British academic communists suffer from ideology, which is a brain virus. It takes every natural, logical and honest thought and turns it into a version of itself. So everything becomes political. A person is either good (communist) or bad (capitalist), poor and trodden-upon (good), white and privileged (bad) and so on. American communists, however, live in an intellectual and informational vacuum. So they make it up as they go, creating the most marvelous conspiracy theories as they go along.
– An insightful observation by a friend of Gabriel Syme…
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May 18th, 2003 | 2 comments - (Comments are closed)
 “This week it cost me 2,750 dollars to airmail a letter to Britain containing three A4 sheets of paper.” May 17th, 2003 | 6 comments - (Comments are closed)
I don’t know if I’m more impressed by these people’s tenacity in defending their position even as it circles the drain, or horrified that they’re willing to grab up weapons like these in order to avoid having to admit they were wrong. May 15th, 2003 | 2 comments - (Comments are closed)
I have to pay 40% tax and everything. Which I don’t agree with. I can’t vote, why should I pay to a government I don’t necessarily agree with? – Charlotte Church, chairing BBC2’s Have I got News for You. Out of the mouths of babes and children May 10th, 2003 | 10 comments - (Comments are closed)
Government departments are named after whatever it is they are trying to put a stop to, hence ‘Department of Education’ May 9th, 2003 | 4 comments - (Comments are closed)
– Labour MP David Taylor explains “Why I’ll defy party line over reforms” and vote against foundation hospitals, in today’s Evening Standard (print edition only) May 7th, 2003 | 11 comments - (Comments are closed)
“To exist without enemies is to be a miserable jellyfish that stands for nothing.” May 6th, 2003 | 5 comments - (Comments are closed)
The chaps who dismiss Bush as a moron forget that what counts is what a guy does when he’s not talking. May 3rd, 2003 | 10 comments - (Comments are closed)
Respecting the sovereignty of Iraq was nothing more than respecting the sovereignty of Saddam Hussein, at the expense of the people who would have been tortured and killed for not voting for him! April 24th, 2003 | 18 comments - (Comments are closed)
Classical conservatives publicly despair of progress, but in their hearts they secretly believe in it. The Left seemingly talks of nothing else but progress, but will go to nearly any lengths rather than believe in it. April 15th, 2003 | Comments are closed
… Realists are quite right to point to the centrality of the contest for power in international relations, and also to the dangers of imprudence and immoderation that can arise from the pursuit of intangible goals like honor. But dangers of a no lesser seriousness attend the competition for power itself, however rationally calculated. Moreover, power is never pursued for itself, but always for the sake of some value or values. In modern democratic states, those values tend to be moral in nature, and to involve a peculiarly democratic conception of honor. To attempt to exclude them from consideration is the height of phantasy, and the opposite of realism.
April 13th, 2003 | Comments are closed
April 9th, 2003 | One comment - (Comments are closed)
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