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The Long View

The Long View 2007-05-24: That Hideous Strength & 1984; The Mortuary State

The Orwell review of C. S. Lewis’ That Hideous Strength that John Reilly mentions here fascinates me because I almost agree with it. Much is made of the fact that the scientists [in the book] are actually in touch with evil spirits, although this fact is known only to the

The Long 2007-05-21: In Praise of Piracy; Immigration as Weakness; Perpetual Copyright; Flicker Today

John Reilly references an “anti-natalist project” here, and in other places. It was largely implicit in many policies of the late twentieth century, but you can find the evidence if you look. If you want to get a feel for why this was seen as a huge problem, the science

The Long View: Macrohistory and Macrohistorians: Perspectives on Individual, Social, and Civilizational Change

This is a very early book review by John J. Reilly. I’ve done something I don’t usually do, which is add links in to John’s work. In this case, it made sense, because John discussed almost all of the authors listed in this textbook at some point

The Long View 2007-05-18: Immigration Compromise; Abora III; Crank Koranic Critics; Red-Green Alliance

I’m not sure this exactly counts as a prediction, but it sure came true: The entire United States is now a border town. Even enforcing the immigration laws we have now would require a national police tasked chiefly with that function. Asking the current bureaucracy to manage the guest-worker

The Long View 2007-05-16: Real Estate; Falwell; Stellar Expectations; Antarctica; Department of Evil

I had forgotten about this one, but it can’t have been an inconsiderable reason for my bubble skepticism in 2007/8. John also offers a theory that the resurgence of evangelical Christianity in the mid-2000s was not in fact incipient theocracy, but rather a return to a pattern that

The Long View 2007-05-11: Merry Warming; Grasshoppers; Opinion Monkeys; The Defense of Socialism Continues; The Purpose of GWB

Here is a prediction that definitely did not happen: The shift from deterrence to defense has gone too far to stop, I think, though the Left seems determined to make the transition as slow as possible. The awkward bit, still a decade in the future, will be the negotiation with

The Long View 2007-05-08: Sarkozy; the Naughty Vicars; Immigration

This is an interesting look back at the election of Nicolas Sarkozy, President of France at about the same time that Barack Obama had his first time as President of the United States. Sarkozy; the Naughty Vicars; Immigration Surely Amir Taheri goes too far in The New York Post, where