Humiliation
Of the many lessons to take away from the COVID saga, one should be that your political enemies will do irrational things just because...
The Blind Arcade
Dec 23, 20232 min read
Untethered
“But one of the first and most leading principles on which the commonwealth and the laws are consecrated, is lest the temporary...
The Blind Arcade
Nov 3, 20233 min read
It's Always Like That in Onitsha
In the 1950s, the Polish writer Ryszard Kapuscinski visited the Nigerian city of Onitsha. He hired a truck to take him into the market,...
The Blind Arcade
Oct 18, 20233 min read
Homebound
I’ve been away from this site for a time. An opportunity arose to move back to my hometown, and the move itself along with the mental...
The Blind Arcade
Aug 3, 20231 min read
Envy
It’s for good reason that envy is one of the seven deadly sins while jealousy is not, though many conflate the two. Envy is a more...
The Blind Arcade
May 23, 20232 min read
Deluge
"And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison, and will go forth and deceive the nations which are in...
The Blind Arcade
May 14, 20232 min read
The Forever War
One of the best novels to come out of the disaster of Vietnam is a science fiction work called The Forever War by Joe Halderman. The...
The Blind Arcade
May 10, 20233 min read
Provocation
On December 22, 1984, a man name Bernie Getz shot four black teenagers on a subway train in New York City. The group — who by their own...
The Blind Arcade
May 4, 20235 min read
After the Revolution
Most Americans don’t seem to realize they’ve just lived through a cultural revolution. This goes for both Right and Left. Most on the...
The Blind Arcade
Apr 30, 20234 min read
Imposter Syndrome
The thing about the Aztecs is they were imposters. It’s a hard life being an imposter, because you know that’s what you are, and you also...
The Blind Arcade
Apr 26, 20233 min read
Roller Coaster Tycoon
For those of a certain age and a certain familiarity with video games, Roller Coaster Tycoon hits the nostalgia hard. The 1999 PC game,...
The Blind Arcade
Apr 22, 20233 min read
Prisoner's Dilemma
In rationalist circles, you’ll often see reference to a thought experiment called the “prisoner’s dilemma.” It posits a situation wherein...
The Blind Arcade
Apr 17, 20233 min read
Vengeance
During the Cold War, strategic thinkers in the United States and the Soviet Union operated under a principle of “mutually assured...
The Blind Arcade
Apr 16, 20232 min read
Panic
You won’t find Michelle Remembers on many lists of the most destructive books of the 20th Century. Published in 1980, the book focused on...
The Blind Arcade
Apr 13, 20235 min read
Folie a Deux
In 1895, an Irish woman named Bridget Cleary disappeared. Her husband Michael held a vigil for her, and he seemed sincerely distraught....
The Blind Arcade
Apr 4, 20235 min read
Mathias' Wild Ride to Moscow
In May 1987, Mathias Rust had himself one hell of a flight. The 18-year-old West German was a member of a youth flying club in Hamburg,...
The Blind Arcade
Apr 2, 20236 min read
The Eurasian Bloc
The Chinese have reached an arrangement with the Russians. The exact details are still unclear, and likely out of reach to the American...
The Blind Arcade
Mar 25, 20232 min read
Urban vs Rural
People often comment that the Left-Right divide in America is now a matter of urban vs rural, rather than between distinct regional blocs...
The Blind Arcade
Mar 22, 20234 min read
The American Empire
Sometime during the Cold War, the United States ceased to be a nation in the traditional sense and became an empire. This likely occurred...
The Blind Arcade
Mar 17, 20235 min read
Hope Sandoval
The 1990s are entering a strange zone in terms of cultural appraisal. Those who were formed by the decade — who experienced it as...
The Blind Arcade
Mar 15, 20234 min read