The World is on Fire

“Emmanuel Macron had everything, or almost everything,” says an editorial in the French newspaper Le Figaro. “He lost everything.”


The same could be said of most governments and leaders the world over who presided over the biggest policy disasters of modern times. Billions of people were locked in their homes to defeat a virus. The overreaching power of the few had finally come home to the many. This triggered mass incredulity, then anger, and now action.


You can read thousands of stories on the French case, or the political upheavals in the EU, US, UK, Latin America, Brazil, Australia, you name it. You will discover a chaotic melange of analyses that prattle on about the far right, immigration resentment, financial and economic decline, and more. What few dare to mention is the precipitating event: the lockdowns and forced injections that shocked the world.


For many of us watching this upheaval with clarity from the beginning, not much is surprising, only the precise course it is taking. The ruling class that created this disaster is not apologizing but rather leaning in further with censorship, more purges, anger at those who correctly warned against these policies, and generally fighting for their careers, reputations, and lives.


Meanwhile, much depends on the courts. We’ve recently experienced both defeat (on censorship) but also success (in dialing back administrative state power). Nothing is final, however, and the struggle continues to restore freedom and rights so that we have our lives back.


As a young institution that arrived just in time, Brownstone Institute struggles to keep up with the demand for its programs, including its journal, Fellows program, books, and events. Resources are scarce even though we run on a shoestring budget. It’s a fantastic time to support this work, especially as the list of needs continues to grow.


We have a list of 13 worthy fellows – people with the best minds and insights who need a home for community and publishing – and we hope to support them in the coming year. We would like to embrace them all.


Already registrations for our November 1-2 conference and gala, at the William Penn Hotel in Pittsburgh, are open. Secure your spot.


On July 11, the Philadelphia supper club welcomes American legal scholar and neurologist Amy Wax, who will discuss Penn’s case against her with as much detail as she can, the problems in our K-12 education system, and the general tide of censorship and corruption that is sweeping nearly all of the academy. Register here.


Here is some content since our last email.


Savage Reservations By Bert Olivier. Unless we confront and fight these psychopaths, we shall all end up either in their obediently compliant perversion of a society, or in one of the internment camps already being built in all 50 states in America ‘for non-compliant dissidents.’


Another State Sues Pfizer By Maryanne Demasi. Kansas is the latest US state to file a lawsuit against Pfizer, accusing the pharmaceutical giant of misleading the public about the safety and effectiveness of its Covid-19 vaccine.


Karma Catches Up to the Stanford Internet Observatory By Andrew Lowenthal. Karma has caught up with the Stanford Internet Observatory (SIO), which will be scaled back to just three staff, according to the Washington Post. The contracts of its leading protagonists, Alex Stamos and Renee DiResta, have not been renewed.


The Crisis of Democracy and the New Right By Ramesh Thakur. The old left-right divide has become obsolete. Instead, the new divide is between the international technocratic elite in alliance with national elites against the interests, values, and policy preferences of national populations.


The “One Health” Agenda By Tracy Thurman. “One Health” refers to the idea of public health being not just about your health but also about animal and “planetary” health. It assumes that there must be a global governing body with control over all plants, animals, and humans.


It’s Darkest Before Dawn By Jeffrey Tucker. As the empire ends and the darkness in the West descends ever further, we will hear less about it. On the other hand, the expert class that is tearing apart the good life faces some problematic barriers to their power.


Did Fauci Admit That School Closures Were a Mistake? By Ian Miller. Fauci is on his book tour, doing the rounds with media outlets in support of his self-congratulatory exploration of the pandemic. In an interview with CBS Mornings, Fauci explained that maybe keeping schools closed for years was a bad idea.


The UN Smothers the Peoples with Compassion By Thi Thuy Van Dinh and David Bell. One can confidently predict that the rhetoric will continue, and more “soft laws” ─ UN declarations, strategies, plans-of-action, and agendas ─ will complement the existing “hard laws” of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Protocols.


The Court Greenlights Censorship By Brownstone Institute. Government found a way into social media via direct intimidation, third-party services, and revolving doors with agencies. The majority opinion here has found a way to codify this new form of censorship that threatens the idea of free speech itself.


Lessons from the Persecution of Assange By Brownstone Institute. After years of confinement, Julian Assange stands on the verge of freedom after agreeing to a guilty plea in exchange for his release. His persecution provides a reminder of how the powerful will usurp our rights to advance their interests.


WHO’s on First By Bruce Pardy. The global public health plan is not just international cooperation to be better prepared for pandemics. The biomedical state and its partners seek to manage the whole of society using health as the rationale. They’re running away with the game.


Is the Global Inflationary Depression Already Here? By Peter St Onge and Jeffrey Tucker. Going back to that commercial real estate crisis, for the New York Times story, most of the large banks would not talk to reporters doing the story. It’s a don’t-ask-don’t-tell economy. No one wants to say hyperinflation or economic depression.


Elite Envy as a Civilizational Toxin By Bert Olivier. Despite their wealth, they lack the capacity for simple enjoyment, and consequently, their envy for the rest of us knows no bounds. After all, we continue meeting under festive circumstances, chatting, laughing, dancing, singing, and drinking wine.