Author Archives: David

Luigi Mangione and the Romance of Murder

Over at Law & Liberty, the indignant doctor castigates an Ivy League-educated radical murderer and his fellow would-be revolutionaries who trivialize killing as long as it is for the ‘right’ cause.

The world will always offer pretexts for political violence by Enragés of various stripes, for the world as it is will always be a disappointment by comparison with an imagined perfection, or even mere betterment. Righteous indignation is a beguiling and gratifying, but misleading, emotion. It rarely allows for a sense of proportion and is a powerful promoter of self-importance and self-aggrandizement.

The Sick Man

In the August edition of New English Review, Theodore Dalrymple compares Germany and Britain using a new book published by a German writer on his country’s decline.

If there is one thing worse than being lectured to by Germans, it is being lectured to by Germans while suspecting that they are right.

The Age of Electronic Totalitarianism

In today’s Takimagthe anxious doctor examines the topic of electronic surveillance by modern, democratic states in the West, with a particular focus on (formerly Great) Britain.

Ours is an age, or threatens to become an age, of electronic totalitarianism, without there needing to be a dictator.

The age of artificial intelligence will lead to the abolition of the natural variety.

Working People

In the July issue of The Critic, the doubtful doctor calls to account the use of a common phrase in modern politics by our demagogic democratic political class. Everyday lies indeed…

What is significant here is the expression “working people”. It is clearly a term of art, for it is not intended to mean people who work. Many multimillionaires continue to work, often very hard. The expression is a typical example of the nomenklatura’s use of words to convey connotation without denotation, the better to justify its hold over society.

Wokeism’s Deeper Roots

In his latest Law & Liberty essay, our astute doctor delivers a less-than-favorable review of a new book by the Northern Irish comedian and satirist, Andrew Doyle.

The greatest harm done by wokeism is its destruction of cultural unselfconsciousness and its transformation of so many of us into ideologists or counter-ideologists.

In the Driver’s Seat

In his Takimag column, our insightful doctor recounts an encounter with an angry and opinionated Parisian taxi driver who dreams of heading back to his parents’ homeland of Algeria.

He seethed with real anger and even hatred. From the political point of view, it hardly matters whether this anger or hatred was justified; its existence is what counts. Like many resentful people, he believed that he had been given nothing. The fact that he had had a good education (on his own account), and that he owned two houses and a car by the age of 27, without assistance from his parents, who were too poor to give him any, counted for nothing in his mind.

Why We Should Still Call a Spade a Spade

Over at The Epoch Times, our favorite doctor has the misfortune to come across a typically politically correct article from NPR lecturing its readers on the latest progressive transgression to be avoided.

The outraged person considers himself more alive to the wrongs and injustices of the world than the person who expresses none. The latter is at best complacent about the wrongs and injustices, at worst complicit with them. He is likely as a result to develop anger of his own, for no one likes to live in an atmosphere of constant accusation.

The Architecture of Arrogance

Over at Law & Liberty, the skeptical doctor pens a forceful response to an earnest defender of modern architecture.

It is instructive to look at the graduating projects of students of architecture schools. It is obvious from a cursory survey that there is a striving for originality in them, combined with a kind of moral grandiosity.