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At length, the nearest monk pronounces: "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards "Wait, it looks like a circle.", came the follow-up behind him. Finally, the third monk, who had the widest view from yet further away - and at an angle - said: "It's a rising spiral." Not a week after the matter of Syria was raised in the previous post, Xi has announced a BRI-based strategic partnership† with Assad (with free Hangzhou temple visit thrown in). Like them or loathe them, China's bilateral diplomacy has been on point, and such might be of increasing importance with Biden left alone to address the U.N. General Assembly, which was given a pass by not just China and Russia, but also France and Britain - in other words, all four remaining Security Council permanent members. Turn 14, Headline Phase (Team Blue) ![]() Every day, recall (the Glory of) Rome! (Original sources: twilightstrategy.com, theatlantic.com, historians.org, britannica.com) How often do (true) men think of Rome? Very often, it appears, according to the latest TikTok and Instagram meme sweeping the cybersphere - and in the interests of gender equality, it seems others do it as well. Although seriously, why not? The so-called liberal democratic order underpinning extant Western civilization was unambigiously derived from the ancient Roman Republic; the governmental apparatus of its strongest popularizer today, America, was moreover lifted wholesale from the Eternal City, to the extent that Washington D.C. is often celebrated as a "third Rome", after the original and Constantinople (not Istanbul?) - a title that remains under active dispute. It may be less often noted that Rome's much-aspired-to democracy lasted less than five hundred years, or not even a third of the autocratic periods before and after. The Roman Republic had, by the way, also conquered their spiritual predecessors the Greeks, which however at least did not falsify the later McDonald's Peace Theory just yet. The point is that one might easily imagine an erstwhile Athenian Franchylus Eudokia languidly enjoying an amphora of the finest Chalkidike before a similarly-coloured sea after their definitive victory over the largely-autocratic Sparta in the Peloponnesian War, and pronouncing that History Had Ended, Democracy Won. That has to seem... a little hubristic given what would pass, right? Only, of course, the actual Greeks of the era were nowhere near that naive, as the present-day Fukuyama should well have known, given his supposed background in the subject. Even well over two thousand years ago, philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle had observed the (social) cyclic nature of governments, with Plato proposing a cycle through five forms, then Aristotle six, as later expounded on by Polybius. Modern versions of the cycle theory (e.g. Fourth Turning, as raised last May in the intro to the Greatest Game) generally retain the same basic modus operandi: a (re)surgence of collective civic virtue in response to challenging circumstances produces an orderly state and shared prosperity, which in turn breeds (over)-indulgence and excessive individualism, leading to the state's decay and overthrow. ![]() The sad continuation omitted (Source: twitter.com) There is, assuredly, nothing exclusive to the Romans in the recognizance of this archetypical pattern, which can surely be said to be inherited from the foundation of the collective unconscious by now - Hesiod's Five Ages (later Ovid's Four*), Hinduism's Yuga Cycle and the Chinese morality tale about the last King of Shang all told of (at least the half of the Fall) centuries before Plato, and one can hardly imagine why we should be an exception to the trope. Were an immortal wanderer to be present at all these times, he might well have tried to dissuade each culture in decline in turn, only to be mocked and rejected in pretty much the same manner each time by the elite of each age: blinkered sophists, corrupt patricians, Di Xin himself, the modern (Western liberal) mainstream (social) media. As Rubio sagely commented** this March, human nature doesn't really change, and America is for one very clearly replaying the "sinking into decadence" stage. We will proceed with a couple of case studies after this, but let's resolve the card's Headline effect pronto. The obvious target for the removal of all Team Red Influence in Europe would have to be France, as covered by the previous play, but Macron is nowhere to be found! In fact, he's hightailing it in China at the relevant end-April timepoint, which has the irate Team Blue command seek out a new target... and there's a distracted Giorgia Meloni caught in mid-conversation! The Event is fittingly applied to Italy, Rome's modern-day possessor after all, and they go from 1/2 Influence to 1/0 Influence. As analyzed in Turn 12, Action Round 2 last October, Italy's relatively low Stability suggests that they will (or can be made to) toe the Team Blue line to avoid a summary Coup, and Meloni's reign has indeed been grudgingly acknowledged by the globohomo press to have been fairly moderate after all. The key turnaround would be their officially expressing regret at joining China's Belt and Road program at the start of May, with them now signalling an exit - which has to be seen as realignment towards the U.S.; or, the opposite of the French, whom they have been locking horns with on migration. This is very much in the spirit of the 1947 Truman Doctrine, in declaring American material support for democracies against authoritarian threats. [*Later inspiring the Wang Xiaobo series. As an aside, then-contemporary China was well aware of (and assuredly thought of) Rome too, knowing it as 大秦 (coincidentally also referring to Syria, completing the circle here†), and then 拂菻. It is then that Italy/Rome as the Western terminus of the BRI is historically apropos, though being the only G7 nation to take part was always going to be awkward for the Italians.] [**He would also explicitly assert that he is not an A.I. robot; on that, we've got to say that the jury's still out. But nice try.] For today's epilogue, the first case study will be on... illegal immigration, with emphasis on illegal (as often sneakily omitted in the globohomo news, when discussing the topic). The inevitable appears to have finally happened with prominent "sanctuary city" mayors seeking to divest themselves of that status and suspend right-to-shelter rules after an influx of... merely a few tens of thousands, for a city with a population of over eight million, in New York's case. Over in Dallas, their Democratic mayor has likewise seen the light, and is switching to the Republican party - and I gather, their policies. This issue has actually been briefly covered last October in The Right Rises In Rome, in which it was noted how the transfer of just fifty asylum seekers to an upscale Massachusetts enclave had them all cleared out within the week, by a largely-liberal community whom one would have expected to have welcomed their permanent integration with open arms. While that reality had been downplayed by the leftist FAKE NEWS then, its continued application by the long-suffering border states seems to have finally made its point, with the NYC mayor now claiming that they have "no more room", and that they are about to lose the city they knew. Alongside this, arguments against the uncontrolled migration are now being voiced, such as "we don't have enough shelter facilities", "there aren't enough jobs for them and it doesn't make sense for them to be unemployed here", and "my daughters feel unsafe", etc. And you know what? All these are valid concerns. However, they were also entirely disregarded by the mainstream press before it affected their primary constitutents, with states bearing the brunt of the illegal immigration wave branded as "racist" and/or "bigoted" for complaining, and trying to stem the flow. And now, faced with but a fraction of what those states had to endure, they're already crying uncle. There's no limit to the philanthropy that can be practised using somebody else's money, effort and sacrifice, after all! The breathtaking hypocrisy is playing out in Europe too, with Italy slammed by the globalist establishment for refusing to receive migrants picked up by... a French NGO, on a ship flying the Norwegian flag. Back in 2015, Hungary for example got absolutely savaged for Building A Wall to enforce border security by oh-so-holy Western European nations... only for the likes of Germany and France to now insist that walls work and are legitimate, and that we have reached our limit after accepting "more than 1,000" from Italy and no, we are not going to accept any more of these talents from you, but we will lambast you if you try to send them back. One can hardly imagine a more ridiculous crock of bullshit being expressed. ![]() Very kind people up North, they will surely take you all! (Source: theatlantic.com) But this is actually not the intended point to be made here, or an indictment of the concept of migration. The median border-hopper is admittedly probably just an average fellow trying to make a better life for himself (and his family), as opposed to the caricature of heavily-tattooed drug smugglers and gun-runners painted by one side, and helpless widows with kids as asserted by the other side. The point is not that people should not be allowed to move to another country to raise their standard of living, but that it should be done properly. Which involves border enforcement, which in turn often implies physical barriers, like, you know, static vertical obstacles like... a wall. Once that is done, there should be no objections to allowing migrants in, as long as contributions and commitments are tallied openly. For example, if Massachusetts is prepared to take responsibility for a hundred thousand new arrivals, then bless them, really. Vulnerable women and children? Sure, bump them to the head of the line, if everybody agrees! They are willing to work? Well, the standard thing to do would then be to establish a guest worker program of some form, so that they have legal status in the country, which in turn would allow them recourse were they to be exploited by their employers, or become the victim of other crimes - instead of living in fear of discovery, because it's not as if ICE stops doing their job, whatever (false) platitudes the current POTUS spouts. So how has the U.S. (and Western European) policy been stuck in the worst of all worlds, with illegal immigrants allowed, nay, encouraged to risk their lives sneaking in, only to suffer lack of legal protection in practice for fear of deportation, and then confiscation of hard-earned property upon removal? As for the second case study, it should frankly have been covered as it happened, but late is better than never: ![]() I thought it was a fun spin on Audrey Hepburn honestly [N.B. But everyone has their own preferences, I understand that] (Source: zerohedge.com) Anyway, the story: back in April, Bud Light provided a trans influencer (Dylan Mulvaney) some customized beer cans (not even for sale to the general public), which immediately tanked sales of the brand big time, considering the profile of their loyal customers. Sales would plunge about a quarter over the next month, with Mulvaney single-handedly fighting shrinkflation in getting a twelve-pack down to five bucks, and then a 24-pack for US$3.49 and finally a 36-pack for US$2.96, in perhaps the greatest one-woman price-slashing campaign that America has ever seen (take that, Walmart!), bar none. While the campaign had further expanded Bud Light's reach in their new market as shooting range targets, it was getting to be distinctly unfunny for brewery Anheuser-Busch, who would lose over US$27 billion in stock value over the boycott. In a staggering display of bad strategic thinking, Anheuser-Busch proceeded to do an about-turn in then professing that transgenderism was not their belief, which lost them the LGBT+ support that remained; they then went on to produce a television ad that portrayed male Bud Light drinkers as grunters, just in case they actually had any die-hard fans remaining, which resulted in the loss of their 22 year-old best-seller title by June. I mean, if the idea is to destroy the brand to collect the insurance money or something, the traditional way to go about it would be to burn down the factory! It got so bad that Don Junior would have to come out and try to save the company, but there's a limit to what can be done in this (unsold) case. And now the point. Personally, trans people are definitely people too, and this was quite the overreaction to a nothingburger (which however makes a lot more sense in the Culture War context discussed in Feburary, on how establishment support for such cultural wedge issues will be withdrawn as and when energies need to be redirected for Cold War II). However, it is also true that recent establishment policies on feeding trans (and other gender) concepts to impressionable kids is... debatable, to say the least. ![]() Yes Jimmy, maybe you might be a girl too! (Source: opindia.com) The issue might best be explained via empirical means. Consider an experiment where young children are assigned to various religious schools - say one-quarter to a Christian convent, another quarter to a Muslim madrasa, a third quarter to a Buddhist temple, and the remainder to a Jewish preschool. After some years of indoctrination, one might expect most of the convent kids to self-identify as Christian, most of those attending madrasa to say they are Muslim, etc. Now, does this prove the correctness of any of these religions? Well, to me, it just suggests that kids are (very) impressionable, and will believe most anything the adults in charge profess, given time. Or, to adjust the old Jesuit maxim, "give me the boy until the age of seven, and I will give you the woman!" Or, put another way, I remember wanting to be a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle when I was a child***. No, my pleas for a shell graft went unanswered by my cruel custodians. So now you have a three (or six) year-old insisting that they are of another gender (possibly with some suitable encouragement). Like, seriously? Are we still allowed to say anything about such, or is it a one-way ticket to cancellation? But anyway, being the contrarian that I am, I'll be picking up a case of Bud Light the next time I see one at the supermarket - it's important to stay fully hydrated, in these sweltering times! [***Hey, one out of four eventually ain't bad, and with more "interesting" medications and some mall McDojo lessons, I might yet get it up to three someday.] Next: Dollar For Your Oughts
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