Monthly Archives: February 2017

Europe

Posted on February 28, 2017 by bsixsmith

Maybe I should visit Paris. Potter up the Champs-Élysées. Marvel at King Louis’ palace. Drink wine in an outside cafe. Maybe I should visit London. Wander round Westminster Abbey. Take a shopping tour of Camden. Hitch a ride with a … Continue reading →

Posted in Poetry | Leave a comment

The Provocateur and the Pederasts…

Posted on February 22, 2017 by bsixsmith

Milo Yiannopoulos was a speeding car, destined to crash. The British controversialist has spun into his biggest scandal yet, as he has been charged with excusing paedophilia. Specifically, he claimed that older men sleeping with “sexually mature 13-year-olds” might be … Continue reading →

Posted in Sex | 4 Comments

Colin Wilson, Thinking at Angles…

Posted on February 18, 2017 by bsixsmith

“[Colin] Wilson,” Clive James wrote, “Can’t think straight and that’s that”. I agree. Wilson, a novelist, critic, philosopher and esotericist, had no talent for rational thought. If he suspect that something was true, be it the existence of ghosts or … Continue reading →

Posted in Appreciations, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

A.C.’s Failings…

Posted on February 11, 2017 by bsixsmith

I am really enjoying the radicalisation of the once-complacent, smug and optimistic humanist elite. Seriously, AC Grayling’s thunderous tirades against “Brexit” are admirably spirited and engaging. True, they are still full of absurdities. Take this: Too many people were disenfranchised: … Continue reading →

Posted in Britain, Liberalism | 8 Comments

Jonathan Bowden, a Force of Nature…

Posted on February 9, 2017 by bsixsmith

Though the alternative right largely consists of young men, it draws on the ideas of old men and, indeed, dead men: long dead, like Friedrich Nietzsche and Julius Evola, and more recently dead, like Samuel Francis, Joe Sobran and an … Continue reading →

Posted in Fascism, Identity, Ideology | 5 Comments

This Be Another Verse…

Posted on February 7, 2017 by bsixsmith

It fucks us up, our DNA. That is the sad but honest truth. It makes our hair turn thin and grey And sends our lipids through the roof. It makes maths lessons wearisome, And gives us dreadful allergies It tortures … Continue reading →

Posted in Poetry | 2 Comments

The Rise of the Right and the Triumph of Rhetoric…

Posted on February 6, 2017 by bsixsmith

My new article for Quillette… Naïve liberals speak of the “marketplace of ideas,” suggesting that free and open public discourse allows people to judge theories before arriving at the truth. Yet are customers good judges of products? Often no. Salespeoples’ … Continue reading →

Posted in Rhetoric | 3 Comments

You Can be Alternative, Controversial And Bad…

Posted on February 5, 2017 by bsixsmith

Ron Unz is an interesting man. From his public writings you would think him an idiosyncratic liberal. His most famous essays have argued that Mexican immigration does not exacerbate crime and that attempts to explain racial differences in cognitive performance … Continue reading →

Posted in Media | Leave a comment

On Pinkglossianism

Posted on February 3, 2017 by bsixsmith

Steven Pinker is not wrong to say that some things have got better – or even that some things are getting better. We live longer. We have more food. We have more medicine. We have more free time. We have … Continue reading →

Posted in Scepticism | 4 Comments