Priceless treasure guide disguised as the confused ramblings of a misanthropic iconoclast. Seeking the next level is not a quest for the timid, not for the easily discouraged.
16 January 2013
A Place Where It Is Better to be Born
In a world of steel-eyed death, and men who are fighting to be warm “Come in,” she said, “I’ll give you shelter from the storm” __Bob Dylan, Shelter from the Storm
If you came into the world today and could pick your nationality, there are at least 15 better choices than to be born American, according to a study by the Economist Intelligence Unit. The firm looked at 80 countries, scoring them across 11 variables to determine “which country will provide the best opportunities for a healthy, safe and prosperous life in the years ahead.”
...the Nordic countries come out on top, alongside Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. The top 15 also include Austria and Switzerland, which seem to meet similar criteria. The three best places to be born are, in order: Switzerland, Australia and Norway.
Here’s a surprise: the top-ranked countries also include Asia’s two super-rich city-states, Hong Kong and Singapore... _WaPo
Yes indeed. But almost all of these highest ranked countries have relatively small and homogeneous populations, compared to the US. Statistically, where is a person more likely to be born? In a tiny rich country with a low fertility rate, or in a highly populated African or Asian cesspool with a sky-high fertility rate?
In spite of Asia’s miraculous growth and of Europe’s economic decline, factors such as political rights and health standards keep the Western world overwhelmingly desirable. Other than a small number of exceptions, most of which are mentioned above, the top third of the rankings is dominated by Europe and other Western states. _WaPo
Nations of Europe and the Anglosphere score well in the rankings -- for now. But with dysfunctional immigration policies that welcome the unassimilable, untrainable, fertile, and impoverished third world peoples -- and with economic policies that punish the native born who are productive and ambitious -- these "fortunate countries" are setting the stage for a less fortunate future.
There are some demographic factors which the Economist Intelligence Unit was not brave enough to face. For example, can you imagine the quality of life in a Switzerland, Singapore, or Hong Kong, which was populated mostly by black Kenyans or South Africans?
The average population IQ correlates very well with a nation's GDP. I wonder why the Economist Intelligence Unit neglected that crucial demographic factor?
On another September 11, eleven years ago, Muslim terrorists used civilian aircraft full of innocent people to attack three iconic buildings within the USA. The attack killed over 3,000 people, shut down US civilian air travel for a week, cost over $1 trillion in damages, and spawned multiple wars and military actions in reprisal.
You never know what may happen today, or tomorrow. It could be another Islamic terror attack -- but in another form, such as a radioactive dirty bomb to deny use of entire cities, or an EMP attack that could shut down the electrical power grid for most of entire continent for an extended period of time.
Forgetfulness occurs when those who have been long inured to civilized order can no longer remember a time in which they had to wonder whether their crops would grow to maturity without being stolen or their children sold into slavery by a victorious foe. … They forget that in time of danger, in the face of the Enemy, they must trust and confide in each other, or perish.
They forget, in short, that there has ever been a category of human experience called the Enemy. And that, before 9/11, was what had happened to us. The very concept of the Enemy had been banished from our moral and political vocabulary. An enemy was just a friend we hadn’t done enough for — yet. Or perhaps there had been a misunderstanding, or an oversight on our part — something that we could correct. And this means that that our first task is that we must try to grasp what the concept of the Enemy really means.
The Enemy is someone who is willing to die in order to kill you. And while it is true that the Enemy always hates us for a reason — it is his reason, and not ours._Instapundit
Historically, we are living through exceptionally peaceful and prosperous times. There is no particular reason why that should continue to be the case, particularly when entire citizenries are being dumbed down into veritable Idiocracies.
Hope for the best, plan for the worst. If you are currently raising one or more children, or intend to do so, consider making them dangerous. And remember: It is never to late to have a dangerous childhood.
Socialism in Venezuela vs. Cronyism in Russia vs. ...
Hugo Chavez' socialist revolution has been championed by many Americans, who would like to see Chavez' experiment repeated in the US. Here is more about Chavez' revolutionary success in Venezuela:
It is clear that the Chávez regime has been squeezing every last penny out of the oil sector...the money hasn’t just been used for social programs, but also to fund Venezuela’s expensive foreign policy, as well as its efforts to cover up the results of poor policy, rampant cronyism, and the general mismanagement of the public sector. When things go wrong, Venezuelan citizens are the ones who pay the price for the state’s poor choices.
Three things seem likely at this juncture: first, no one will be able to trust whatever “investigation” the Chavez government undertakes. It will be an obvious whitewash. Second, conditions for oil workers are unlikely to improve. Third, the usual crew of Chavez defenders in the United States, desperate after all these decades of misery and failure to point to some place some where, where authoritarian socialism isn’t a dreary charnel house and economic failure zone, will struggle to convince themselves that things are just fine in Bolivarian Venezuela. _Walter Russell Mead
Chavez' is up for re-election, but with the total control he has seized over every aspect of Venezuela's government, elections in Venezuela may not mean the same thing as they mean in an actual democratic country.
Meanwhile in Russia, cronyism is alive and well, with the Pussy Riot safely locked up and no longer a threat to the state. Oil prices are high, and the Russia's crony classes are living well for now. But Russia and its cronies have many other problems that must be concealed from the public eye:
A recent government crackdown on Russian media, particularly online information portals specialising in health tips and harm reduction methods for drug users, has sparked widespread public opposition, with critics claiming that the 'draconian silencing' of public health advocates could worsen an already perilous health situation in the country. _Russia-Health
Largely due to cronyistic suppression of opportunity in Russia, the men of Russia have sunk to such a pathetic state that more and more Russian women have given up on finding a suitable mate.
"...Russian women simply have no interest in marrying Russian men,” says Irina Zhuravleva, the head of Russia’s census department at the Federal Statistics Service. A single woman herself, Zhuravleva says she “never had any interest in marrying a drunk...
The dating prospects are so grim, in fact, that Shpakova and many other Russian women of her generation are consciously deciding to stay single. Moscow alone boasts more than 3 million single women between the ages of 25 and 50, out of a population of 11.1 million (that’s three times the number of single Muscovite men). In Russia as a whole, there are 11 million more women than men, due in part to a century of bloody revolutions, gulags, and wars that drained the country’s male population. Add to that the fact that male life expectancy is particularly grim in Russia—on average, 59 years, as opposed to a woman’s 73 years, the largest gap of any country in the world—and you’ve got a serious demographic imbalance. _Simply Beastly
Meanwhile, crony Russia is looking westward to socially democratic Europe, hoping to squeeze some wealth from the continent before the tight oil & gas revolution reaches European shores. But in the land of the ubiquitous welfare state and ongoing demographic collapse, poverty is returning to claim its due. In the land which China is counting on to re-start its moribund exporting enterprise, recession is setting in, and Euro leaders are doubling down on the foolish policies which led them to this state of affairs.
And in the US -- the only country that is actually capable of turning the global economy away from the abyss -- voters cannot decide. They cannot seem to choose between a failed US president who is leading their country more deeply into debt, despair, and demographic decline . . . and a former Massachusetts governor who was also successful in the private sector -- a man who -- unlike his opponent -- is bold enough to lay out a broad array of tangible plans for the nation's future.
We are seeing a world that is growing more unstable, with a dumbing down of electorates in the advanced world, and the ascendancy of corruption in Russia, China, India, in several failing states of Europe, and in Obama's America.
Hey Western Civilisation: What Makes You so Special?
An overwhelming number of the explorers in history have been European. The Concise Encyclopedia of Explorers lists a total of 274 explorers, of which only 15 are non-European, with none listed after the mid-fifteenth century.8 In the urge to explore new regions of the earth and map the nameless, we can detect, in a crystallized way, the “prime-symbol” of Western restlessness. We can also detect the Western mind’s desire – if I may borrow the language of Hegel – to expand its cognitive horizon, to “subdue the outer world to its ends with an energy which has ensured for it the mastery of the world.”9 _Ricardo Duchesne
It is asserted by historian Ricardo Duchesne that westerners have also been at the forefront of most important human global exploration and discovery (h/t Dennis Mangan).
IN HIS 2003 book, Human Accomplishment: Pursuit of Excellence in the Arts and Sciences, 800 BC to 1950, Charles Murray argued that the great artistic and scientific accomplishments were overwhelmingly European. ”What the human species is today,” he wrote, “it owes in astonishing degree to what was accomplished in just half a dozen centuries by the peoples of one small portion of the northwestern Eurasian land mass.”
...The point I want to make, however, is that Murray pays no attention to accomplishments in other human endeavors such as leadership, exploration, and heroic deeds. The achievements he measures come only in the form of “great books” and “great ideas.” In this respect, Murray’s book is similar to certain older-style Western Civ textbooks where the progression of modern liberal ideals is the central theme. David Gress dubbed this type of historiography the “Grand Narrative.” By teaching Western history in terms of the realization of liberal democratic values, these texts “placed a burden of justification on the West … to explain how the reality differed from the ideal.’3 Gress called upon historians to do away with this idealized image of Western uniqueness and to emphasize the realities of Western geopolitical struggles and mercantile interests. Norman Davies, too, has criticized the way early Western civilization courses tended to “filter out anything that might appear mundane or repulsive.”4
MY VIEW IS that Europeans were not only exceptional in their literary endeavors, but also in their agonistic and expansionist behaviors. Their great books, including their liberal values, were themselves inseparably connected to their aristocratic ethos of competitive individualism. There is no need to concede to multicultural critics, as Davies does, “the sorry catalogue of wars, conflict, and persecutions that have dogged every stage of the [Western] tale.”5 The expansionist dispositions of Europeans as well as their literary and other achievements were similarly driven by an aggressive and individually felt desire for superlative and undemocratic recognition. _Richard Duchesne
It is neither fashionable nor politically correct to acknowledge the leadership of Euro - westerners in any important and beneficial activity. This is particularly true if one is claiming that there is something innate within Euro-westerners which allowed them to provide leadership in multiple areas of human accomplishment which have improved the overall human condition for large numbers of the world's inhabitants.
More politically correct scholars such as Jared Diamond (Guns, Germs, and Steel) have attempted to provide alternative explanations to the idea of western exceptionalism. But few such arguments are able to withstand any degree of scrutiny or critical examination. Which leaves us with the question: What is it about western civilisation which caused it to produce so many exceptional achievers across so many important human fields of study and achievement?
Below is an audio interview with Duchesne, where he discusses his arguments regarding the uniqueness of western civilisation.
Interview w/ Ricardo Duchesne re his book: The Uniqueness of Western Civilization
And so, again, what makes Euro-westerners so special?
It has been claimed that ADHD is far more common among Europeans than in non-Europeans. It is likely that a number of other genetic clusters which influence behaviour are likely to have been divergent in European populations as opposed to non-European populations. As the tools of genetic study improve, we should better understand how different breeding populations diverged in unique ways.
As Duchesne points out, the particular aggressiveness of westerners creates a wide range of problems at the same time that it opens and exploits beneficial opportunities.
Other populations tend to be more aggressive than Europeans in terms of impulsive violent crime -- such as many African populations and a number of South American indigenous populations. But Europeans are more violent in this way than are East Asians. There is a gradient of sorts, in terms of homicide rates: Africans > Europeans > East Asians.
Curiously, a similar gradient of average male testosterone levels appears to exist, with higher levels in Africans, medium levels in Europeans, and lower levels in East Asian males.
Even more interestingly, an IQ gradient exists in the opposite direction, with East Asian average IQs > European average IQs > African average IQs. Taken together, this might suggest that exploration requires at least moderate IQ and moderate testosterone levels -- in combination with other gene clusters which may add particular strengths to an explorer's innate arsenal of grit, gumption, "g", and go-getiveness.
We should note, however, that "he who laughs last, laughs best." If Europeans (and East Asians) allow their numbers to decline below certain levels of influence, they risk being ultimately overwhelmed by more enthusiastic procreators who may unfortunately lack some of the more remarkable qualities of the higher achieving populations, on average.
SubSaharan Africa is different from the rest of the world. Its countries tend to be poorer, more violent, with more disease, less educated and less literate, and much more prolific in terms of birth rates and population growth.
Last October, the United Nations announced the global population had breached seven billion and would expand rapidly for decades, taxing natural resources if countries cannot better manage the growth.
Nearly all of the increase is in sub-Saharan Africa, where the population rise far outstrips economic expansion. Of the roughly 20 countries where women average more than five children, almost all are in the region.
Elsewhere in the developing world, in Asia and Latin America, fertility rates have fallen sharply in recent generations and now resemble those in the United States — just above two children per woman. That transformation was driven in each country by a mix of educational and employment opportunities for women, access to contraception, urbanization and an evolving middle class. _NYT
“The pace of growth in Africa is unlike anything else ever in history and a critical problem,” said Joel E. Cohen, a professor of population at Rockefeller University in New York City. “What is effective in the context of these countries may not be what worked in Latin America or Kerala or Bangladesh.” _NYT
Nigeria, like many sub-Saharan African countries, has experienced a slight decline in average fertility rates, to about 5.5 last year from 6.8 in 1975. But this level of fertility, combined with an extremely young population, still puts such countries on a steep and disastrous growth curve. Half of Nigerian women are under 19, just entering their peak childbearing years...
Statistics are stunning. Sub-Saharan Africa, which now accounts for 12 percent of the world’s population, will account for more than a third by 2100, by many projections. _NYT
...contraceptive use is rising only a fraction of a percent annually — in many sub-Saharan African nations, it is under 20 percent — and, in surveys, even well-educated women in the region often want four to six children.
“At this pace it will take 100-plus years to arrive at a point where fertility is controlled,” Dr. Guengant said. _NYT
That evening at the clinic, Bola Agboola, 30, gave birth to her second child. After nurses swaddled the boy, dispensed with the placenta and declared Ms. Agboola well, they whooped, praising God.
Then, as Ms. Agboola’s husband entered, some started another chant: “Now start another one. Start another one.” _NYT
Across the developed world from Japan to South Korea to Spain to Italy, birthrates have plummeted. Instead of 6 children per woman, in many of the most advanced nations of the world, average birthrates have fallen perilously close to only 1 child per woman.
In such countries, it is easy to understand Robert Zubrin's warning against the lefty-green zealots of the overpopulation brigade. Most of the technological and scientific advances that propel us into the future are brought about by persons at the upper end of the IQ curve -- somewhere above 120 in general. The most advanced science is usually pushed forward by persons with IQ's near or above 130.
It is easy to think that either overpopulation or underpopulation is the greatest danger to humanity. But the truth is more complex and nuanced.
Not all populations of humans achieve the same results, in terms of the societies that they build, and the future ambitions which they are capable of achieving.
In most populations of the Earth, the educating of women, and the achievement of good public health and the meeting of basic needs, is enough to bring birthrates close to equilibrium. But for various reasons, some populations of the planet may resist achieving such a balance.
Some of the maps above contain enough information to tell you what is being compared. For others, you may need to guess between "national GDP", proportion of persons living on less than $1 a day, etc. But by simply skimming over the maps, one can easily see that SubSaharan Africa is not like most of the rest of the world.
If the rest of the world does not wish to become like subSaharan Africa, it may need to devote some thought to the problem. Compassion and basic humanity are generally the best guidelines for such thinking.
How a 1,000 Euro Pair of Implants Upset the Balance of Nature in Bagnolo
Laura Maggi has been running Le Cafe in Bagnolo, Italy, for eight years. But it wasn't until she invested in breast implants and a more revealing wardrobe, that her business began to truly take off.
After eight years running a bar, Laura Maggi suddenly found men beating a path to her door. Not for the quality of her coffee and aperitifs, but because she had started appearing for work in highly revealing outfits.
Hundreds of male customers flocked there day and night, leaving their cars double parked in the surrounding streets.
Congestion became such a problem that the lady mayor announced she was considering an emergency bylaw to limit traffic in the area. _DailyMail
In fact, the Mayor forbade her husband from visiting Le Cafe, and several other wives of the village have followed suit. But what are the women actually complaining about?
For a cost of between 1,000 Euros and 2,500 Euros, any woman can obtain a reasonable approximation of Laura's breasts. Revealing clothing is easily come by. Learning to think of one's self as sexy, and acting the part, may be the most difficult accomplishment for most modern, feminist-indoctrinated women, however. In many ways, large numbers of women may have forgotten how to act like women. If so, that could be an expensive lapse of memory for some, and a huge windfall of profits for Laura Maggi!
What if other female bar owners in Italy decide to imitate Laura's business plan? What will this do to the already drooping birthrates in Italia? If the men are all at Laura's bar, they can't be home making tomorrow's generation of Italians.
If Italy's women are to save the country's future, they may have to re-learn some very old lessons about human nature.
Images below are via Radical Cartography (h/t Foseti) Similar US maps available for percent Native American and percent Pacific Islander
A higher percent European population is generally seen in lower crime and higher income regions.
A higher percentage of persons of African descent is generally seen in high crime, low income regions. Blacks tend to concentrate in cities.
The "hispanic" category is misleading and confused. For US populations, "hispanic" typically refers to a range of mestizo populations from Mexico and Central America. It can also refer to Cuban immigrants, Puerto Rican immigrants, Europeans with Spanish names or to blacks with Spanish sounding names.
As one would expect with such a confused category, crime and poverty rates associated with a high "hispanic" percentage are mixed.
As with the hispanic category, the "Asian" category can refer to a wide range of population groups, from East Asians to South Asians to Southeast Asians, etc. In general, areas with higher "Asian" population percentages tend to have less crime and higher income.
The above map has a link to the Trulia.com crime map website, which will provide you with an incredible amount of "neighborhood-level" detail for crime in whichever city you select. Very useful for planning activities, and neighborhoods to avoid.
Crime rates in the US tend to be higher in cities -- particularly in cities with high black populations and high mestizo populations, with low European and Asian populations.
This map of Chicago gives an idea of the level of segregation one can find within US cities, over 40 years after affirmative action and desegregation policies were put in place. In high black percentage areas and neighborhoods within cities, crime and poverty rates tend to be significantly higher than in areas where black population percentages are lower. That simple fact goes a long way toward explaining the voluntary segregation one finds -- those who can move away from the crime and poverty tend to do so.
If black crime were eliminated from US crime statistics, violent crime rates in the US would be comparable to those in the most peaceful of European states.
More information, taken from official US government crime statistics, on racial disparities in US crime:
Blacks are seven times more likely than people of other races to commit murder, and eight times more likely to commit robbery.
When blacks commit crimes of violence, they are nearly three times more likely than non-blacks to use a gun, and more than twice as likely to use a knife.
Hispanics commit violent crimes at roughly three times the white rate, and Asians commit violent crimes at about one quarter the white rate.
The single best indicator of violent crime levels in an area is the percentage of the population that is black and Hispanic.
America is a complex mix of peoples, varying widely by geography and by sub-regions within particular regions and cities. Rates of poverty, crime, corruption etc. vary widely across the regions of the US. Some of these differences can be associated with differences in racial and cultural compositions of these different regions and sub-regions.
If you are planning a visit to the US, please take these differences into account in your planning, for your own safety. If you are planning to re-locate to the US, or are re-locating from one area within to the US to another, please consider the issues presented here, for your own and your families' sakes.
Of course, it could be a lot worse. We could be talking about South Africa:
With 50 murders and 40 ‘culpible homicides’ a day, South Africa has the world’s highest daily violent-death rates.
By comparison, the United States’ city of New Orleans, which holds the dubious distinction of being the ‘murder capitol of the USA,’ records 80 murders A YEAR. _Source
More: The global crime rate map (Economist via Mises Institute) and Wikipedia crime rate table below, may provide a foundation for understanding patterns of crime within different populations within the US:
The Wikipedia table above lists intentional homicides per 100,000 population. It is hampered by the fact that many of the third world nations of the world are unable to maintain accurate statistics of this nature, and tend to understate their own murder and homicide rates as an inadvertent routine. Leave it as an exercise to guess which nations that should be listed prominently near the top, are not.
