A great fault of modern political philosophy is the laxity with which liberty is defined and explained. Most leftists define liberty as the capacity to perform an action in actuality. For example, someone with the freedom to travel but no ticket (nor the money to buy one) would not have that freedom according to a leftist. Most modern conservatives would take a similar, yet opposed position, that liberty is the capacity to perform an action in potentiality. [ 2,000 more words ]

http://www.socialmatter.net/…/liberty-and-parallel-deep-st…/

A soft and spongy blushing egg, Afloat in silky glow. So ride the waters lonely beg, For parents does it crow. Necessity and time's first child, No fate could part the pair. The serpents for their offspring smiled, They came to soothe their heir. Their deathless bodies babe embrace, And squeezed with loving touch. They wrapped the egg from tip to base, [ 142 more words ]

http://www.socialmatter.net/2017/08/12/necessity/

[Editor's note: The Awful Drunkard is an old Russian tale. Ralston, William Ralston Shedden. Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folklore. The Floating Press, 2014.] Once there was an old man who was such an awful drunkard as passes all description. Well, one day he went to a kabak, intoxicated himself with liquor, and then went staggering home blind drunk. [ 857 more words ]

http://www.socialmatter.net/…/08/12/myth-the-awful-drunkard/

Welcome to the Myth of the 20th Century. The podcast airs on Fridays. --- Brought to you by --- Adam Smith, Hank Oslo, Hans Lander, and Nick Mason - also joined by very special guest Cathy Princess. Notes: HIV/AIDS, which by the late 1980s had come to dominate media stories in the United States concerning a growing epidemic, has ever since remained a consistent topic of American and increasingly world health officials as the disease has spread globally – particularly throughout sub-Saharan Africa and Central Asia. [ 303 more words ]

http://www.socialmatter.net/…/myth-of-the-20th-century-epi…/

One issue in our little circle that deserves more attention is group formation and maintenance. It is easy to bemoan or belittle the institutional dominance of progressives without taking the challenge of their virtues seriously. They are good at making groups. And they are winning because they are better at this game—for the moment. If the ultimate goal of neoreaction is the attainment of non-theoretical political power, then it might be worth pushing through the (appropriate) contempt and considering some properties of ruling classes. [ 2,444 more words ]

http://www.socialmatter.net/…/how-powerful-networks-are-fo…/

Few people were likely to have as opinionated a viewpoint around the deterioration of United States-Portugal relations arising during the John F. Kennedy administration than General Kaúlza de Oliveira de Arriaga, a stalwart Salazar loyalist, nationalist, imperialist, and one of the most vocal military men within the Portuguese hard right. In his work, Kaúlza de Arriaga noted four key hostile actions… [ 5,877 more words ]

http://www.socialmatter.net/…/08/07/jfks-failed-coup-lisbon/

Late one evening, a Cossack rode into a village, pulled up at its last cottage, and cried— “Heigh, master! will you let me spend the night here?” “Come in, if you don’t fear death!” “What sort of a reply is that?” thought the Cossack, as he put his horse up in the stable. After he had given it its food he went into the cottage. [ 384 more words ]

http://www.socialmatter.net/2017/08/05/myth-witch-girl/

Welcome to the Myth of the 20th Century. The podcast airs on Fridays. --- Brought to you by --- Adam Smith, Hank Oslo, Hans Lander, and Nick Mason Notes: The origins of communism, depending on how broadly one defines it, stretch back as far as some of the religious and anti-monarchical political movements of the Middle Ages and post-Enlightenment Europe. But the modern ideologies of socialism and communism took form in the upper-middle intellectual classes of industrialized 19th century Europe – most notably with Karl Marx – and in the aftermath of World War I, their implementation in the ashes of the Tsar’s empire following the Russian Revolution of 1917. [ 778 more words ]

http://www.socialmatter.net/…/myth-20th-century-episode-29…/

The purpose of this piece is to unapologetically present yet another dualistic abstraction that comes with guaranteed explanatory power for all of the arcane machinations of this crazy modern world that we find ourselves in. Just trust me. Succinctly put: modern people can be divided into those who act and believe as if humans beings and our accompanying nature can be conquered and molded just as the physical world has been conquered and molded, and those who act and believe as if human nature is static and objective and must be accounted for accordingly. [ 2,418 more words ]

http://www.socialmatter.net/20…/…/03/malleable-human-nature/

Prostitution is widely known as the world’s oldest profession. The professional mercenary is probably the second oldest. Long before the advent of national armies, knights and “free companies” dominated the battle spaces of Europe, Asia, and North Africa. These mercenaries can best be considered as the precursors to modern military contractors. They even had administrative personnel tasked with collecting and distributing captured loot. [ 1,202 more word ]

http://www.socialmatter.net/…/07/31/norman-conquest-siciliy/

From time immemorial a ferry has existed from Andernach to the opposite side of the Rhine. Formerly it was more in use than at present, there being then a greater intercourse between the two shores of the river, much of which might be traced to the Convent of St. Thomas, once the most important and flourishing nunnery on the river. [ 1,526 more word ]

http://www.socialmatter.net/2017/07/29/myth-monks-ferry/

Welcome to the Myth of the 20th Century. The podcast airs on Fridays. --- Brought to you by --- Adam Smith, Hank Oslo, Hans Lander, and Nick Mason Notes: Created in 1908 under the Department of Justice with a small band of secret service officers originally tasked to catch bank robbers and other interstate criminals, the size and scope of the Federal Bureau of Investigation has grown substantially to include over 35,000 employees today and a collection of over 50 field headquarters in the United States alone as well as 80 overseas attache offices. [ 762 more words ]

http://www.socialmatter.net/…/myth-20th-century-episode-28…/

Shortly after the birth of Kilhuch, the son of King Kilyth, his mother died. Before her death she charged the king that he should not take a wife again until he saw a briar with two blossoms upon her grave, and the king sent every morning to see if anything were growing thereon. After many years the briar appeared, and he took to wife the widow of King Doged. [ 3,466 more words ]

http://www.socialmatter.net/2017/07/22/myth-wooing-olwen/

Welcome to the Myth of the 20th Century. The podcast airs on Fridays. --- Brought to you by --- Adam Smith, Hank Oslo, Hans Lander, Nick Mason, and special guest Dark Enlightenment Notes: If you’re like most Americans, you live near a big city. Once the envy of the world, setting records for the height of their skyscrapers and showcasing some of the most stunning architectural wonders of art-deco design in places like New York and Chicago, starting in the Depression American cities began a marked decline. [ 645 more words ]

http://www.socialmatter.net/…/myth-20th-century-episode-27…/

Our project is statecraft. Our context is the American Empire. We need a mindset that is appropriate to this task. I've written before about the need for "Golden Age Statesmen". We should be asking ourselves, when we think and act, what would a golden-age statesman think? What would a golden age statesmen do? The mindset of a golden age statesmen is what I will call "Imperial Mindset". [ 1,814 more word ]

http://www.socialmatter.net/2017/07/20/imperial-mindset/