When government centralizes control over social benefits, it can easily cross the line from democracy to authoritarianism. These three examples, from Russia, Europe, and America, have too much in common for our own comfort.
Beijing knows that it will pay little, if any, price for its meddling. Until this changes, and until countries like the United States and Germany combat this more effectively, then we should expect Chinese influence to grow, not diminish.
Authors Le Carré and Koestler saw through the moral justifications of 20th-century communism. They understood that tallying up lives saved and lost is a bad way to do business, particularly when the “lives saved” column is skewed by those in power.
The new norms are likely to become law by the end of the year, slipped in as amendments to other proposed changes to the penal code that would eliminate the crime of sedition and lower the legal consequences for misappropriating public funds.
For there to be blasphemy there needs to be religion and, in this case, I am referring to the religions of identity politics and climate-change activism. These are not merely religions, however; they are the religions of fanatics.
No totalitarian state can firmly establish itself without identifying its enemies, those who are deemed to be dangerous for both state and society. This time, the scapegoats are the unvaccinated.
Protesting to assert our rights might give us a solution Achilles didn’t have when he contested Agamemnon’s authority. But we also lack something Achilles had—heroism—and so we find ourselves powerless.
