Matthew Royal > Recent Status Updates

There's a short story collaboration with Cory Doctorow about a world where unregulated wireless networks are as widespread as cannabis, but illegal under terrorism laws. Interesting dystopian alternate universe that could have been, yet oddly uninteresting from a speculative fiction "thought experiment" perspective.

I grew up learning that MacArthur was a great leader, so I'm looking forward to when the book covers the Korean War.

The parallels between MacArthur and Donald Trump are striking: tastes for the Finer Things, like gilded French mirrors and status objects; outsized personalities; commanding (and demanding) the loyalty of colleagues and friends; and a reputation that is constructed to be larger than the man himself.

I grew up learning that MacArthur was a great leader, so I'm looking forward to when the book covers the Korean War.

The parallels between MacArthur and Donald Trump are striking: tastes for the Finer Things, like gilded French mirrors and status objects; outsized personalities; commanding (and demanding) the loyalty of colleagues and friends; and a reputation that is constructed to be larger than the man himself.

"The limits of my language mean the limits of my world."

5.135 In no way can an inference be made from the existence of one
state of affairs to the existence of another entirely different from
it.
5.136 There is no causal nexus which justifies such an inference.
5.1361 The events of the future cannot be inferred from those of the
present.

Superstition is the belief in the causal nexus.

This book reads like a self-conscious hero back story that rationalizes the ugly parts. I say self-conscious thinking that the other shoe will eventually drop, and Manchester will voice real criticism of MacArthur.

MacArthur ran into Taft in the Philippines. Like T. Roosevelt, he didn't like him, because --again-- Taft wasn't swept up by his charisma. And he was fat. I want to read a Taft biography...

[A] strategy for interacting with [angry people]. The essence of this method was: (1) Don't turn [him] off by defending yourself. Instead, do the opposite— urge him to say all the worst things he can say about you. (2) Try to find a grain of truth in all his criticisms and then agree with him. (3) After this, point out any areas of disagreement in a straightforward, tactful, nonargumentative manner."

"The misguided passion of environmentalists today makes building anything much more difficult."

This is clearly written by someone else. It's way too kind to people that Trump disagrees with. I've found that there's a lot of mainstream Republican lines in this book that I actually agree with, though they read like they're written by someone else.

"Perfection is man's ultimate illusion. It simply doesn't exist in the universe. There is no perfection. It's really the world's greatest con game; it promises riches and delivers misery. The harder you strive for perfection, the worse your disappointment will become because it's only an abstraction, a concept that doesn't fit reality."

"You know who loves a lack of competition? Those insurance companies, who are making a fortune because they control the politicians."

I agree with the denoted meaning, but he's trying to have it both ways -- 1) we should hate that insurance companies have too much power, too little accountability, 2) we should feel sorry for the insurance companies having to adhere to rules from the ACA.

"My immigration policy is actually pretty simple. We need to make changes to our laws to make it easier for those people who can contribute to this country to come here legally while making it impossible for criminal elements and other people to get here illegally."

That's not a policy; it's an outcome. Everyone wants this outcome. A policy is a strategy for achieving an outcome.

"I started with the issue of illegal immigration, and proposed building a major wall that would be very high and completely impervious"

Trump has stated that the national media misrepresents what he says, but in his unfiltered message directly to the people, I can tell you they are OVER-representing him. He is like a happy child, crashing complex abstractions together like toy trucks go boom boom.

"Sadness comes, however, without distortion. It involves a flow of feeling and therefore has a time limit. It never involves a lessening of your self-esteem. Depression is frozen -- it tends to persist or recur indefinitely."

This is primarily a speech that Hillary Clinton gave about women early on in her role at the State Department. It's fairly uncontroversial stuff about how women's rights internationally -- they should have the right to inherit property, have the same access to education as males, etc. I think I was hoping for more insight into her platform for U.S. President, but it sure puts things in perspective.

"You can replace your guilt with a more enlightened basis for moral behavior--empathy.... Empathy is the capacity to conceptualize the impact of what you do on yourself and on the other person, and to feel appropriate and genuine sorrow and regret without labeling yourself as inherently bad. Empathy gives you the necessary mental and emotional climate to guide your behavior... in the absence of the whip of guilt."

"Philosophy is not a theory but an activity.... Philosophy should make clear and delimit sharply the thoughts which otherwise are, as it were, opaque and blurred."

"Be sure you actually write down upsetting thoughts.... when you write them down, they become exposed to the light of reason."

"twisted thinking is a major cause of your suffering."