Quotables 12 September 2024: On the 144th anniversary of his birth, H.L. Mencken’s prophecy about Trump, government as a ‘broker in pillage’, and the eternal nature of the American people

American journalist H.L. Mencken. Photo: A. Aubrey Bodine/Keystone/Getty Images

Foretelling Donald Trump: ‘On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron’.

A ‘broker in pillage’: ‘The government consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office. Their principal device to that end is to search out groups who pant and pine for something they can't get and to promise to give it to them. Nine times out of ten that promise is worth nothing. The tenth time is made good by looting A to satisfy B. In other words, government is a broker in pillage, and every election is sort of an advance auction sale of stolen goods’.

This holds more true now than ever: ‘The men the American people admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth’.

Quotes via https://www.azquotes.com/author/9962-H_L_Mencken

Copyright 2024, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 and @FloydEtcetera on X, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED at https://tinyurl.com/ArthurNewhook.

Quotables 18 August 2024: Aldous Huxley discusses the obedience of ‘the greater part of the population’ under an ‘efficient totalitarian state’

Photo: Getty Images

‘The greater part of the population is not very intelligent, dreads responsibility, and desires nothing better than to be told what to do. Provided the rulers do not interfere with its material comforts and its cherished beliefs, it is perfectly happy to let itself be ruled.

‘A really efficient totalitarian state would be one in which the all-powerful executive of political bosses and their army of managers control a population of slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude’.

Quote via https://deeshaa.org/2022/01/16/aldous-huxley-on-servitude/#:~:text=That's%20Aldous%20Huxley%20(1894%20%E2%80%93%201963,be%20told%20what%20to%20do

Copyright 2024, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 and @FloydEtcetera on X, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED at https://tinyurl.com/ArthurNewhook.

#DDay 1944: The liberation of Europe from Nazi tyranny commenced with the Allied invasion of occupied France

Allied soldiers on the eve of the D-Day landings, Normandy, 1944. Photo: Getty Images.

Today, we commemorate all those who stormed the Normandy beaches on the 80th anniversary of the pivotal event in the 20th century. Their bravery and sacrifice secured a period of relative peace, prosperity, and stability that lasted up until recent years. I fear a conflict of this scale and with such perilous consequences will have to be fought again. And I worry that this time, #Murcia might not be on the righteous side. Heaven help us all.

Copyright 2024, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 and @FloydEtcetera on X, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED at https://tinyurl.com/ArthurNewhook.

#OTD 1770: The Boston Massacre

Illustration: ‘The Bloody Massacre,’ engraved by Paul Revere, via Wikimedia Commons

Today in 1870, an impassioned mob incited British soldiers to fire their weapons, driven by the sensationalistic and exaggerated rhetoric of the populist propagandist Samuel Adams. Said mob were outraged that colonists were being required to contribute to repaying war debts from the recent global conflict, the French & Indian War, from which British victory had spared these very folks from falling under French rule. Five of the insurrectionists were left dead, escalating tensions to a boiling point over the next few years. This culminated in an all-out revolution by 1775 and the eventual end of British colonial rule in the thirteen American colonies. The conflict resulted in millions of lives lost and displaced, with pressure tactics, otten pure terrorism, employed by patriots against fellow citizens loyal to the crown. The upheaval profoundly altered the global order, ultimately leading to the emergence of the United States of America as a global superpower, for both better and worse. Whether one loves or hates America - and I, and, verily, most of thee reading these words do reside in America - one should never be deluded into viewing the patriot forces as unequivocally righteous. The most zealous and ideological among them sought to impose their will on the general population. Today, there are striking parallels, as the country faces division, with movements like #Cult45 and Christian nationalism coalescing around a corrupt, charismatic leader driven by grievance and bloodlust. 

Copyright 2024, Arthur Newhook. Visit The Echo of a Distant Time, @FloydEtcetera on FACEBOOK and X; @arthurnewhook on POST. @arthurnewhook.bsky.social; and @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world.

Elon Musk: The epitome of our self-destructive and malevolent age

AI generated image

It still boggles my mind that the ‘richest man in the world’ is such an unholy idiot. Either that, or he is a sadist. I am offended that he has ruined what was the single most effective communications platform we had. Post-Trump and post-COVID, it really should no longer surprise myself or anyone else the lengths some will go to in order to hurt and control others. Elon Musk literally spent $44 billion - many times what Twitter was worth at the time of the transaction - in order to declare himself King of the Trolls, to play mind games with people, and quite possibly to deliberately destroy the platform altogether (if it was deliberate, he is succeeding in grand fashion.) Millions in #Cult45 routinely vote against their own economic interests because their hatred of fellow Americans and foreigners is all consuming. None of it makes any logical sense, but logic and common sense no longer live here and ours is not an age of reason. No, we really should not be surprised that the likes of Musk and Trump will hurt themselves, and their acolytes will hurt themselves, in order to hurt the rest of us worse. Never, however, can people of goodwill allow all of this insanity and degradation around us to be normalized. We must continue speaking out against it, for however long as necessary - which is going to be the rest of our lives, I am afraid. (Follow my new account on Threads, @arthurnewhook.)

Copyright 2023, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 and @FloydEtcetera on TWITTER, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, and @arthurnewhook on POST and THREADS.