A good summary of the history relevant to the current war in Ukraine.
Category Archives: History
From Darwin to Hitler
The revolutionary impact Darwinism had on ethics and morality
Writes Charles Burris:
In his book, From Darwin to Hitler: Evolutionary Ethics, Eugenics, and Racism in Germany (2004), Richard Weikart explains the revolutionary impact Darwinism had on ethics and morality. Darwinism played a key role in the rise not only of eugenics (a movement wanting to control human reproduction to improve the human species), but also on euthanasia, infanticide, abortion, and racial extermination. This was especially important in Germany, since Hitler built his view of ethics on Darwinian principles.
Here is Weikart’s talk on the subject.
The Propaganda Playbook
By Edward Bernays, published in 1928, is available for free online
The world is a volatile place right now. Things seem to change quickly and no one knows what might happen next. However, amid all this chaos there is one thing that has not changed and is unlikely to change any time soon, and that is human psychology.
Because of this, the tactics used to manipulate people’s thoughts, beliefs and actions have not changed either. In fact, most of them were outlined in detail 100 years ago by Edward Bernays in his 1928 book, Propaganda.
That’s right, the Puppet Master’s playbook isn’t a secret. It’s right there, freely available to anyone who cares to understand how the powers that be seek to influence them on a daily basis.
Propaganda by Edward Bernays has now been added to our Forbidden Library. Read it now, along with other forbidden books.
Islam and the making of the West
Does Islam have a circular view of history?
That’s the title of an article by Helene Guldberg.
Here’s the section that interests me most:
The 14th-century Andalusian Arab, Ibn Khaldun, was described by the Florentine philosopher and diplomat, Niccolò Machiavelli, and the German Enlightenment philosopher, Georg Friedrich Hegel, as one of the greatest philosophers of the Medieval world. As Islamic scholar Adam Silverstein explains in Islamic History (2010), rather than see history as ‘teleological’ or ‘God-driven’, Ibn Khaldun described it as ‘cyclical and subject to rules and patterns.’ And in doing so, he helped put man more at the centre of history.
The author seems to think it’s a good thing that Machiavelli and Hegel thought highly of Khaldun. I don’t. It’s more like a health and safety warning. That Khaldun believed in a cyclical pattern of history, rather than the linear, biblical model, is highly interesting. How is this compatible with Islam? Is it compatible? And if yes, does Islam not believe in creation and judgment? Which is the logical outcome of a linear view of history. But ultimately contradicts a circular view.
The Jews Who Didn’t Leave Egypt
A lesson from the past about choosing freedom over servitude
An article by Alana Newhouse. She basically says these kinds of people (and they are not just Jews) are still among us.
Excerpts:
Now when Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although it was nearer; for God said, ‘The people may have a change of heart when they see war, and return to Egypt,’” states Exodus 13:17. But it is in the next sentence that a mystery emerges: “So God led the people round about, by way of the wilderness at the Sea of Reeds. Now the Israelites went up chamushim out of the land of Egypt.
Wait—what? The Jews went out of Egypt how? What does “chamushim” mean? It is generally translated as “armed,” but nearly all commentaries note that its definition is, in fact, uncertain.
Into this breach arrives the legendary medieval Torah commentator Rashi, with a startling assertion. After acknowledging the “armed” option, Rashi offers, with casual sangfroid, another idea: That “chamushim” relates to the Hebrew word for five, and the text should be understood to be saying that only one-fifth of the Jewish people chose to leave Egypt.
Continue readingWhat Exactly Did the Reformation Reform?
Article by Frank van Dun
The Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century reformed nothing but it changed everything. It was a crucially important factor in the demise of Medieval Latin Christendom and its rapid transformation in what we now know as Europe or, more generally, the West. Philosophically and religiously it redefined and revolutionized Western civilization, for, what characterizes a civilization is not so much what people do (which is pretty much the same always and everywhere) as what they conscientiously believe they ought to do: its fundamental scheme of justification and rectification — in a word, its conscience.
Continue reading here.
History of Chinese Inventions
Some surprising facts here
“China as a nation has the longest and by far the most vast record of inventions in the history of the world. It is now reliably estimated that more than 60% of all the knowledge existing in the world today originated in China, a fact swept under the carpet by the West.“
An article by Larry Romanoff. Excerpts:
The Chinese invented the decimal number system, decimal fractions, negative numbers, and the zero, so far in the past that the origin is lost in the mists of time. The Chinese tracked sunspots and comets with such detail and accuracy that these ancient records are still used as the basis for their prediction and observation today. The Chinese were drilling for natural gas about 2,500 years ago, wells 4,800 feet deep, with bamboo pipelines to deliver the gas to nearby cities. The Chinese pioneered the mining and use of coal long before it was known in the West. Marco Polo and Arab traders marveled at the “black stone” that the Chinese mined from the ground, that would burn slowly during an entire night.
[…]
Continue readingThe True Causes of the Ukraine-Russia Conflict
A very good succinct presentation
Included are videos with Ukraine- and Russia-experts John J. Mearsheimer, who is a Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, and Jim Rickards, who is, according to the author of the article, “one of the most astute experts on geopolitics today. He is a lawyer, best-selling author and investor. He is an advisor on capital markets to the Director of National Intelligence and the Office of the Secretary of Defense.”
Why are church membership numbers dwindling?
Clerics and laity don't seem to understand the main reason
Islam, Christ, and Liberty
Jordan Peterson discusses with Mustafa Akyol
Jordan Peterson has again created a signature super video. This time of his discussion with liberal-minded Muslim intellectual Mustafa Akyol.
That a deep and serious debate between “the West” and Islam is urgent and necessary goes almost without saying. So Peterson (hereafter JP) and Akyol (hereafter MA) are doing us a great favour by forging ahead.
Here are some highlights that stood out for me:
Continue reading