It is a time of freedom and fear, of Gaia and of borders, of many paths and the widening of
a universal toll road, emptying country and swelling cities, of the public bought into
privacy and the privacy of the public sold into invisible data banks and knowing
algorithms. It is the time of the warrior's peace and the miser's charity, when the
planting of a seed is an act of conscientious objection.
These are the times when maps fade and direction is lost. Forwards is backwards now, so we glance sideways at the strange lands through which we are all passing, knowing for certain only that our destination has disappeared. We are unready to meet these times, but we proceed nonetheless, adapting as we wander, reshaping the Earth with every tread. Behind us we have left the old times, the standard times, the high times. Welcome to the irregular times. People who call themselves "conservative" today are not really conservative. "Conservatism" implies lots of nice things -- suggesting a desire to actually conserve things, be cautious in developing new policy, and so on. That is a significant aspect of traditional conservatism, but it's not what George W. Bush and his ilk represent. So let's stop calling them "conservative." George W. Bush and his ilk are Regressives. ![]() ![]() ![]() |