Ayn Rand’s reputation goes before her, but The Fountainhead was not what I was expecting. I was expecting a story eulogising capitalism. It is nothing of the kind, and that will teach me not to judge by what a person’s enemies say. (On the other hand, Rand was undoubtedly a firm supporter of laissez-faire capitalism, right enough).
'The digital revolution has given governments powers far beyond those of Big Brother in George Orwell’s dystopian novel, 1984.'
We are witnessing in every Western country a rapid transformation of what were formerly free countries into police states. Governments violate their constitutions, issue edicts in place of legislation, treat citizens arbitrarily, and pursue agendas on the basis of justifications that are contrary to the facts. The digital revolution has given governments powers far beyond those of Big Brother in George Orwell’s dystopian novel, 1984.
I can remember when the year 1984 seemed to be the far distant future, and I can remember the free country in which I was born and grew up. That country is no more.
'Sweden’s COVID-19 death rate is lower than those of Spain, the UK and
Italy, countries which all imposed Orwellian lockdowns.'
Despite Sweden mirroring other countries on the continent with rising coronavirus infections, the government has held firm in refusing to lockdown its population, weighing the untold misery and health impacts of isolation against the threat of COVID-19.
“The elderly, they said, have suffered enough,” writes Fraser Nelson.
Another Jewish weapon aimed at Gentiles' heads
After nearly two months, Gentile authorities in Gaza Mega Concentration Camp for indigenous Gentiles of Jewish occupied Palestine are beginning to relax the lockdown here.
By Sarah Algherbawi: Roadblocks have been removed and we can again move between governorates. During the day, with schools and universities reopening, and restaurants and hotels allowed to operate, it’s almost normal, at least until 8 pm when the curfew kicks back into force.
Before then, Gaza had been ghostly. My neighborhood, for instance, was almost void of life and people after a neighbor living in the building opposite was diagnosed with Covid.
By Noa Landau: Amnesty International USA slammed U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s reported push to label the organization as antisemitic on Thursday, saying his “baseless accusations are yet another attempt to silence and intimidate international human rights organizations.”
Politico reported on Wednesday that the State Department was considering declaring Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Oxfam as antisemitic and declare that U.S. policy is not to support the groups.
'We desperately need politicians who will not only act now to avert the looming disaster which this unique situation threatens to be bring. Don’t hold your breath waiting for them.'
By Robert Henderson: The attention of the world is currently fixed on coronavirus but there is another far more serious danger hurtling towards us in the shape of Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) and robotics.
Both are advancing rapidly. Probably within the lifetime of most people now living – and quite possibly in the next fifteen years – there will be general purpose robots (GPRs) capable of doing the vast majority of the work now undertaken by humans. When that happens international free trade and free market economics will become untenable. The real final crisis of capitalism will be the development of technology so advanced that it makes capitalism in the impossible because machines will make humans redundant across vast swathes of the economy.
