Chapter One - The Convergence

 Carlson first describes how the political left in America has changed. He says that, although a little loopy, the left used to care about real issues and actually work to oppose power and protect the little guy. Now, he says, the left is fully on board with nigh all-powerful technocrats running everything and economically crushing the little guy into the dust.

Foxconn manufactures our iPhones under conditions which make American chattel slavery look homey. Uber calls its drivers "contractors," takes no responsibility for them as a company would for employees, and pays them almost nothing. The left offers not a word of protest.

He describes at length two examples to demonstrate the nature of today's "liberals": Mark Zuckerberg and his company Facebook and Chelsea Clinton. Facebook, Carlson, says, is abusive and destructive to its users and its leadership is openly contemptuous of "lesser people." Carlson describes Chelsea Clinton as entitled virtually from birth, vastly praised and rewarded for no discernible accomplishments.

These two, Carlson contends, exemplify today's ruling elite.

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I must add a note of caution here to some people who are joining in the discussion. From my own notes so far and browsing through the rest of the book, there is an issue which will be coming up in the comments which may trouble you.

This book is about a ruling elite who are carelessly destroying our country. It is a simple fact that many of that ruling elite are Jewish. Just in this first chapter, there are two examples. Carlson never mentions this fact, but fact it remains. And considering they are approximately two percent of the U.S. population, their wild overrepresentation among those causing such destruction is worthy of comment.

I promise this will not descend into wild rants against "the Jooooooooooz" or plotting their destruction, but I (and probably a few other commenters) will also not be silent about this when it is relevant to the book.

The captain is dead

I'm a bit of a gamer. Not fanatical, but interested and involved. So this midweek post is a bit of a diversion.

Carlson uses the metaphor of being on a ship where the captain disappeared and the crew went mad, to the great peril of the passengers. This is, coincidentally, the backstory of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri.

Alpha Centauri is a 4x game. For those of you not familiar with gaming terminology, those 4 are eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate. You lead a faction attempting to colonize a new planet. Over the course of the game, you must develop new technologies, explore an unknown planet, develop resources, manage your population, negotiate with rivals, and sometimes go to war with them.

The backstory is that a colony ship was sent to Alpha Centauri with the passengers in cryogenic sleep. Just days before they were due to land, the leaders wake up, and someone (no one knows who) murdered the captain. Now, instead of having one clear leader, they have seven leaders with wildly differing ideologies and priorities. These immediately fall to squabbling, and upon reaching their destination, establish seven different colonies spread across the planet.

So, yes, that is literally all the connection this has to our reading selection, but it's a fun game, and I didn't have any other ideas for a midweek post.

Sid Meier also created the Civilization games, which take place on Earth over the course of human history. Practically speaking, Alpha Centauri is Civilization 2.5. It was released between 2 and 3, and uses many of the same mechanics. Honestly, I think Alpha Centauri is, in many ways, a better game than a lot of the Civilization games. Because the developers were using entirely fictional characters instead of historical leaders, they could give them much more clearly defined personalities, and define the factions' preferences and behaviors in ways you couldn't talking about real historical societies (at least, not without offending someone).

Since the game is now 20 years old, it is available very cheaply. If you have any interest in turn-based strategy games, it's worth checking out.

Catch up with you Saturday to talk about Chapter 1.

Introduction: Our Ship of Fools

 Carlson says we appear to be aboard a ship whose crew have gone insane, thrown the captain overboard, and are steering the ship (and all of us) towards certain doom.

He starts this analysis by wondering how the hell Donald Trump got elected to the presidency. This is not a normal candidate, and not one chosen by a happy, contented populace. He is the choice of desperation, screaming that this system is not working for us.

He says that the problems are evident from the decline of the middle class and the increasing separation between the classes in America. The rich and the ordinary working Joe don't interact anymore, except in positions of explicit service. He talks about the problems caused by mass immigration and ethnic diversity. He says the opioid crisis which is killing millions of Americans has been left entirely unaddressed.

The real problem, though, is that our ruling elites simply hold the American people in contempt. They do not care about us or our problems. They consider us more or less a nuisance. This is a dangerously unstable situation, especially in a nominal democracy. So we need to take a look at who these people are, what they are doing, and what we the people can do about it.

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As usual, next week we'll do the next chapter. Unfortunately, the chapters are of uneven length in this book, so we'll just have to roll with that. I can't conveniently bundle two 20 page chapters together in one week as we've done sometimes before.

I look forward to your thoughts. God be with you.

The ship will be setting sail in one week's time

 Okay, so we're about to start on Tucker Carlson's Ship of Fools. As usual, this will be a weekly blog post with open discussion. For next week, let's start with the introduction. I'll post that thread next Saturday morning. I hope everyone is having a great start to the new year.

Oh, for those interested, I just got connected to Social Galactic. I am, of course, @Zaklog. If you are not there, but want an opinion, I will be happy to offer a review of sorts once I've knocked around a bit and gotten a good sense of it.

God be with you, and let's make this a great discussion, folks.

We will shortly be embarking on a Ship of Fools

For anyone interested in joining our deplorable discussion group, we will shortly be starting a new tome, Tucker Carlson's Ship of Fools: How a Selfish Ruling Class Is Bringing America to the Brink of Revolution.

For newcomers, what happens is we read one or two chapters of a book each week, I post a short summary, and everyone chips in with their opinions on the book, what they liked, disliked, agreed or disagreed with. It's nothing complicated. All it takes to participate is a copy of the book and a little free time. I look forward to your thoughts.

Update: May as well add another relevant announcement here: 

New year and back in the game

 I apologize for the extended absence from this blog. Some of it was due to one of the wonderful *ahem* eccentricities of 2020. Some of it was due to a busy work schedule. Regardless, all of that is over with, and I should be ready to resume our conversation.

So to the first order of business: Do we start a new book or finish our last? When I was seriously interrupted, we were nearing the end of the Inferno. We had also decided on Ship of Fools as our next book. So did you guys want to finish the book we were nearing the end of, or just write that off and start the new one? I am entirely open to either possibility.

Oh, and happy new year. Here's hoping 2021 brings us a return to sanity. (Yes, I know it's a very doubtful hope, but what is hope for if not for when things look at their bleakest? Nobody compliments a man on his courage when he's facing off against a four year old with a wiffle bat. If hope is a virtue, it is most a virtue in times like these.)

God be with you. I look forward to your thoughts and continuing our conversation.