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Author is an arts graduate. General Patton warned against such historians. It is why he recommended autobiographies rather than biographies. The words of Caesa

Author is an arts graduate. General Patton warned against such historians. It is why he recommended autobiographies rather than biographies. The words of Caesar rather than the words written about Caesar. You also delegate your agency to critique. Patton took the good of Napoleon and savaged the bad. To paraphrase Patton, it's a type of tall poppy syndrome. The historian lacks the skills, talent, and mindset that causes men and women who achieve success in the real world. They resent those who remind them of what they lack. Because of his tenured position, he wants for nothing while, outside of STEM, contributes very little. He is wholly reliant on the types of men and women he bashes. It's the dilettante who mocks the farmer as he eats the farmer's food. Reminds of the critique of self righteous pacifists during the World Way 2(Godwin violation. Apologies.) "How easy it is to be a pacifist safe and secure behind the security of the American Navy's big guns." How easy it is to mock entrepreneurs, capitalism, and strivers when they permit your standard of living and very existence.

pessimizer 1y ago
How easy it is to mock Stalin's USSR from behind the tanks of the Red Army, I think you mean. The USSR won WWII. So now I think you have to become Communist, or at least get a degree in Marxist-Leninist political theory, in order to comment on WWII.
- CrulesAll 1y ago
  No one was allowed mock Stalin, comrade. In socialist society, you will be told what you mean. The USSR won WW2 with no air force. I can't recall the USSR's long range bombing of Tokyo nor Berlin which is odd because that would kind of be essential to such an argument. Destroying the industrial heartland seems kind of important, comrade. Nor do I recall the great victories at sea? Stalin had no aircraft carriers. Again quite strange. They won WW2 without a de facto air force or Navy. They also seemed to limp into Berlin with horse and carts. Which again is odd because you said they were victorious. It's even odder when Patton said he could be in Moscow within a week. Probably capitalist lies, comrade, and not real socialism.
deleted 1y ago
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pas 1y ago
Even the words of Caesar mean nothing without context. (Yes, it's interpreters all the way down.) The author doesn't mock capitalism or strivers, it mocks the self-promulgating Sect of Success, and points out how it preys on vulnerable people, and coerce them through peer-pressure into the good old "pulling themselves up by their bootstraps" and then make them feel inadequate when they doesn't work out, and they burn out, and so on.
- CrulesAll 1y ago
  I did not realise people read things without the ability of context to help them. I am sure Patton read the commentaries without any knowledge of Rome at all, a lack of any military techne, nor the ability to critique it(pretty sure I mentioned this.) As for translators, I think you might have missed the point Patton was making about a certain type of historian. Patton recommended the autobiography as source 0. Not the only source(straw man.) Perhaps I needed to spell that out? By reading multiple sources(Dr. D'Este regarded him as one of the most well read officers in history. He was clearly dyslexic as well, and like most dyslexics, it has nothing to do with intelligence. On the contrary, it results in a phenomenal memory ability. See the British Barrister George Carman for similar traits.) Patton was able to get a gestalt. He always found the original source, particularly the mindset, to be most valuable. "The author doesn't mock capitalism or strivers" and then proceeds to list out the common bog standard anti-capitalism and strivers 'arguments'. He does not mock them. Of that you are correct. It's more of an angry tirade that is just rehashed champagne socialism. I could give you a far better critique of the current form of capitalism. The quite odious stench of libertarianism and their no rules capitalism laid the framework for where we are now. We end up with oligopoly. This leads to employees having no choice, and a toxic work environment led by the 'radical candor' mindset. See Ray Dalio(Copeland's book about this cancer is great.) Look at Andy Grove's 'constructive criticism' which infected every area of corporate America and practically destroyed it. Toxic radical candor, oligopolies, and lack of employee protection laws creates the environment we have now. Author knows nothing of these and just presents the standard tenured baizuo arguments.

pessimizer 1y ago

How easy it is to mock Stalin's USSR from behind the tanks of the Red Army, I think you mean. The USSR won WWII. So now I think you have to become Communist, or at least get a degree in Marxist-Leninist political theory, in order to comment on WWII.

CrulesAll 1y ago
No one was allowed mock Stalin, comrade. In socialist society, you will be told what you mean. The USSR won WW2 with no air force. I can't recall the USSR's long range bombing of Tokyo nor Berlin which is odd because that would kind of be essential to such an argument. Destroying the industrial heartland seems kind of important, comrade. Nor do I recall the great victories at sea? Stalin had no aircraft carriers. Again quite strange. They won WW2 without a de facto air force or Navy. They also seemed to limp into Berlin with horse and carts. Which again is odd because you said they were victorious. It's even odder when Patton said he could be in Moscow within a week. Probably capitalist lies, comrade, and not real socialism.

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

pas 1y ago

Even the words of Caesar mean nothing without context. (Yes, it's interpreters all the way down.) The author doesn't mock capitalism or strivers, it mocks the self-promulgating Sect of Success, and points out how it preys on vulnerable people, and coerce them through peer-pressure into the good old "pulling themselves up by their bootstraps" and then make them feel inadequate when they doesn't work out, and they burn out, and so on.

CrulesAll 1y ago
I did not realise people read things without the ability of context to help them. I am sure Patton read the commentaries without any knowledge of Rome at all, a lack of any military techne, nor the ability to critique it(pretty sure I mentioned this.) As for translators, I think you might have missed the point Patton was making about a certain type of historian. Patton recommended the autobiography as source 0. Not the only source(straw man.) Perhaps I needed to spell that out? By reading multiple sources(Dr. D'Este regarded him as one of the most well read officers in history. He was clearly dyslexic as well, and like most dyslexics, it has nothing to do with intelligence. On the contrary, it results in a phenomenal memory ability. See the British Barrister George Carman for similar traits.) Patton was able to get a gestalt. He always found the original source, particularly the mindset, to be most valuable. "The author doesn't mock capitalism or strivers" and then proceeds to list out the common bog standard anti-capitalism and strivers 'arguments'. He does not mock them. Of that you are correct. It's more of an angry tirade that is just rehashed champagne socialism. I could give you a far better critique of the current form of capitalism. The quite odious stench of libertarianism and their no rules capitalism laid the framework for where we are now. We end up with oligopoly. This leads to employees having no choice, and a toxic work environment led by the 'radical candor' mindset. See Ray Dalio(Copeland's book about this cancer is great.) Look at Andy Grove's 'constructive criticism' which infected every area of corporate America and practically destroyed it. Toxic radical candor, oligopolies, and lack of employee protection laws creates the environment we have now. Author knows nothing of these and just presents the standard tenured baizuo arguments.