Many thanks to Dan from Madison for his kind hospitality in inviting me to go fishing with him last week. I can tell you now that Dan is a very nice guy*, not to mention that he was willing to commit himself to spending six hours on a boat with a complete stranger**. He is also a great sportsman, as befits one of Madison’s foremost bloggers and Chicago Bears season-ticket holders.
Video
Important Sci-Fi News!
In my opinion these developments represent a breakthrough of extraordinary magnitude.
Alan Macfarlane on the Decline of the Ottoman Empire
A nice short summary touching on the main points about what does and does not provide a sufficient basis for a modern civilization.
And here he is on Venice and the riddle of modern wealth and liberty.
If you go to this page you will find that Macfarlane has put an enormous number of videos onto You Tube. I have only scratched the surface, but this is clearly a treasure trove of good material.
Those of you who prefer text to video can find an enormous amount of interesting material on his web page.
Prof. Macfarlane writes in convincing fashion about many of the issues which we have been discussing on this blog: the rise of the modern world, the role of technology in social change, the centrality of liberty to the rise of the West, the key role of England and the English-speaking countries in the modern world (though he does not use the word Anglosphere), the critical role of civil society and free association, the cultural and social and legal foundations of modernity.
That’s What America Is Made Up Of, Choice
Snook, home of a great SPJST Hall and chicken-fried bacon; in such a spot, we are not surprised, perhaps, at the host’s argument for natural law and libertarian politics.
Video: Claudio Véliz at the Anglosphere Institute
Now you can watch Professor Claudio Véliz’s brilliant talk on “The Optional Descent of the English Speaking World,” which he gave at the inaugural event of Jim Bennett’s Anglosphere Institute. The lecture was hosted by the Hudson Institute in Washington, DC.
Professor Véliz discusses the reasons for the global success of English culture and institutions, including meta-parallels between England and Ancient Athens.
Click here to watch the video.The lecture runs about 49 minutes and is followed by another 35 minutes of Q&A that are also very much worth watching. (There is a gap of approximately ten seconds at around 38:25.)
Unfortunately, the last few minutes of the lecture, in which Professor Véliz discusses the importance of cultural self-confidence to the survival of English civilization in its current struggle with radical Islam, were not recorded. However, a complete audio recording and written transcript of his talk may eventually be made available.
You may need to raise the volume on your speakers to get best audio quality.