Charles Haywood (The Worthy House)

A much-discussed, yet somewhat overrated, book from a quarter century ago. Nothing in our society has gotten better since then, but as it is said, past performance is no guarantee of future results. The written version of this review can be found here: https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/09/07/the-revolt-of-the-elites-and-the-betrayal-of-democracy-christopher-lasch/ We strongly encourage, in these days of censorship and deplatforming, all readers to bookmark our main site: https://www.theworthyhouse.com and to subscribe for email notifications of new posts. The Worthy House does not solicit donations or other support, or have ads. You can subscribe for email notifications here: https://theworthyhouse.com/subscribe-by-email This and all Worthy House narrations are offered with accurate closed captions (not auto-generated). "Christopher Lasch died before this, his last book, was published, twenty-six years ago. Lasch was a man out of time, a refugee leftist who nonetheless refused to embrace what passed for conservatism in the post-Communist false dawn, the main feature of which was idolatry of the invisible hand. No surprise, his message was rejected by its intended audience, America’s intellectual class. Now, however, every one of the problems with our society he identified has grown monstrous, far beyond the power of any dragonslayer to kill. Thus, this book is, at least now, less prescription and more an intellectual history of how we failed as a nation." . . .

Thoughts on how, not whether, Christianity and the state should be intertwined, combined with history that largely revolves around the same. The written version of this article can be found here: https://theworthyhouse.com/2022/12/07/the-age-of-paradise-christendom-from-pentecost-to-the-first-millennium-john-strickland/ We strongly encourage, in these days of censorship and deplatforming, all readers to bookmark our main site: https://www.theworthyhouse.com and to subscribe for email notifications of new posts. The Worthy House does not solicit donations or other support, or have ads. You can subscribe for email notifications here: https://theworthyhouse.com/subscribe-by-email This and all Worthy House narrations are offered with accurate closed captions (not auto-generated). "Christian nationalism is in the air. While that obscure term has been weaponized recently to whip up hate against Christians, it is a real thing, with many historical manifestations. For both Christianity and nationalism are excellent and awesome, and like the chocolate and peanut butter in Reese’s, they are even better together than alone. Still, the combination of state and religion has not always been well executed. It must be, however, for mankind to flourish, which is why one pillar of Foundationalism is establishing the proper balance in the society of the future. To this end, we can learn a lot from this history of the first thousand years of Christianity. " . . .

As Carl Schmitt comes back into fashion, I am reading all his works. This is his very first, from 1919, an excoriation of those who prioritize ethics over politics, and who refuse to make decisions when decisions are necessary. The written version of this review can be found here: https://theworthyhouse.com/2017/01/19/book-review-the-demon-in-democracy-ryszard-legutko/ We strongly encourage, in these days of censorship and deplatforming, all readers to bookmark our main site: https://www.theworthyhouse.com and to subscribe for email notifications of new posts. The Worthy House does not solicit donations or other support, or have ads. You can subscribe for email notifications here: https://theworthyhouse.com/subscribe-by-email This and all Worthy House narrations are offered with accurate closed captions (not auto-generated). "To my excitement, Carl Schmitt is coming back into fashion, or at least into notice. Last week, for example, an excellent piece by the Swedish renegade leftist Malcolm Kyeyune received wide attention. It revolved around Schmitt’s concept, from 'The Crisis of Parliamentary Democracy,' that when a regime must prove its legitimacy empirically, it is doomed. Kyeyune concluded that, just as the 'bourgeois kings' of Schmitt’s analysis were doomed because they had lost intrinsic legitimacy, so has, and is, our own regime. Now I wish I had thought of and made that point in my own recent review of that book. Ah well. Instead, today you will have to be satisfied with my reflections on another book, Schmitt’s first, Political Romanticism." . . .

A classic work on the underclass, which I use to define my program for distinguishing between the deserving and the undeserving poor, and treating each with justice. Plus, a variety of thoughts on modern Great Britain, none complimentary. The written version of this review can be found here: https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/09/29/life-bottom-worldview-makes-underclass-theodore-dalrymple/ We strongly encourage, in these days of censorship and deplatforming, all readers to bookmark our main site: https://www.theworthyhouse.com and to subscribe for email notifications of new posts. The Worthy House does not solicit donations or other support, or have ads. You can subscribe for email notifications here: https://theworthyhouse.com/subscribe-by-email This and all Worthy House narrations are offered with accurate closed captions (not auto-generated). "When I am dictator, which hopefully will be any day now, I am going to bring back what was once a crucial distinction. Namely, the sharp separation between the deserving and the undeserving poor. Theodore Dalrymple’s book shows both why that distinction is necessary, indeed absolutely essential, and why it has fallen from favor among those who decide society’s rules. Moreover, Life at the Bottom offers a wide range of food for related thoughts, so many that I am afraid, beginning this review, that it is likely to go on for a very long time. But at the end, I will solve all the problems for you. Strap in." . . .

No politics today. Rather, of psychedelic drugs, with particular emphasis on whether they reveal hidden knowledge and their relationship to religion. The written version of this article can be found here: https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/10/12/how-to-change-your-mind-what-the-new-science-of-psychedelics-teaches-us-michael-pollan-dup-dup/ We strongly encourage, in these days of censorship and deplatforming, all readers to bookmark our main site: https://www.theworthyhouse.com and to subscribe for email notifications of new posts. The Worthy House does not solicit donations or other support, or have ads. You can subscribe for email notifications here: https://theworthyhouse.com/subscribe-by-email This and all Worthy House narrations are offered with accurate closed captions (not auto-generated). "I have led a boring life, at least as measured by the topics covered by this book, Michael Pollan’s 'How to Change Your Mind.' Not only have I never taken any psychedelic drug of any type, I have never taken any illegal drug at all. Similarly, I have never had any type of mystical experience whatsoever, though I am certainly open to such a thing and have total confidence that many other people have. Just not me. But here, as in many matters, others go where I have not tread. Pollan, famous mostly for books on food, decided to explore drug-induced alterations of consciousness, and this book is the measured result of his spelunking in the caverns of the mind." . . .

René Girard's exposition of the mechanisms of societal violence. Deeply insightful, and with potent lessons for the present moment. The written version of this review can be found here: https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/03/30... We strongly encourage, in these days of censorship and deplatforming, all readers to bookmark our main site: https://www.theworthyhouse.com and to subscribe for email notifications of new posts. The Worthy House does not solicit donations or other support, or have ads. You can subscribe for email notifications here: https://theworthyhouse.com/subscribe-... This and all Worthy House narrations are offered with accurate closed captions (not auto-generated). "It has long been fashionable to regard Christianity as myth, no different in substance than many other ancient myths. Sometimes this is done to glibly dismiss Christ’s message; sometimes it is done in sorrow, viewing, as C. S. Lewis did before his conversion, Christianity as one of many lies, even if was “breathed through silver.” René Girard entirely rejects this idea, offering an anthropological, rather than spiritual, argument for Christianity being a true myth, and for the complete uniqueness of Christianity, as well for as its centrality to the human story. Girard’s appeal is that his framework explains the core of all human societies, and thus explains, at any moment, the present. Therefore, though he died in 2015, Girard says much about America in 2021." . . .

A timely work from 1921, analyzing in detail the history and jurisprudential basis of, and for, dictatorship in the context of modern Western societies. The written version of this review can be found here: https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/10/02/dictatorship-from-the-origin-of-the-modern-concept-of-sovereignty-to-proletarian-class-struggle-carl-schmitt/ We strongly encourage, in these days of censorship and deplatforming, all readers to bookmark our main site: https://www.theworthyhouse.com and to subscribe for email notifications of new posts. The Worthy House does not solicit donations or other support, or have ads. You can subscribe for email notifications here: https://theworthyhouse.com/subscribe-by-email This and all Worthy House narrations are offered with accurate closed captions (not auto-generated). "Dictatorship, in the form of Caesarism, is in the American air. I have recently written on what, in practical terms, an American Caesar would do; I will soon tell you how likely our Caesar is, and why. As it happens, I am at the same time working my way through all the books of Carl Schmitt, in their order of original publication, and his next book up, 'Dictatorship,' published in 1921, clarifies the historical and legal-analytical part of what is unspooling before our eyes. We cannot be better informed, analytically at least, than by pondering this work of the peerless German, whose book, as always, puts to shame today’s mostly insipid political and constitutional analysis." . . . .

This is one of my favorite reviews, of a book that is extremely important today. Jünger foresaw both our present moment, and what should be done. You should read this book, and also its companion Eumeswil (and my interpretations of both). (This article was first published October 13, 2018.) The written version of this article can be found here: https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/10/13/the-forest-passage-ernst-junger/ We strongly encourage, in these days of censorship and deplatforming, all readers to bookmark our main site: https://www.theworthyhouse.com and to subscribe for email notifications of new posts. The Worthy House does not solicit donations or other support, or have ads. You can subscribe for email notifications here: https://theworthyhouse.com/subscribe-by-email This and all Worthy House narrations are offered with accurate closed captions (not auto-generated). "Ernst Jünger was one of the more fascinating men of the twentieth century. Remembered in the English-speaking world primarily for his World War I memoir, The Storm of Steel, he was famous in Europe for a range of right-leaning thought spanning nearly eighty years (he lived from 1896 to 1998). His output was prodigious, more than fifty books along with voluminous correspondence, and not meant or useful as a seamless ideology, although certain themes apparently recur. This book, The Forest Passage, was published in 1951, and is a compelling examination of how life should be conducted under modern ideological tyranny." . . .

Is talk of Caesarism merely right-wing cope? No, and here I tell you why. The written version of this review can be found here: https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/10/12/on-the-future-ascent-of-a-caesar/ We strongly encourage, in these days of censorship and deplatforming, all readers to bookmark our main site: https://www.theworthyhouse.com and to subscribe for email notifications of new posts. The Worthy House does not solicit donations or other support, or have ads. You can subscribe for email notifications here: https://theworthyhouse.com/subscribe-by-email This and all Worthy House narrations are offered with accurate closed captions (not auto-generated). "I recently wrote about what might happen after an American Caesar, a radical reconstructor of our polity, arose. And in these days of American humiliation and accelerating decay, a Caesar is viewed by many, if in quiet tones, as a kind of solution. But is Caesar, Michael Anton’s Red Caesar, merely a coping mechanism for the Right, a fantasy meant to replace the dead hope of a restored American founding? Is Caesar an encouragement to eschatological passivity, our equivalent of the Twelver Shia hidden imam, who when everything is at its worst will arrive to set the world aright, without any action needed by us? No, and today I will tell you why." . . . .

Of the most famous firearms inventor of all time, and of the workings of genius. The written version of this review can be found here: https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/10/19/the-guns-of-john-moses-browning-the-remarkable-story-of-the-inventor-whose-firearms-changed-the-world-nathan-gorenstein/ We strongly encourage, in these days of censorship and deplatforming, all readers to bookmark our main site: https://www.theworthyhouse.com and to subscribe for email notifications of new posts. The Worthy House does not solicit donations or other support, or have ads. You can subscribe for email notifications here: https://theworthyhouse.com/subscribe-by-email This and all Worthy House narrations are offered with accurate closed captions (not auto-generated). "Some men have minds that are simply not like those of others, but far better, on a different plane entirely. Such men are vanishingly rare, and appear to be even rarer, because their unique talents are often lost to mankind, when they are not recognized by or not applicable to the society in which they are born. John Moses Browning, who lived from 1855 to 1926, was fortunate in that his peerless spatial-mechanical talent, specifically for the manufacture of firearms, coincided with the right time for his talents to achieve their full potential. A substantial majority of all today’s firearms rely on his insights; I cannot think of another field in which one man has dominated the entire modern era—and whose work shows no signs of fading in importance." . . . .

Of the evil genius of Russian Communism, of the utopianism that drives the Left, and of how the search for transcendence is the driver of most modern political action. (This article was first published December 29, 2018.) The written, original version of this article can be found at https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/12/29/book-review-trotsky-a-biography-robert-service/ We strongly encourage, in these days of censorship and deplatforming, all readers to bookmark our main site: https://www.theworthyhouse.com and to subscribe for email notifications of new posts. The Worthy House does not solicit donations or other support, or have ads. You can subscribe for email notifications here: https://theworthyhouse.com/subscribe-by-email This and all Worthy House narrations are offered with accurate closed captions (not auto-generated). "I continue to be fascinated by the Bolshevik Revolution, because in its success there are many lessons. Unbiased history and biography of the Bolsheviks is a relatively recent phenomenon; prior to 1991, a combination of lack of primary materials and philo-Communism among Western historians meant very few objective books were published. Since 1991, though, the balance has shifted, even if plenty of Communist-loving propaganda is still published by major historians, because the global Left has always, and continues to, fully support the goals and methods of Communism. They mostly just keep it a bit more quiet in public than they used to." . . .

This famous manifesto, by a man who total rejects technological-industrial society, is a challenge to techno-optimists such as I am—and thus a challenge to Foundationalism. I discuss that here, but regardless, it turns out that Kaczynski was very right about many things in our future. The written version of this review can be found here: https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/10/22/industrial-society-and-its-future-theodore-john-kaczynski/ We strongly encourage, in these days of censorship and deplatforming, all readers to bookmark our main site: https://www.theworthyhouse.com and to subscribe for email notifications of new posts. The Worthy House does not solicit donations or other support, or have ads. You can subscribe for email notifications here: https://theworthyhouse.com/subscribe-by-email This and all Worthy House narrations are offered with accurate closed captions (not auto-generated). "What role should technology—the complex of machines and computers that undergirds our world—play in our future? This is a crucial question, and among thinking people today there exists a distinct split. Some, such as James Poulos in his soon-to-be-released 'Human, Forever,' call for fully accepting that technology exists and is not going away, while refusing to surrender our humanity. Others, such as Paul Kingsnorth, entirely reject what he calls the 'Machine,' and intimate that our technology-dictated future is an anti-human grotesquerie, followed by inevitable total collapse. Theodore Kaczynski falls squarely into this latter category, and this, his famous Manifesto, outlines what should be done—goals he notably took to heart." . . . .

A fresh analysis of Charles I, an unjustly-maligned king whose reign offers lessons for today. (This article was first published October 17, 2018.) The written version of this article can be found here: https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/10/17/the-white-king-charles-i-traitor-murderer-martyr-leanda-de-lisle/ We strongly encourage, in these days of censorship and deplatforming, all readers to bookmark our main site: https://www.theworthyhouse.com and to subscribe for email notifications of new posts. The Worthy House does not solicit donations or other support, or have ads. You can subscribe for email notifications here: https://theworthyhouse.com/subscribe-by-email This and all Worthy House narrations are offered with accurate closed captions (not auto-generated). "As with Nicholas II, the last ruling Romanov, how we view Charles I is largely set by how his days ended. And as with Nicholas, we have been further conditioned by generations of propaganda pumped out by the winners and their ideological allies, claiming that it was Charles’s own bad philosophy, coupled with incompetence, rather than mostly bad luck and choices only wrong in retrospect, that led to his death. Leanda de Lisle’s The White King rejects the fake news and offers an even-handed view." . . .

Sean McMeekin's Stalin-centric history of World War II, in which Stalin is very bad, but the real villain is Franklin Roosevelt and the philo-Communists (and actual Communists) who surrounded him. With, as always, lessons for today. The written version of this review can be found here: https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/11/04/stalins-war-a-new-history-of-world-war-ii-sean-mcmeekin/ We strongly encourage, in these days of censorship and deplatforming, all readers to bookmark our main site: https://www.theworthyhouse.com and to subscribe for email notifications of new posts. The Worthy House does not solicit donations or other support, or have ads. You can subscribe for email notifications here: https://theworthyhouse.com/subscribe-by-email This and all Worthy House narrations are offered with accurate closed captions (not auto-generated). "We are not a serious society. Our ruling class are men of no substance, lacking all knowledge and incapable of competent action on any front. The masses, while they sense a great deal is very wrong, are distracted by propaganda and ephemera. We feel we can afford to be unserious, because all of us lead lives of unprecedented material comfort. Any lack is eased by speedy delivery of sedatives designed to mask and hold down chthonic spiritual despair. To be sure, we do not lack for heralds of the coming storm—but we, high and low, have forgotten what a storm looks like. Read this book and you will remember, and you will also know what it is to live in a serious society." . . .

An exhaustive historical study of how Islam dealt with subjugated peoples in the areas it conquered. And of why Europe should be treated as lost, but not to Islam. The written version of this review can be found here: https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/11/18/the-decline-of-eastern-christianity-under-islam-bat-yeor/ We strongly encourage, in these days of censorship and deplatforming, all readers to bookmark our main site: https://www.theworthyhouse.com and to subscribe for email notifications of new posts. The Worthy House does not solicit donations or other support, or have ads. You can subscribe for email notifications here: https://theworthyhouse.com/subscribe-by-email This and all Worthy House narrations are offered with accurate closed captions (not auto-generated). "For twenty years, our rulers have propagandized us with two contradictory claims. First, that the West is locked in an existential conflict with Islam, justifying any spending, any killing, and any erasure of our ancient liberties. And second, that no Muslim, as a Muslim, is any threat to anybody whatsoever. Resolving the contradiction is not hard, but why bother, because what American cares about global Islam now? As the American empire collapses inward and America’s divisions are elucidated ever more clearly, our internal conflicts have superseded any conflict with Islam. Still, maybe conflict will return when the West is reborn, or replaced, and as always we can learn a lot from studying the past that may yet be useful in the future." . . .

A discussion of a crucial new work on our digital age and our digital future, and of how our humanity can survive and flourish in the teeth of the digital swarm. The written version of this review can be found here: https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/11/30/human-forever-james-poulos/ We strongly encourage, in these days of censorship and deplatforming, all readers to bookmark our main site: https://www.theworthyhouse.com and to subscribe for email notifications of new posts. The Worthy House does not solicit donations or other support, or have ads. You can subscribe for email notifications here: https://theworthyhouse.com/subscribe-by-email This and all Worthy House narrations are offered with accurate closed captions (not auto-generated). "Digital communications technology is yet mostly a formless thing, still being born, upon which we moderns imprint our fears and our hopes. Some dreamers see it as an unalloyed good, which when grown will let us slip the chains of our humanity. Others, more grounded, see it as a genie best stuffed back into his bottle and dropped down a mineshaft, for otherwise its acid will corrode all that is permanent, melting it into the air. James Poulos takes neither approach; he is the apostle of creating the new way of human flourishing, finding the narrow path that threads between false utopia and catastrophe. “Which way, Western man?”, asks the meme. Poulos has an answer for us." . . .

Our future, if we have the will to grasp it, in a nutshell. The written version of this review can be found here: https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/06/17/the-foundationalist-manifesto-the-politics-of-future-past/ We strongly encourage, in these days of censorship and deplatforming, all readers to bookmark our main site: https://www.theworthyhouse.com and to subscribe for email notifications of new posts. The Worthy House does not solicit donations or other support, or have ads. You can subscribe for email notifications here: https://theworthyhouse.com/subscribe-by-email This and all Worthy House narrations are offered with accurate closed captions (not auto-generated). "I am here to give you back your future. Like Yeats’s golden bird, I will tell you of what is past, and passing, and to come. Here I offer an exposition of my, and what should be our, political program, both philosophy and movement, Foundationalism." . . .

An exhortation to change our ways, in particular how we eat, both for our own health benefit and for our freedom from oppression. The written version of this article can be found here: https://theworthyhouse.com/2022/11/22/the-eggs-benedict-option-raw-egg-nationalist/ We strongly encourage, in these days of censorship and deplatforming, all readers to bookmark our main site: https://www.theworthyhouse.com and to subscribe for email notifications of new posts. The Worthy House does not solicit donations or other support, or have ads. You can subscribe for email notifications here: https://theworthyhouse.com/subscribe-by-email This and all Worthy House narrations are offered with accurate closed captions (not auto-generated). "Often those who complain about the world in which we live offer neither a clear vision of how things might be different, nor a path to achieve that vision. Refreshingly, in The Eggs Benedict Option the pseudonymous writer Raw Egg Nationalist offers both vision and path, centered around food, in all its aspects, as the core of human flourishing. His essential insight is that, now as ever, he who controls the food controls the people. We must pick the controller—either our globalist ruling classes, or each of us for himself. The former is and will be a disaster for the nation. But for the latter, hard work and discipline are required. " . . .

A forgotten, but once-famous, author's autobiographical writings about turn-of-the-twentieth century Indiana and America. And of why nostalgia is pointless and destructive for today's Right. The written version of this review can be found here: https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/12/08/america-moved-booth-tarkingtons-memoirs-of-time-and-place-1869-1928-jeremy-beer/ We strongly encourage, in these days of censorship and deplatforming, all readers to bookmark our main site: https://www.theworthyhouse.com and to subscribe for email notifications of new posts. The Worthy House does not solicit donations or other support, or have ads. You can subscribe for email notifications here: https://theworthyhouse.com/subscribe-by-email This and all Worthy House narrations are offered with accurate closed captions (not auto-generated). "A hundred years ago, Booth Tarkington was probably the most famous and successful author in America. But today, even in Indiana, his birthplace and the state with which he is forever associated, and where I live, Tarkington is forgotten. Purdue University has a dormitory, Tarkington Hall, at which my late father was a faculty advisor. Pathetically, the Hall’s website says of Tarkington only that he was “a Purdue student of two years who as an alumnus, made multiple generous donations to Purdue.” Time has left Tarkington behind. Perhaps this is fitting, though, because he was entranced and bound by nostalgia, an understandable but ultimately pointless guiding principle." . . .

This is the audio narration version of my review of Matthew Rose's "A World After Liberalism," published in the outstanding journal IM-1776. The written version of this review can be found here: https://im1776.com/2021/11/26/a-world-after-liberalism-a-review/ We strongly encourage, in these days of censorship and deplatforming, all readers to bookmark our main site: https://www.theworthyhouse.com and to subscribe for email notifications of new posts. The Worthy House does not solicit donations or other support, or have ads. You can subscribe for email notifications here: https://theworthyhouse.com/subscribe-by-email This and all Worthy House narrations are offered with accurate closed captions (not auto-generated). "A World After Liberalism: Philosophers of the Radical Right offers political advice to Christians. The problem is, it’s not good advice. The author, Matthew Rose, ably profiles five Right philosophers of previous generations — but fails to link this past thought in any meaningful manner to today. He instead uses this historical survey to lecture Christians they must anathemize today’s fast-growing post-liberal Right, while ignoring that all present attacks on Christians come from the modern left, the final form of liberalism. Rose can’t bring himself to criticize the left, so his book fails to provide prudent political guidance to Christians." . . .

Another famous and insightful work from Carl Schmitt, on how sovereignty should be viewed in real life. And a discussion of sovereignty and the rule of law in 2022 America. The written version of this review can be found here: https://theworthyhouse.com/2021/12/15/political-theology-four-chapters-on-the-concept-of-sovereignty-carl-schmitt/ We strongly encourage, in these days of censorship and deplatforming, all readers to bookmark our main site: https://www.theworthyhouse.com and to subscribe for email notifications of new posts. The Worthy House does not solicit donations or other support, or have ads. You can subscribe for email notifications here: https://theworthyhouse.com/subscribe-by-email This and all Worthy House narrations are offered with accurate closed captions (not auto-generated). " 'Sovereign is he who decides the exception.' Among serious students of political philosophy, at least on the Right, these may be the most famous words of the twentieth century. That sentence opens this work, Political Theology, which consists of four linked essays, bound by the theme that most exercised Carl Schmitt in the early 1920s—the edge cases of sovereignty. In the post-World War II decades, such questions seemed very remote and theoretical, part of the turmoil of a benighted age we had left behind. But we were wrong, about all of it, and Schmitt was right, that this topic is universal and timeless. Thus, from Schmitt we can learn much that we can be sure will be directly applicable to the 2020s." . . .

An interesting, if flawed, analysis of rich people, which I found particularly interesting because I am rich myself, and much richer than I was when I wrote this! (This article was first published October 30, 2018.) The written version of this article can be found here: https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/10/30/book-review-plutocrats-the-rise-of-the-new-global-super-rich-and-the-fall-of-everyone-else-chrystia-freeland/ We strongly encourage, in these days of censorship and deplatforming, all readers to bookmark our main site: https://www.theworthyhouse.com and to subscribe for email notifications of new posts. The Worthy House does not solicit donations or other support, or have ads. You can subscribe for email notifications here: https://theworthyhouse.com/subscribe-by-email This and all Worthy House narrations are offered with accurate closed captions (not auto-generated). "From the cover, I expected this book to be a lightweight documentary version of Crazy Rich Asians, offering painfully amusing stories about the foibles of the super-rich, accompanied by cautions about the negative effects of such behavior upon the rest of America. Plus, the picture of private jets in the driveway attracted me as a vision of my hoped-for future, since I am comfortably in the 0.1%, and much of my time is spent struggling to reach yet higher. Instead, this book is a pretty dense, though rambling, web of analysis, with no funny stories at all. Still, it’s modestly worthwhile in itself, and it has the additional benefit that it sheds light on today." . . .

Tucker Carlson's indictment of our ruling classes in 2018. Things have gotten much worse since, and all the palatable solutions have long fled the building. (This article was first published October 28, 2018.) The written version of this article can be found here: https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/10/28/book-review-ship-of-fools-how-a-selfish-ruling-class-is-bringing-america-to-the-brink-of-revolution-tucker-carlson/ We strongly encourage, in these days of censorship and deplatforming, all readers to bookmark our main site: https://www.theworthyhouse.com and to subscribe for email notifications of new posts. The Worthy House does not solicit donations or other support, or have ads. You can subscribe for email notifications here: https://theworthyhouse.com/subscribe-by-email This and all Worthy House narrations are offered with accurate closed captions (not auto-generated). " 'Ship of Fools' extends the recent run of books that attack the American ruling class as decayed and awful. However it is characterized, as the professional-management elite, the Front Row Kids, or one of many other labels, all these books argue the ruling class is running our country into the ground, and most argue it is stupid and annoying to boot. I certainly agree, and I also tend to agree with the grim prognostication in the subtitle, that revolution is coming—that is, this will end in blood. What this book fails to offer, though, just like all these books, is any kind of possible other solution. Which, after a while, reinforces the reader’s conclusion that there is no other solution." . . .

An exploration of man and nature, with emphasis on the former, and of life and death. The written version of this review can be found here: https://theworthyhouse.com/2022/01/11/young-men-and-fire-norman-maclean/ We strongly encourage, in these days of censorship and deplatforming, all readers to bookmark our main site: https://www.theworthyhouse.com and to subscribe for email notifications of new posts. The Worthy House does not solicit donations or other support, or have ads. You can subscribe for email notifications here: https://theworthyhouse.com/subscribe-by-email This and all Worthy House narrations are offered with accurate closed captions (not auto-generated). "Not long ago, as I wrote, I was listening to a playlist on Spotify (I listen to music when I write, but never when I read). It was Spotify’s weekly list of suggested songs based on listening history—for me, a mix of genres, heavy on thumping EDM (electronic dance music), my preferred writing music, but also indie folk. One song caught my attention—“Cold Missouri Waters,” a haunting song about thirteen smokejumpers dying while fighting a forest fire. I was interested enough to look up the song, and found it relates a true story, equally haunting—the Mann Gulch Fire, in 1949. And from there I found this classic work, now thirty years old." . . . .

An exploration of how society should be organized to reward, rather than punish, the productive, rather than parasitical, members of society, and of why GDP is a stupid way to measure both wealth and social health. Not that any of Oren Cass's excellent recommendations will be implemented until the present dispensation is utterly destroyed. (This article was first published December 24, 2018.) The written, original version of this article can be found at https://theworthyhouse.com/2018/12/24/book-review-the-once-and-future-worker-a-vision-for-the-renewal-of-work-in-america-oren-cass/ We strongly encourage, in these days of censorship and deplatforming, all readers to bookmark our main site: https://www.theworthyhouse.com and to subscribe for email notifications of new posts. The Worthy House does not solicit donations or other support, or have ads. You can subscribe for email notifications here: https://theworthyhouse.com/subscribe-by-email This and all Worthy House narrations are offered with accurate closed captions (not auto-generated). "I have often complained that human flourishing cannot consist of increases in GDP that permit us all to buy more cheap Chinese crap every year. Oren Cass has arrived to say exactly why that is, and what we should focus on instead. He also adds important related thoughts, including very specific and reality-based policy recommendations. Thus, in many ways, this book completes my circle of thoughts on political economy, providing the basis for an economic program in opposition to the modern verities of both Left and Right.." . . .