In his The Epoch Times column, our favorite doctor calls out little Greta Thunberg and her naively clueless western European liberal enablers for bolstering the Russian economy and, by extension, weakening Europe’s security.
The Thunberg episode must have been of great aid and comfort to the man in the Kremlin, for it must have convinced him, as it convinced his apologists in the West, of the almost total decadence and fundamental unseriousness of the West.
In his Takimag column, the good doctor analyzes the results in a recent American poll showing the disturbing headway of the homosexual/trans lobby before delving into the topic of cultural relativism.
Under the influence of this school of thought, everyone has become a relativist, except when criticizing the behavior of others, when suddenly an objective moral standard returns. When he is criticized, he defends himself by means of relativism; but when he disapproves of something, he becomes as rigid as any puritan.
Over at City Journal, Dr. Dalrymple looks into the eyes of Comrade Putin in an attempt to assess his mental state and its possible effect on his order for the Russian military to invade the Ukraine.
It is hazardous, however, to ascribe actions that we do not like to madness. This is for two reasons: first, the diagnosis may be wrong—the apparently mad may in fact be sane—and second, madness can have its own rationality. Indeed, the mad of strong character can often take others along with them: they can persuade others that their paranoid view of the world is correct. This is especially so when they possess levers of power over people of lesser character than themselves.
In a February Quadrant essay, the dissenting doctor reacts with disdain at Mrs. Boris Johnson’s pathetic political correctness before taking potshots at environmentalists, little Greta Thunberg, 19th-century German romantic art, and illogical British energy policies.
The almost pagan attachment to the propitiation of the biosphere has led to a situation in which a country which cannot guarantee that its lights will remain on next winter will electrify tens of millions of vehicles—at great cost, as usual, to the poorer half of the population. This is either stupid sentimentality or corruption, the capture of the political class by certain lobbying visionaries. I hope that the explanation is corruption, for there is no cure for stupidity.
Over at Law & liberty, the discerning doctor comes across more “woke” nonsense—this time in the art world.
Where the righting of injustice is seen as the highest, possibly the only, moral duty, it is natural that people should see it lurking everywhere, even in the title of a beautiful and respectful portrait.
The critical doctor reviews a new book on the application of the rule of law in various British colonies over at Law & Liberty.
And though Ford never appears to notice it, the irony is that, its original defects notwithstanding, Australia developed within a few decades into one of the best countries in the world in which to live, to which millions would have liked to emigrate. The same is true of Canada. How did this come about? Was it a coincidence that had nothing whatever to do with the colonial foundations? The author does not even consider the question.
In today’s Takimag, our philatelic doctor remembers his old stamp-collecting hobby during a visit to an English restaurant’s lavatory.
My point, however, is that those who can immerse themselves in the arcana of some minute corner of the universe such as the Penny Black, and become expert in them, excite not my contempt because of the triviality of their subject, but rather my envy, for it seems to me that one of the paths to happiness open to men (particularly men) is precisely an obsessional interest in something. It is by this obsessional interest that the disappointments, daily worries, and chagrins of daily existence can be kept at bay. The world about may be collapsing, but there is always the consolation of their obsessional interest.
In The Epoch Times, Theodore Dalrymple rebukes European green radicals for unwittingly (or is it wittingly?) enriching and emboldening Russia by pushing for a completely unworkable energy policy of pure fantasy.
It isn’t even as if the green utopians care much for the environment, or at any rate not for its beauty. They would be happy to see the land covered with hideous, noisy, wildlife destroying wind farms. What they care for is not power generation, but political power, their own power to dictate policy irrespective of consequences.
In last week’s Takimag column, our critical doctor calls into question an absurd new law circulating in the French parliament that would allow anyone over 13 to change his last name (surname) once in his life.
A tiny pressure group exerts a huge influence on the legislature and legislation, like a panzer division slicing through the countryside with practically no serious opposition. Preemptive appeasement seems to be the main stance of the political class faced by such pressure groups: Not believing in anything much itself, except in its own survival, it is prepared to defend nothing, resist nothing, and fight for nothing. Tiny pressure groups, being monomaniacs, are therefore always fighting asymmetric wars: The subject of their monomania is all-important to them, but of marginal importance to everyone else.