated school districts in response to lawsuits by mostly Jewish lawyers. It happened across the South as well, where there were very few Irish, Italian or Slavic Catholics.</i><br /><br />The comment I was responding to mentioned the Great Migration. Without that, there were very few Northern urban blacks. The shattering of urban Catholic neighborhoods dates to well before Brown vs Board and its hideous spawn. The destruction really wasn't complete until the 1980s---it takes a long time to move that many people quasi-voluntarily.<br /><br />That the Jews graduated from the WASP's junior to senior partners after WWII is true. That the Jews expanded target list of blacks from urban Catholics to both urban Catholics and Southern Protestants (and eventually to all whites) is also true. That desegregation also helped with the destruction is also true, but we should not overstate it. Prior to the 1960s, Catholics rightly perceived the government schools as hostile to them, and a great many sent their children to neighborhood Catholic schools instead. So, desegregation, by itself, could not have done the deed. In any event, the commenter was asking specifically about the Great Migration which happened before all of this.<br /><br />I wonder whether the old WASP elite, if they could see forward to our time, would regret their decision to buddy up with the Jews and use the blacks against the Catholics. I suspect their hatred was sufficiently blinding that they would do it all again. They might even like the outcome. WASPs have always been a philo-semitic bunch. Well, at least David Brooks loves them back.Billnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-75499879534705038232013-12-31T10:07:05.970-08:002013-12-31T10:07:05.970-08:00>>Anonymous said...
" The general purch...>>Anonymous said...<br />" The general purchasing power disparity of ca 1980 is gone."<br /><br />The CIA World Factbook lists the UK per capita GDP as $37,500, while in the US it's $50K (using purchasing power parity).<<<br /><br />That's an Average (Mean) figure, not the Median figure. The US has more very rich people so the GDP per capita is higher, but the 50th percentile US citizen's purchasing power is only slightly higher than in the UK. US bottom 40% may actually be worse off.Simon in Londonnoreply@blogger.com