Atrocity, A Natural History
1. It didn’t happen.
2. It was much smaller than you think.
3. It was entirely justified.
4. What we need is more such atrocities.
Jun 012021
Ruling
In ’37 Stalin made a hash
Of party loyalists and army brass.
Decimation: One in ten are shot.
What’s the word when one in ten are not?
May 262021
The map used not to be the territory: to make it so has been the great modern project.
May 202021
The state does not require or even seek your approval, only your acquiescence.
May 172021
There is a great deal of ruin in a nation, and eventually it finds out how much.
May 102021
In less than two centuries communism has established itself as the apex predator on civilization, a killing machine: one admires it as one admires a hardy but lethal virus, or the great white shark.
May 042021
What we call rule by out-of-touch elites was known in the 19th century as civil service reform, and if Plunkitt of Tammany Hall were alive today, he would have every reason to feel vindicated.
Apr 302021
Whatever the corrupt practice, everyone does not do it, and to say everyone does is a vicious attempt to wipe from existence those who do not.
Apr 272021
Disinformation used to be false.
Apr 192021
The world is run by smart people’s ideas, in stupid people’s versions.
Apr 082021
Revolutions are staffed by those who expect to gain from the coming order, but led by those who expect to suffer, whose negligence of personal considerations betokens their righteousness, and whose zeal is commensurate with their expectation.