I read somewhere that higher education of females was one of the best predictors of lower fertillity. This is a big problem in europe. Also i think one gets less woke indoctrination this way. As a strategy conservatives would be wise to push it
Caplan makes a great case for it, as opposed to formal education, in his book "the case against education"
The reduction in birthrate from seven per woman (still in the Sahel) to two can to a large extent be explained by education. But beyond that economic factors become more dominant. It is nowadays very expensive to have a child - certainly when you need to spend lots on its education - and many families find it to high a cost when the woman stays away from the labor market for a long time. When countries pay attention to that - like France and Scandinavia - the result is higher birth rates.
I think it is more cultural. Obviously those people in the Sahel have less money to raise a child. In some sense it is good to value human life more by giving your children more resources. On the other side those resources are waisted on formal education. In Germany the young adult starts earning money straight away when starting "dual-schule"
Some thoughts here: "Whilst almost everyone would agree that Education is a Good Thing, it does not necessarily follow that schools and universities are axiomatically the places where it should primarily take place.........Historically, the idea of compulsory schooling is strongly associated with 19th c. moves to end the abuses of child labour. But a strong case can be made that many ‘non-academic’ children’s level of motivation is higher in (non-exploitative) workplace environments....." https://grahamcunningham.substack.com/p/teach-your-children-well
Amazing how things can exist simply because of social inertia. If we see which year of university is the most important for future earnings one sees that the last year is 7 times more important than the first two. In countries where bachelor are 4 years it is the forth year which is 7 times more important. Does universities push almost everything important to learn in the last year? No, it has nothing to do with what they actually learn and the skills they master. It is only about signaling that you got a symbolic stamp on your forehead.
That’s the thing about art. It helps us identify feelings and thoughts that are otherwise inexpressible. If it could be articulated it wouldn’t be art, it would poetry or literature, music or etc etc
The plastic arts offer an opportunity to extend or develop the same thinking and feeling expressed elsewhere as literature or music. There is a fundamental unity at work IMO however much one or other medium may differ from the rest. Painting makes this unity available through vision but the various subjects (the world, life, human experience) are shared and the compositional techniques also connect disparate forms of creation in a thousand ways.
I went to the Rothko Chapel back before they redid it. It certainly appeared to be in need of some work, so maybe it's better now than it was. But neither the paintings nor the setting did anything for me. Recently I discovered I like earlier Mondriaan, but the later ones, again, not of any particular interest. On the other hand, a few years back I saw a small exhibit of Pollock paintings from various parts of his career. I'd never cared for the splatter paintings, or whatever the experts call them, but after seeing the wall-length thing he painted for Peggy Guggenheim's apartment entryway, the splatter paintings actually looked very good in comparison.
Niccolo, what is the deal with the photo of BHL and the Kurds? Is this some kind of psyops for the sake of an obscure intrigue in which you are involved?
BHL would make a great subject for you to interview but I expect that you'd need to get him at the right time/place for maximum psychic vulnerability.
"All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely Players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts".
The MS nonprofit is grotesquely woke. It’s overwhelmingly a disease of white Northern Europeans but you’d never know it from how many black folks they feature in the monthly magazine.
Have you tried going to a DO? Doing some Osteopathic Manipulation Treatment? I have recently become an old man, and have developed lower back pain. The OMT does wonders. It takes time, but it does work.
I walk quite a lot, and always at a brisk pace, so much so that locals here who don't know me know that I am not from around here as coastal Dalmatians walk at a Mediterranean pace.
I also do a lot of swimming for around half the year.
I think that it is good when a country's ideological setup remains based on making things. It is good to think about more abstract questions. But there is always the risk that abstractions lose touch with reality - as we see with the woke and some of the environmental ideology of today. Britain has lost that touch with the material with its embrace of financial wizardry.
In many European countries, esp east of the Elbe, it is an important life-lesson to get to" "know someone" or (in a pinch) "know someone who knows someone" who can be helpful in life's needy moments, such as getting tickets to a show or having a medical procedure performed in less than six months.
In the West, esp in the US, you may be labeled "corrupt" if you accept a meal costing more than, say, $37.50.
As a recent (1957) immigrant, I'm still befuddled by this (and corn-dog).
Foucault's favorite meal might well have been a club sandwich and a Diet Coke, but he certainly didn't have the Diet Coke in 1975. But what *did* he drink on that fateful trip to Death Valley? Could it have been...TAB? That would certainly explain a lot.
Sympathy for the nerve pain. Make sure to rule out the "pinched" nerve is not referred pain from a disc bulge (similar to sciatica). Different origin, different treatment. The wrong stretch can make it worse. I have lots of personal experience.
Probably not useful to you but I’d been having low-mid back pain and discovered that hip and butt exercises did more to help than any actual back stretches or exercises. You can convince yourself that makes some sort of sense but it sure would be easier if working the painful part actually helped that part instead of having to work some random nearby body part.
I've had pinched nerves before, twice when I was in my 20s...but those originated in my back on the right side.
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Chiropractor helped me a lot
So did Doctor of Osteopathy.
Hope you have some go-to exercises for easing the pain. It is so debilitating. Best wishes for a speedy recovery.
I've been trying to walk it out, but I know that more than half of the pain requires waiting for it to exit the body.
I have some thoughts on art
Share them!
Gute Besserung. What are your thoughts on vocational schooling? It is one of the few things I like about Germany
No deep thoughts other than i think it's a good thing too.
I read somewhere that higher education of females was one of the best predictors of lower fertillity. This is a big problem in europe. Also i think one gets less woke indoctrination this way. As a strategy conservatives would be wise to push it
Caplan makes a great case for it, as opposed to formal education, in his book "the case against education"
The reduction in birthrate from seven per woman (still in the Sahel) to two can to a large extent be explained by education. But beyond that economic factors become more dominant. It is nowadays very expensive to have a child - certainly when you need to spend lots on its education - and many families find it to high a cost when the woman stays away from the labor market for a long time. When countries pay attention to that - like France and Scandinavia - the result is higher birth rates.
I think it is more cultural. Obviously those people in the Sahel have less money to raise a child. In some sense it is good to value human life more by giving your children more resources. On the other side those resources are waisted on formal education. In Germany the young adult starts earning money straight away when starting "dual-schule"
Some thoughts here: "Whilst almost everyone would agree that Education is a Good Thing, it does not necessarily follow that schools and universities are axiomatically the places where it should primarily take place.........Historically, the idea of compulsory schooling is strongly associated with 19th c. moves to end the abuses of child labour. But a strong case can be made that many ‘non-academic’ children’s level of motivation is higher in (non-exploitative) workplace environments....." https://grahamcunningham.substack.com/p/teach-your-children-well
Amazing how things can exist simply because of social inertia. If we see which year of university is the most important for future earnings one sees that the last year is 7 times more important than the first two. In countries where bachelor are 4 years it is the forth year which is 7 times more important. Does universities push almost everything important to learn in the last year? No, it has nothing to do with what they actually learn and the skills they master. It is only about signaling that you got a symbolic stamp on your forehead.
I hated modern art when I was younger but have grown to appreciate it more as I’ve aged. I must admit however, Rothko does nothing for me.
I cannot explain why I like Rothko (or Mondriaan). I just do.
That’s the thing about art. It helps us identify feelings and thoughts that are otherwise inexpressible. If it could be articulated it wouldn’t be art, it would poetry or literature, music or etc etc
The plastic arts offer an opportunity to extend or develop the same thinking and feeling expressed elsewhere as literature or music. There is a fundamental unity at work IMO however much one or other medium may differ from the rest. Painting makes this unity available through vision but the various subjects (the world, life, human experience) are shared and the compositional techniques also connect disparate forms of creation in a thousand ways.
If you are ever in Boston be sure to check out the wonderful collection of art museums the city is blessed with.
My favoutite painter is my countryman the Canadian Tom Thomson. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jack_Pine
I will admit also that Rothko leaves me cold.
I went to the Rothko Chapel back before they redid it. It certainly appeared to be in need of some work, so maybe it's better now than it was. But neither the paintings nor the setting did anything for me. Recently I discovered I like earlier Mondriaan, but the later ones, again, not of any particular interest. On the other hand, a few years back I saw a small exhibit of Pollock paintings from various parts of his career. I'd never cared for the splatter paintings, or whatever the experts call them, but after seeing the wall-length thing he painted for Peggy Guggenheim's apartment entryway, the splatter paintings actually looked very good in comparison.
I like some Kandinsky.
The Reluctant Anarchist makes me think of a George Orwell quote: “Some ideas are so stupid that only intellectuals will believe them.”
I’m not a fan of Orwell, but find this quote applicable to many things.
Some ideas are so divorced from life experience that only academics will believe them.
Niccolo, what is the deal with the photo of BHL and the Kurds? Is this some kind of psyops for the sake of an obscure intrigue in which you are involved?
BHL would make a great subject for you to interview but I expect that you'd need to get him at the right time/place for maximum psychic vulnerability.
They look like actors... especially the Zionist.
"All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely Players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts".
https://twitter.com/metesohtaoglu/status/1296445304745734144?lang=en
He stands on his tip-toes to exert dominance
🤡🌎 - https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13086191/California-woman-90-FIRED-MS-nonprofit-pronouns.html
The MS nonprofit is grotesquely woke. It’s overwhelmingly a disease of white Northern Europeans but you’d never know it from how many black folks they feature in the monthly magazine.
Have you tried going to a DO? Doing some Osteopathic Manipulation Treatment? I have recently become an old man, and have developed lower back pain. The OMT does wonders. It takes time, but it does work.
I walk quite a lot, and always at a brisk pace, so much so that locals here who don't know me know that I am not from around here as coastal Dalmatians walk at a Mediterranean pace.
I also do a lot of swimming for around half the year.
Serge had an interesting write-up on the US's geostrategic logic. I think a lot his thinking is complementary to your analysis.
https://bigserge.substack.com/p/the-age-of-zugzwang
Big Serge is pretty good.
Theodore Dalrymple's 2001 essay on Britain's decline relative to Italy touches on a subject of immense complexity. - economic, cultural and moral. Not so long after his, I published this analysis of the economic aspects of that decline: https://www.adamsmith.org/blog/thinkpieces/the-consequences-of-economic-ignorance
I think that it is good when a country's ideological setup remains based on making things. It is good to think about more abstract questions. But there is always the risk that abstractions lose touch with reality - as we see with the woke and some of the environmental ideology of today. Britain has lost that touch with the material with its embrace of financial wizardry.
Which is what I was saying in the essay I linked to!
Corruption. Hmm. An interesting topic.
In many European countries, esp east of the Elbe, it is an important life-lesson to get to" "know someone" or (in a pinch) "know someone who knows someone" who can be helpful in life's needy moments, such as getting tickets to a show or having a medical procedure performed in less than six months.
In the West, esp in the US, you may be labeled "corrupt" if you accept a meal costing more than, say, $37.50.
As a recent (1957) immigrant, I'm still befuddled by this (and corn-dog).
FBF thank you for suggesting “traumazone” by Adam Curtis. Watching now and it is so powerful
I loved every second of it.
It's soooooooooooooooooo good
Foucault's favorite meal might well have been a club sandwich and a Diet Coke, but he certainly didn't have the Diet Coke in 1975. But what *did* he drink on that fateful trip to Death Valley? Could it have been...TAB? That would certainly explain a lot.
heheh
Sympathy for the nerve pain. Make sure to rule out the "pinched" nerve is not referred pain from a disc bulge (similar to sciatica). Different origin, different treatment. The wrong stretch can make it worse. I have lots of personal experience.
Probably not useful to you but I’d been having low-mid back pain and discovered that hip and butt exercises did more to help than any actual back stretches or exercises. You can convince yourself that makes some sort of sense but it sure would be easier if working the painful part actually helped that part instead of having to work some random nearby body part.