Java Zen:Thinking Out Loud Wednesday, 2025.10.29 
"All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling," wrote Oscar Wilde, and I would
like to suggest that the same can be said for bad politics...

It seems to me that the politics of liberal reform, in recent years, shows many
of the same characteristics as amateur poetry. It has been more concerned with
the kind of symbolic action that gratifies the passions of the reformer rather
than with the efficacy of the reforms themselves. Indeed, the outstanding
characteristic of what we call "the New Politics" is precisely its insistence on
the overwhelming importance of revealing, in the public realm, one's intense
feelings—we must "care," we must "be concerned," we must be "committed."
Unsurprisingly, this goes along with an immense indifference to consequences, to
positive results or the lack thereof.

		Irving Kristol, Symbolic Politics and Liberal Reform, Dec. 15, 1972

2008.03.17

Life B.T. (Before Television)

When the younger generation asks us elders, “What did you do before there was television to keep entertained?”, it’s a difficult question to answer. Not hard difficult, but embarrassingly difficult:

We had the The Swing Wing:

“It’s a what?” It’s a Swing Wing! Because “Self-induced Whiplasher” just wouldn’t sell as well, you know.

But that’s not all! We also had Clackers! What fun! What hilarity when those things busted into pieces and flew in all directions. More thrilling than lawn darts! And they say only video games cause brain damage.

[Edit History]

2008.03.17

James Lileks elaborates.

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