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McManus and Hamilton have each written exceedingly unfair reviews of Jim Prosers recent bookSavage Messiah: How Dr. Jordan Peterson Is Saving Western Civilization.

Jean-Paul Sartre, the French philosopher and playwright, wrote the script for a screenplay, which would later be turned into a play entitled LEngrenage (in English, In the Mesh). The name of the main character is Jean Aguerra, and the play opens with the scene of a sign installed in a suburb, which reads:Jean Aguerra, the tyrant.

In the Mesh, in all, is a very insightful play, though it is one of Sartres lesser-known works. It is about a wealthy city that has oil fields and all of the necessities for a blossoming economy, as well as a a productive and satisfied society. Still, the city hands its government over to one tyrant after another. Jean Aguerra, the latest in the chain of the citys leaders, is a bright and thoughtful intellectual, who truly desires what is best for his city and its people. However, he ends up following precisely the same path as each of the tyrants that preceded him.

Jean Aguerra hopes to eradicate poverty, and he also believes that each person should have the same degree of privilege as every other person. For him, the ideal of equality of outcome is so obvious and intuitive that he has a hard time imagining how anyone could possibly oppose that objective. However, as soon as Jean Aguerra establishes his government, he realizes that the other members of his team do not perfectly share his worldview. Even his closest allies have aspects of their own agenda that they hope to implement in the city. And, over time, corruption and mismanagement arise, which, in turn, undermines the unity of his government, giving rise to lies and schemes that permeate each level of the administration. However, Jean Aguerra remains rigid in his worldview, believing inveterately that the other members of his government are clandestine enemies seeking to destroy his masterplan for equality and prosperity.

In response, Jean Aguerra begins to order mass imprisonments, tortures, and killings. He hopes that when all of his enemies are gone that his fantasy for a perfect society will finally be reachedand that his people will, as a result, be happy and grateful. Yet, before long he is, himself, brought to be executed by a firing squad by a band of revolutionaries. Only five years prior, he was the leader of a group of revolutionaries who had executed the previous tyrant, and, within a short time, he had become what he had once existed to replace. The play suggests that this cycle will repeat ad infinitum, as each band of revolutionaries, over time, becomes the very evil that it had once existed to defeat.

The play, thus, shares some elements withThe Myth of Sisyphus, the 1942 philosophical essay written by Sartres friend and later rival Albert Camus. However, in the case of In the Mesh, there is the additional dimension. The play also examines what happens to those who box themselves into a corner with a certain ideology; no matter how grand or noble their intentionsbefore longtheir single-mindedness leads down the path towards tyranny.

Matt McManus and Conrad Hamilton repeatedly in their writings assert that the Left, as they see it, is all that is great and high. For them, the problems of our society can be explained by tyranny that comes from the Right. They incessantly critique Jordan Petersonor anyone else for that matterwho even slightly brings up ideas that contradict their views of what makes for a just society. McManus and Hamiltons critiques, most of the time, are nothing short of relentless. And there is no one they attack more unfairly than Jordan Peterson. As Tony Senatore, Fred Hammon, and others have argued in Merion West, Jordan Peterson is someone who truly helps people; he is not just a conservative ideologue. Yet, McManus and Hamilton even continue their endless criticisms of Jordan Peterson as the man fights for his life, dealing with the most serious and trying of health problems.

Most recently, McManus and Hamilton have each written exceedingly unfair reviews of Jim Prosers recent bookSavage Messiah: How Dr. Jordan Peterson Is Saving Western Civilization. For the value that Peterson brings, look no further than Prosers own recent words about his subject:

I was in a very bad period of personal suffering, having lost my wife to cancer just prior to beginning the writing of the book. So, I was very deep into my own personal suffering, and I appreciated the advice to accept suffering as a gateway to finding a deeper meaning in my life, rather than just re-living the mindless and random catastrophes of the past. Rather than accepting it as just a random lot in existence, I actually found a deeper meaning to it that would propel me to a life of greater understanding and greater compassion.

Matt McManus and Conrad Hamilton, in the vein of Slavoj iek and other luminaries of the Left, argue for various versions of equality of outcome. A brief look at history reminds us that efforts to pursue that end have had the same result every time throughout history: tyranny, brutality, and suppression. Todays Left, when faced with questions about such miseries, tends to put forward a version of the same argument: But that was not true socialism. Bernie Sanders just articulated that very argument in a recent town hall.

Matt McManus and Conrad Hamilton are, no doubt, smart and well-read men. Yet, they should pay more careful attention to how repressive, totalitarian-inclining governments so often arise in welfare states. They also ought to give a detailed and close readingnot like the job they did with Prosers bookto the 1997 bookThe Black Book of Communism, which chronicles the horrors that have taken place in collectivist states. Page after page (and chapter after chapter) tells the story of how people with enormous powernominally acting in the interest of equality for allbecame horrible little tyrants of their own, from China to Ethiopia. Maybe then McManus and Hamilton would be more open-minded towards thoughtful critics of their aims, such as Jordan Peterson.

The story told in The Black Book of Communism, after all, is the same one as that of Jean Aguerraand the many real life leftists he represents. Dreamworlds belong in fantasy books, where they can entertain and charm their readers. However, in the actual world, sweeping sentimentalities about equality rarely engage with the questions of How? and At What Cost? But, then again, when it comes to many of these leftist schemes, the answers are hardly attractive.

Kambiz Tavana is an Iranian-American journalist and writer.

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Understanding the Viciousness of Jordan Peterson's Critics - Merion West

Did you know getting counted in the U.S. Census has huge political and financial benefits for your community?

If the government doesnt know the number of people living in an area, that area wont receive as much funding, which will affect parks, schools, churches and more, says the President of Temples Black Public Relations Society Lauryn Edmondson, Class of 2020.

This semester, Lauryn and four of her public relations classmates are mobilizing the Temple-area community as part of a national competition designed to get college students and members of other undercounted groups to participate in the 2020 Census.

We asked Lauryn to share what shes learned through her Census outreach activities.

What is the U.S. Census?The U.S. Census is conducted every 10 years and is actually mandated by the Constitution. The Census aims to count everyone once, only once, and in the right place, and can now be completed by phone, mail orfor the first time in historyonline at2020census.gov.

Why is completing the Census so important?The Census determines how billions of dollars in funding is given to support communities across the country. It determines the number of seats each state will have in the House of Representatives, which is then used to draw congressional and state legislative districts.

When is the deadline?April 1 is officially Census Day nationwide. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the deadline to complete the questionnaire has been extended to August 14, 2020. Its available now at 2020census.gov.

How are college students being counted in the Census? Where should I file?The Census asks you to fill out the questionnaire with information on where you live and sleep most of the time. Students affected by college and university closures should still be counted where they live while theyre at school.

If you live off campus in an apartment with three friends, you can complete the Census for your apartment, including your three friends.For students who live on campus, (i.e. residence hall or dorm), you will be counted through the university staff directly as a part of their Group Quarters count.

Learn more about being counted through the university.

Is there a citizenship question on the Census?No! The Census does not ask about citizenship in its questionnaire.

What is a good way to remind friends and family to complete the Census form on time?Tell them about it! Remind them to go online to 2020census.gov to fill it out. It takes less than 10 minutes to complete. In our outreach campaign, weve used the hashtag #10minutesfor10years to help spread the word, and the U.S. Census Bureau also has active YouTube and social media profiles @uscensusbureau where you can get more information.

Andrew Lochrie

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How to get counted in the U.S. Census - Temple University News

Editors note:In the wake of the NCAAs decision to cancel the 2020 tournament, The Athletic will be celebrating the best NCAA Tournament game played on each day over the course of the next three weeks.You can read the rest of the stories here.

Before he became His Airness, before he changed the athletic apparel industry, before he revolutionized the game of basketball, Michael Jordan was a freshman at North Carolina. And on March 29, 1982, the Tar Heels needed a bucket.

James Worthy, the teams leading scorer and consensus first-team All-American, was on the floor. So was second-team All-American Sam Perkins.

In the waning seconds of the championship game, though, the shot went to the skinny freshman whom coach Dean Smith wouldnt even allow to appear on the preseason Sports Illustrated cover.

Trailing Georgetown 62-61, senior guard Jimmy Black found Jordan near the corner, whose shot from 17 feet didnt even graze the rim.

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This Day in Madness: When Mike became Michael Jordan - The Athletic

Merion West is an online news source that dubs itself a journal where all perspectives are welcome. They tout the fact that they have been rated by Media Bias/Fact Check as a Least Biased source.

Generally, their articles seem to have deeper analysis than you will find in much of the mainstream media. For example, recent headlines include, The Fraught Relationship Between Religion and Epidemiology, The Critics of Social Justice, from Jonah Goldberg to Jordan Peterson, and Hannah Arendts Concept of Impotent Bigness. They regularly interview newsmakers, and authors often include professors in relevant fields and others well qualified to comment.

Articles are explicitly labeled by viewpoint: left, center, or right. This makes for interesting reading. To date, I havent seen much about evolution and intelligent design on the site, but there is a recent article entitled When We Oversimplify Darwin. I was curious to see what Merion West would say. The article is labeled as representing a View from the Center.

It is too concerned with trying to make peace between all sides. Interestingly, the author, artist Chris Augusta, acknowledges that there is scientific debate over evolutionary theory. Thats a plus. The article links to last years Hoover Institution-sponsored discussion Mathematical Challenges to Darwins Theory of Evolution among Stephen Meyer, David Gelernter, and David Berlinski, led by Peter Robinson, and to a Socrates in the City conversation between Dr. Meyer and Eric Metaxas.

Augusta argues that Darwin was confused about the nature of reality and didnt come to firm conclusions regarding the existence of a designer or a central role for chance. Augusta, whose website includes some weird and spooky Art of Evolution, advocates for paradoxical reality:

Charles Darwin, that greatest of empiricists, bears witness to the raw spectacle of paradoxical nature. He sees clearly manifestations ofdesign,and he sees clearly manifestations ofchance. Reading Darwins letters to Asa Gray reveals a man transfixed by the blinding spectacle of contrary forces. Darwin is a deer in the headlights: He cant move forward; he cant move backward.

I find this conclusion absurd. Darwin clearly derived from his theory a materialistic view of the world. He wrote in his Autobiography, There seems to be no more design in the variability of organic beings and in the action of natural selection, than in the course which the wind blows. Everything in nature is the result of fixed laws. For Darwin, this had sinister implications. In a poignant Evolution News article, science historian Michael Flannery noted, Writing to William Graham (1839-1911) on July 3, 1881, Darwin saw the march of human progress in blatantly racist terms. Civilization would advance even at the cost of inevitable racial extermination. Darwin wrote:

Lastly I could show fight on natural selection having done and doing more for the progress of civilisation than you seem inclined to admit. Remember what risks the nations of Europe ran, not so many centuries ago of being overwhelmed by the Turks, and how ridiculous such an idea now is. The more civilised so-called Caucasian races have beaten the Turkish hollow in the struggle for existence. Looking to the world at no very distant date, what an endless number of the lower races will have been eliminated by the higher civilised races throughout the world.

We may dispute what Darwin felt or thought in the privacy of his study but the bulk of his writings fall clearly into advocating for one perspective: naturalism. Why else would atheist Daniel Dennett have written that Darwinism was a universal acid that eats through just about every traditional concept? Dennett was not wrong. That does not sound too paradoxical to me.

Augusta says poets too grapple with this paradoxical reality and then goes on to liken science to poetry. He offers comfort to those who, unlike Darwin and poets, are intimidated by paradox but gently points out that our insistence on resolving these paradoxes through Christianity or militant atheism la Percy Shelley is childlike. Pardon me, Augusta, I think I might vomit.

Needless to say, poetry is very different from science. It operates by entirely different rules. We dont let poets (or artists) make rules for us; I dont think they were consulted about how to respond to the coronavirus. Poets and artists dont have that kind of power, and its probably a good thing.

As part of his closing, Augusta notes that the universe is better described as creative than created. Really? Actually, lets take a look at that whole paragraph:

This materialistic Darwinism has dominated for more than a century-and-a-half, but its own explanatory power may be waning. Proponents of Intelligent Design insist that the very complexity of life cannot be explained by essentially random mechanistic processes. But Intelligent Design is perhaps a poor choice of words that tends to shift attention away from the thing (or event) observed to some pre-existing designer. You do not have to introduce the notion of an Intelligent Designer to acknowledge the existence of order and pattern in nature. The universe may be apprehended, as it was by Albert Einstein among many others, as embodyingintelligenceinsofar as the human mind can apprehend order and harmony. For Einstein, doing science was nothing less than an attempt to understand this intelligence. Sticking to what we actually experience, the universe is better described ascreativerather thancreated.

I am at a loss. In what way is the universe creative? To be sure, materialists have mounted strained defenses against the evidence of cosmic design. But the multiverse hypothesis is bankrupt truly a fantasy. String theory is a delusional apparition. Stephen Meyers forthcoming The Return of the God Hypothesis makes these things clear.

Augusta seeks to encourage tolerance and agreement. What he has written, though, is a mess. Im baffled to see that Merion West thinks this is centrist.

Photo credit: JJ YingviaUnsplash.

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An Artist Examines Evolution - Discovery Institute

Marvels new New Warriors. DCs 5G Initiative. Riri Williams. Wallace West. Amadeus Cho. All-New Mockingbird. Carol Danvers. A list of borderline-heretical names, certain to induce lucid nightmares for long-time comic-book fans. The underlying theme congruent throughout those aforementioned disasters? Their agenda-driven hijacking and desecration of the legacy of beloved pre-existing characters.

To appease the new school of identity-obsessed writers within comics, the assertion Just make new characters has been upheld as a happy medium, to spare existing titles from corruption by contemporary politics, and open up new avenues for prospective writers to gift fans with unexpected breakout stars. However, with the stranglehold on content said identitarians have asserted, and vapid characters like Ms Marvel/Kamala Khan and Ms. America Chavez being only two of many unsuccessful experiments churned out in recent years, the latter half of that ambition hasnt come to fruition.

Related: Marvel Comics Introduces New Non-Binary Superhero Character Snowflake As Part Of Woke New Warriors Line-Up

But, before we go any further in examining the viability of the proposition, allow me to first steel-man the argument. When Just make new characters is said, what is meant is Create individualistic, complex, standalone characters, which arent derivative of established characters, dont supplant established characters, and arent diverse gender-or-race-swaps of established characters. Said argument has been propagated by numerous prominent industry commentators, including Eric D. July, Ya Boi Zack, and Ethan Van Sciver. This is a perfectly valid desire, but the current state of the comics renders it an insufficient remedy for the industrys ails.

Its issues are derived from the multi-faceted failings of modern comics. Namely: the ideology of the writers being inseparable from character creation; the incapability of writers with inclinations toward activism to compartmentalise characters and monthly floppies into their original, politicised content, and inherited, untouchable, and impartial intellectual property; and the over-saturation of stores, causing widespread closure.

Related: Comic Book Creator Gerry Conway Attacks Potential Customers In Illogical Racist Rant

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Lets deconstruct each of these points.

The coalescence of postmodernism and Marxism came to the following sequential conclusions. There are an infinite number of interpretations of a text. There are an infinite number of interpretations of the world. Therefore, objectivity is meaningless, because everyone operates on subjective observations and value judgements. Therefore, any hierarchy which privileges one perspective above another is evil. Therefore, hierarchies are only predicated on the immoral misuse of power. Therefore, hierarchies should be abolished in favour of equity (equality of outcome), to ensure there arent disparities in evaluating differing interpretations as valid. Therefore, to implement this, the current hierarchies, and distribution of power, must be inverted, and redistributed. Therefore, the oppressed groups must oppress their oppressors to rebalance hierarchal power, andas said power is amoral aside from its outcomeany method to do so is permitted.

This is why representation matters to those abiding by this ideology: although all perspectives are subjective, perspectives which align with the narrative that hierarchies are oppressive (for example, those decrying western society as a patriarchy, white supremacist, or heteronormative/homophobic) bolster and reinforce the overarching narrative that subjective perspectives are being suppressed.

You may be thinking to yourself: Isnt that like in Revenge of the Sith, when Jedi said Only Sith deal in absolutes, but thats an absolute? And youd be right: but these ideologues discard constraints placed on thought by objective facts and rationality, because theyre deemed part of the white supremacist, patriarchal philosophical tradition traceable through Jerusalem, Greece, and Enlightenment Europe (mainly Britain). So, they can contradict themselves with axioms like the truth is there is no truth, or all perspectives are subjective, but this group is correct because they all agree, and, like the Jedi, be ignorant to the eventuality that theyll succumb to a downfall set in motion by their own intellectual vanity. As Jordan Peterson said: postmodernists say biology doesnt exist, but they dont act like it because they all die.

Related: Zoe Quinn to Write DC Comics Batman and Superman Spin-Off The Infected: Deathbringer

Regardless of the ideologys contradictions, its imposed on our modern comics. So, what happens when this redistribution of power, to validate the abolition of objective facts and morals, is imposed on heroes, who abide by classical narrative archetypes and virtues? Simple: heroes become anti-heroes, at best, and villains, at worst. The imposing of a subjective view of the world, believing its a better one, on the world, by force, is the role of a villain. It suddenly becomes permissible to retaliate to speech with violence, because criticism is an attack on your subjective interpretation; and therefore your identity; and therefore you. Speech paradoxically becomes violence. New postmodern heroes redefine justice as the redistribution of power, and engage in, disproportionate retributive violence for even the slightest of infractions (as seen in Roxane Gays She-Hulk comics, or the deleted scene from 2019s Captain Marvel).

Its no surprise, then, that the Women of Marvel podcast unanimously agreed that they prefer writing villains. Their sympathy is derived from inverting the hierarchies of conventional justice to equally value the interpretations of the world held by villains and heroes, as to not unevenly privilege one over the other. They defined a villains vengeful externalising of their own past trauma as a catharsis: an inversion of the terms original intention. Catharsis, to those unaware, was originally the ablution of negative emotion from audiences of Grecian tragedies, who would weep at the death of the tragic protagonist. The fall of the protagonist was initiated by Hamartia: their fatal flaw, often exhibited as them being conceited, ambitious, and, above all, prideful. Again, its no coincidence that the confession of Marvels female writers sympathy for villains came during their Pride Month episode.

Related: Marvel VP and Ms. Marvel Creator Sana Amanat: Blatant Racism, Bigotry & Hypocrisy Peddled by This Administration

And who, you might ask, is responsible for the degradation of the two industry titans to this well-documented degree? At Marvelas YouTuber The Fourth Age has concisely presentedit began with Joe Quesadas hiring of Sana Amanat as Director of Content and Character Development. Amanats wealthy family has close ties to the Clinton Foundation and Hollywood. Amanats bachelors degree was in political science, with an aim to be a journalist, before working for Virgin Comics after its owner, Amanats friend, offered her a job. Three years later, the company folded, and Amanat and two other Virgin Comics employees were brought aboard Marvel by Quesada. When the head of content and character creation has spoken about the importance of intersectional identity at the White House on Obamas invitation, you can expect a little ideological bias to permeate the trajectory of the companys content.

At DC, former co-publisher Dan DiDios culture of incessant reboots and crossovers was conducted to force an arbitrary and equitable outcome of diversity and representation, and the false dichotomy of widening your audience by catering to a supposedly untapped market by pandering to minorities with identity politics. There is, of course, a profoundly racist idea at the core of this marketing strategy: that universal ethics exhibited by heroes like Batman and Superman are inaccessible to non-white men, and women, because they originate from a western philosophical tradition. Not only is the ignorance of Eastern and Middle Eastern contributions to that tradition astounding, but its also the inverted perspective of 19th century racists who barred non-whites from education on the grounds that they believed white thought to be inaccessible to them.

Related: Report: DC Comics Co-Publisher Dan DiDio Exits Company

So, with the ideology identified, its evident as to why it cant stay confined to the pages of their original characters. The ideology is so pervasive, and permeates all established mediums and media that activists can infiltrate, because the ideology mandates promulgation until their mouthpieces definitions of diversity and inclusivity are uniform. Therefore, be it with the takeover of established titles, or creation of new characters, its evident that no avenue in comics would mitigate the dogmatic political poison of writers who agree with this ideological framework.

The other predominant issue isover at Marvel at leastthat sales are of secondary importance to ability to circulate their books as indoctrinating materials to children. Perpetuating the ideology has become paramount. Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, set to have its own Disney Plus animated series this year, had its appalling sales propped up entirely by Scholastic book fairs. Amanat has considered other cancelled books a success because of their educational property, despite their devastating impact on the sustainability of local comic stores.

Even in the MCU, poor-selling series characters have been fast-tracked to receive Disney+ series and movie appearances to fulfill Kevin Feiges sudden diversity and inclusion mandate. Consumer voice and creative meritocracy is being sacrificed at the altar of political correctness, and the industry itself is having the pages of its paperbacks drenched to illegibility with the blood.

This isnt only taking the sustainability of the industry round the back of the woodshed, but its also putting a slug in the skull of any hopes for audience expansion. With increased monthly issue cost, increased numbers of interconnecting titles, and an increased roster of characters which are made mandatory to know with the increased frequency of crossover events, the barrier to entry for new fans is nigh-on unscalable.

Related: Marvel Studios Boss Kevin Feige Confirms Gay Character for The Eternals: Hes Married. Hes Got a Family.

Now, I wouldnt be much use contributing to the discourse without proposing a solution, would I? Whilst Comicsgate has provided conscientious readers a noble alternative to the big twos monopoly on the medium, it still leaves a childhood-sized hole in the hearts of long-time fans. But fret not: DCs Black Label line seems to provide a model for a healthier industry. Producing less books, with higher quality control, and focused on narratives concerning flagship characterswithout culminating in an interruptive universe-wide cataclysm or reboot every six monthshas proven a profitable and acclaimed venture. Hopefully, an emulation of this by Marvel, following a necessary ousting of the ideologues sitting pretty alongside Amanat, will revitalise both companies. However, with rumors that AT&T might cancel DCs publishing wing, and Disneys detestable regime over Stan Lees legacy looking unshakable, Im nihilistic about such a prospect.

Related: Ethan Van Sciver Speculates DC Comics Will Be Sold by AT&T to Please Hedge Fund Investor

Without greater consumer consciousness, and a reorientation of the industry toward an ethic of individualistic exhibitions of virtue constituting heroism, laughable characters like Snowflake and Safespace will continue to kamikaze the profit margins of comic books into obsoletion. I say we hold off on going gung-ho on bloating continuity with a cavalcade of new characters, and only focus on high-quality iterations on flagship titles, until we uproot the bad actors in the industrys midst and settle on a sustainable business model as a fandom. Currently, waiting for new characters untainted by the derangement signature of the contemporary zeitgeist is a forlorn and fiscally untenable hope indeed.

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OPINION: The Irresponsibility Of The Just Make New Characters Argument - The MIX