Essays in Idleness

Despite my near-allergy to Hawaiian shirts, and to those children born in the West since the fall of the Soviet Union, and even though I am fanatically opposed to abortion, regardless of birthdates, I have formed something of a male crush on Palmer Luckey, and his Anduril company. I am also, incidentally, disgusted by mullet haircuts, and male crushes.

But I am entirely in favour of winning Cold Wars, and every other battle against the “furriners,” certainly including the Communist Chinese, and revolutionary Persia, &c. And this despite the fact that I admire much Soviet and Chinese and even Iranian engineering, while wishing to blow it all up without delay.

Too, recently, I have been coming around to enthusiasm for (the misnamed) “Artificial Intelligence,” apparently a minority position. For I am intrigued by the idea of (human-directed) unmanned submarines, that could cruise all the oceans to any depth without giving anyone the bends, or for that matter by aircraft that could do 10G turns without giving the pilot a monstrous headache. To say nothing of inexpensive lasers and masers.

Of course, the point of war is to “make the other guy die for his country,” and this design aspect would not change.

Mostly, I am glad to see the Yanquis are recovering their desire to be … not the world’s policeman, but the world’s leading gun store. It is time collective “we” resumed shooting up the bad guys, or assisting those who will shoot them for us. Or just making the world very peaceful, by increasing the supply of lethal weaponry, too frightening for anyone to use. Alas, “peace through strength” continues to seem contradictory to wimps.