Monthly Archives: March 2021

Meet Gus Casely-Hayford, the man on a mission to drag museums into the 21st century – The Guardian

Posted: March 21, 2021 at 4:54 pm

Gus Casely-Hayford, the V&A Easts first director, discovered art in the most tender of ways. As a young boy on a snowy day, lying beside a radiator, he watched his older brother Joseph as he drew. I had this realisation that you could take a pencil and a pad and you could turn it into something of a whirlwind. Its that sense of both ingenuity and possibility that I fell in love with. Ive spent most of my career pursuing being close to that kind of excellence.

How do you build those genuine and unexpected sparks of inspiration into the infrastructure of a brand new museum? Its a question Casely-Hayford, after spending two years in America as the director of the Smithsonians National Museum of African Art in Washington DC, has returned to the UK to answer. He started his new post last spring leading a project to build and launch two sister sites in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London: a five-storey museum at Stratford waterfront and, 10 minutes walk away, a four-storey collection and research centre at Here East. As V&A East, both will open in 2023 and join BBC Music, Sadlers Wells, University College London, and the UALs College of Fashion as part of East Bank, the mayors 1.1bn creative quarter and Olympic legacy project.

I want V&A East to tell the story of cultural production over the past 5,000 years, with some wonderful shows of some of the great creators, says Casely-Hayford. The new site is part of the V&As development plans that began in 2001 and have seen the launch of a photography centre, the creation of the Exhibition Road Quarter at the original Kensington site, the opening of a new museum in Dundee in 2018 and more. Also under way is the transformation of the V&As Museum of Childhood in the East End. The intention with V&A East is to make the collection more accessible to visitors and more digitally engaged. Just watching the concrete being poured, Casely-Hayford says of visiting the museums construction site recently, you get a sense of this vision coming to life. Its going to be glorious.

Although he enjoyed his tenure at Americas Smithsonian museum, I get the feeling that Casely-Hayford is happy to be back in London, his eyes lighting up over our Zoom call whenever he talks about his home town. Best arts education. Best arts sector. Thats what drew me back here, he says. I know New York. I know LA. Ive visited so many of the great cultural hubs but theres something about London. Theres a particular kind of originality. If you think of the great east London practitioners of recent years, Alexander McQueen and David Bailey, they are people who, in terms of their background and upbringing, had to push against a lot of closed doors. When those doors do open, those are the people that seem to define eras and moments. Britain is catalysed in great part by people who sit on the margins and the fringes.

Casely-Hayford was born in south London in 1964 to a Ghanaian family where talent seems to run in the bloodline. Guss grandfather, Joseph Ephraim Casely-Hayford, was a journalist, educator and politician notable for his contributions to pan-African theory, who married Adelaide Smith, a writer, activist and pioneer of womens education in Sierra Leone, where she established a school for girls in 1923 during colonial rule.

Guss father, Victor, trained as a barrister but went on to become an accountant, while his uncle, Beattie, was an engineer who was the first director of the Ghana Arts Council and a director of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation. Victor married Ransolina, who worked for the British Council, and they had four children, Gus being the youngest. His sister Margaret, a lawyer, was the first female chancellor of Coventry University. Joseph, the celebrated fashion designer who blended tailoring with streetwear, died in 2019 after being diagnosed with cancer three years earlier. His other brother, Peter, is a film-maker. I felt very blessed and lucky growing up with very talented siblings. I was the youngest so I watched my sister go off to Oxford. My brother did incredibly well at the BBC and my other brother was a designer. It gave a sense that there were boundaries and barriers, but that you keep on going. I will forever feel indebted to them for that.

The theme of boundaries and barriers pops up frequently in our conversation, and though from the outside it may appear that Casely-Hayford, now 57, has risen effortlessly through a career in the arts, he mentions that up until recently, there has been a lot of stumbling from one opportunity to another. Perhaps thats why he is so passionate about access to culture, aware of the obstacles he once faced, and those that exist today. We seem to create emotional and intellectual assault courses that make it hard for new audiences to really engage with the arts, he says. If you think of the museum paradigm, it has barely changed. You go into a space and you look through glass, you read a label and then you leave. If you look at so many other areas of cultural practice, theyve been transformed over the course of the past 20 years by digital engagement, by demands for interactivity.

V&A East presents an exciting opportunity, then, to reimagine the museum for contemporary needs. The five-storey museum, designed by Dublins ODonnell + Tuomey (which also worked on the Photographers Gallery in London and the Lyric theatre in Dublin in 2011), will house two collection galleries, a major exhibition hall, a large-scale installation and events space, and more. That building is based on a Balenciaga dress. Its exquisite, he says. The space itself will be accessible in every possible way. Well build around it digital technologies, so you can both engage with the collection while youre there and leave something of yourself behind, like comments. So it becomes not just a repository of objects, but of peoples thoughts and feelings and dreams.

The neighbouring Collection and Research Centre has been designed by New York-based Diller Scofidio + Renfro, the firm that worked on the expansion of New Yorks Museum of Modern Art. Traditionally, collection centres were places only academics and specialists would go. Youd have to navigate a huge amount of security and bureaucracy. The V&A has more than 100,000 archives, 360,000 library books and 260,000 objects. These will be taken out of storage and put on public view, some for the first time in generations. Well have glass floors and glass balustrades. So rather than pressing your nose against a display case, were going to pick you up and place you in the centre of the collection. Youll be able to look in any direction and see these objects, have hands-on time with pieces, he says, adamant that the display wont feel dusty or dry or inaccessible, but like something that belongs to the public.

Talking to Casely-Hayford, its clear that V&A seeks first and foremost to cater to Gen Z, those born between 1997 and 2015. We have this amazing generation who are so culturally engaged. Through digital means, they have created all sorts of really dynamic and thrilling ways to engage with culture. Rather than patronise them and tell them what they ought to be thinking and learning, we want to work with them. A programme of extensive community engagement and collaboration is planned from the outset: the design collective Resolve will be the museums youth workers in residence; a pilot project will also see 15 east Londoners aged 16-24 gaining gallery experience; and local arts organisations such as Create will collaborate on pre-opening events. And if that doesnt work? We want to get out into the communities and take our collection to the people. I had a session with my team in which I said I want to get to every single one of the 500 schools myself within the four boroughs of our site. Ill be on my bicycle, going to schools and community centres, getting them inspired and excited about whats coming, he says. The small amount of encouragement that was given to me as a child, it opened up horizons.

So what will be on show when the V&A East opens its doors? Casely-Hayford tells me they will put on display huge things that have never been seen before, such as a carved and gilded 15th-century wooden ceiling from the Palacio de Altamira in Torrijos in Spain. The office of Edgar J Kaufmann, who worked with Frank Lloyd Wright on Fallingwater, has been brought in its entirety and will be installed in the collection centre, he says. But subtle things too. One of my earliest memories is my aunts bringing pieces of Ghanaian cloth and telling their stories. We will have some of those on display. They seem like modest things but they hold histories and take you on an amazing journey.

Casely-Hayford cites the V&As 2019 Christian Dior exhibition as a success he hopes to replicate (the exhibition dedicated to the fashion house broke the museums attendance records with 594,994 visitors). When you see an exhibition like Dior, how incredibly compelling it is, how beautifully produced it is there is a huge amount of work, research and conservation that goes on behind the scenes. The way the V&A does things is awe-inspiring. I want to deploy all of that, for an audience in a part of London that has been so overlooked and neglected.

Quite a challenge, I suggest, to be at the helm of a museum being built in a historically deprived area, amid the uncertainty of a decade that began with the temporary closure of all of Britains cultural institutions owing to Covid-19 (and now many including the Tate galleries, the Science Museum and the V&A have announced mass redundancy plans). The pandemic has been tough, he says. For us, its extended the timetable for the build and added to the cost. Across the sector, it has brought a range of challenges. It reduced visitor numbers and challenged our financial models.

But its also done something else, he adds. I live quite close to Hampstead Heath and I have watched people, who in lockdown, have been so craving the arts that theyve been doing impromptu concerts and poetry readings. Its underlined the importance of the arts. Even when it comes to Brexit and the effects of Covid on travel, Casely-Hayford sees an opportunity. In Britain, we are going to lose for the next couple of years, our international visitors. It gives us a chance to interact with local audiences. Not just the traditional museum-goers, but all those other people who would never consider it.

Last July, after the killing of George Floyd in America, Casely-Hayford wrote a fiery essay for the Art Newspaper on the issue of racism in the arts. He wrote: If students of African descent squeeze through narrow conduits into university or art school, they will rarely see themselves positively reflected among the faculty or in the curriculum. And if they favour a career in the arts well, good luck.

Its easy to see him as an example of black excellence. Before the Smithsonian job, he was the director of the visual arts organisation Iniva, and before that, in charge of Africa 05, the largest African arts season ever hosted in Britain, involving more than 150 venues. But even with his family background he has had to do the infamous juggle, working multiple part-time jobs across various organisations and disciplines in order to keep his seat at the table.

Race plays a part, he says. I could never have taken the traditional career path beginning at the bottom of an institution and working my way up. I had to have multiple parallel careers because it was just impossible otherwise. My first big full-time job was as a director! he says, referring to his post at Iniva, which he took up in 2006. At V&A East we will employ more than 100 people. I hope the young version of me has the opportunity I never had. If V&A East is successful for one thing, I hope its that.

Casely-Hayford does not want the museum to shy away from the discourse on decolonisation, from the need to redress the art canon and its bias to whiteness, from the looted artefacts that sit in British museums, which often fail to reckon with their pasts or take seriously calls for repatriation. These are some of the critical issues for the ongoing credibility of institutions. How we deal with the heritage of empire and colonisation. How we deal with issues of enslavement. We have to face it. Its not something we can be evasive about. Its about visiting these things and trying to find a way to navigate them and shine a light on passages of history weve tried to obscure. Its about recalibrating, contesting areas and about asking the right questions.

You might recognise Casely-Hayford from the BBC Four series he presented, Lost Kingdoms of Africa, which first aired in 2010. In the show, he explored pre-colonial artworks from places such as Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and the kingdom of Asante. Its this knowledge, this interest, that fuels him. I began my academic career as a specialist in African art. It remains very deep in my curatorial DNA. I also have a residual frustration at how it hasnt had the acknowledgement it deserves. Its the culture with the longest historical narrative and the greatest ethnic diversity and yet we know so little about it. It absolutely infuriates me, he says. I am determined that V&A East will open the world up to new stories and Africa will absolutely be a part of that.

Equally, he wants to celebrate British makers and history. Chris Ofili, Yinka Shonibare, these are the British people that make me feel proud. In film, in photography, in almost every single medium, there are Brits. This is our Olympics. This is the area we win gold in all the time, in the cultural sector, he says. But? We need to invest. We invest in big infrastructure, building bridges and new roads. Culture is an area in which we naturally excel. If we invest, it will transform the opportunities of a generation.

I ask him who his favourite writers are, and he tells me he is a friend of the Booker winning author Bernardine Evaristo. Just watching her move from struggling to being in a position she always deserved has been so heartening, he says. He also adores Aminatta Forna, the Scottish-Sierra Leonean author probably best known for her novel The Memory of Love, which won the Commonwealth writers prize for best book in 2011, and was shortlisted for the Orange prize for fiction. Her genealogical history is very similar to mine. The way she describes what its like to live in a country in which you are native, but also to feel so often excluded or marginalised. That is what the arts can do. Show you what its like to walk the path of someone else.

Computer-generated images of V&A East depict a kind of utopia. A museum surrounded by leafy trees, filled with curious people, sunlight gleaming through floor-to-ceiling windows. Letting go of some pandemic-induced nihilism, I can see the vision. The museum as a place of sanctuary, a centre of the community and art, thinking and education. Our success must be tied to becoming a crucible for catharsis, says Casely-Hayford. I do feel there are some things that can draw people together. Watching sport does it. Seeing truly great art can do it. Thinking back to being a teenager I would have adored a place of refuge and escape and inspiration. A place in which I could see myself reflected.

Me being a minority-ethnic director adds an additional layer of stress and pressure, he says. As frustrated or as upset as I occasionally get, its hard not to be inspired by being given this incredibly precious opportunity to craft this thing that is so timely. So needed. For me, this is the dream job and I want to share that dream with as many people as I can.

V&A East is due to open in 2023

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Meet Gus Casely-Hayford, the man on a mission to drag museums into the 21st century - The Guardian

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Posthuman | Tardis | Fandom

Posted: at 4:54 pm

Posthuman

Posthumanity was the term used to describe the human race after the destruction of Earth by the Sun in the far future. Deprived of their common cultural reference point, humans formed a loose political structure composed of many groups and subspecies known as the posthuman hegemony. (PROSE: The Book of the War)

Their territory existed at the Time Lords' frontier in time. (PROSE: Frontios, The Book of the War) With their time travel technology, posthumans were a significant faction in the War in Heaven. (PROSE: The Book of the War, Cobweb and Ivory, et al.)

Due to the availability of time travel in the posthuman era, many posthumans influenced their species' past. (PROSE: The Book of the War, Work in Progress) Due to the actions of the Pilots' Coterie, le Pouvoir, the 17th century French secret service, briefly acquired "mirrors" which showed them potential timelines of posthumanity. (PROSE: Newtons Sleep)

27th century human academics were familiar with the term "Posthuman". (PROSE: Work in Progress)

Transhumanity was the evolutionary stage between humanity and posthumanity. (PROSE: Stranger Tales of the City linking material)

The pre-posthuman era was home to a group of emotionless militant cyborgs who forcibly converted other humans and were in turn reviled by humanity, (PROSE: The Book of the War) known by some as the Inanem Magnanime Milites. (PROSE: Weapons Grade Snake Oil) Members of this cyborg race, such as Litany Chromehurst, were the forebears of technosapience (PROSE: Happily Ever After Is a High-Risk Strategy) and eventually became regarded as simply another posthuman subspecies, some of them forming the Silversmiths' Coterie. (PROSE: The Book of the War)

Earth is swallowed by Sol in the 57th Segment of Time. (TV: The Ark)

The posthuman era began with the loss of Earth, which The Book of the War and The Human Species: A Spotter's Guide indicated was circa the year 10,000,000. (PROSE: The Book of the War, Of the City of the Saved...) Another account similarly showed that the Sun swallowed Earth about ten million years after the 1st Segment of Time. (TV: The Ark) However, Compassion believed that most posthuman historians dated the destruction of Earth to 12,000,000, (PROSE: The Brakespeare Voyage) and several other accounts placed Earth's end in 5,000,000,000. (TV: New Earth, The End of the World, et al)

The period immediately after Earth's destruction, the 58th Segment of Time, (PROSE: The Well-Mannered War) was at the edge of Gallifrey's noosphere, (PROSE: The Well-Mannered War, Frontios) the frontier in time. (PROSE: The Book of the War) Early Time Lords forbid within Gallifreyan civilisation any knowledge of history beyond this point, and the Fourth Doctor regarded it as the end of the Humanian Era. (PROSE: The Well-Mannered War) Finally beyond the Ghost Point (PROSE: The Book of the War) and starting to mirror the Great Houses in several new ways, (PROSE: Of the City of the Saved...) posthuman history began with a Diaspora Era (PROSE: The Silent Stars Go By) just as the Houses' history did. (PROSE: The Book of the War)

Some human colonists of Frontios were augmented into non-humanoid, cyborg forms, (TV: Frontios) as would later become popuar among technosapiens. (PROSE: Weapons Grade Snake Oil)

Direct human survivors of Earth's destruction included the Guardians, who took a 700 years voyage on the Ark to Refusis II; (TV: The Ark, PROSE: The Book of the War) Revere's ship of refugees, thought by the Fifth Doctor to be one of the last surviving groups of Mankind, who colonised Frontios; (TV: Frontios) and the Morphans, who colonised Hereafter and very slowly terraformed it into a replacement Earth while the elite transhumans of pre-destruction Earth waited in hibernation. (PROSE: The Silent Stars Go By)

Two distinct political viewpoints arose in humanity from the loss of their original homeworld. One, the Arcadians, considered themselves the preservers of the old Earth's ways. They recreated Earth on 28,000 Earth-like displays, many of which were called New Earth. (PROSE: The Book of the War) One notable New Earth was founded by the "big revival movement" within 23 years of Earth's destruction. (TV: New Earth) The Arcadians were isolationist and eventually almost completely vanished, (PROSE: The Book of the War) with one group secretly surviving in suspended animation beneath the acid seas of Endpoint until near the end of the universe. (PROSE: Hope)

Mrs Foyle of the Remonstration Bureau. (PROSE: The Book of the War)

The other viewpoint which defined the early posthuman era was one of decadence. Mrs Foyle was a notable early era decadent who ran the House of the Rising Sun and the Remonstration Bureau. (PROSE: The Book of the War)

Beginning with the early posthuman era, humans were able to procreate with basically every other species capable of breeding; a rare trait shared with advanced factions such as the Great Houses. (PROSE: Of the City of the Saved...) With the commonality of hybridisation, some posthumans genetically modified themselves to be able to speak the language of their alien partners, as Marinthe did for Rynu. (PROSE: Farewell to a World) The Eighth Doctor once encountered a race of time-travelling Cybermen who turned to the 21st century because in their native era after Earth's destruction, humanity was scattered through the cosmos and "genetically diluted," proving unfit for cyber-conversion. (COMIC: The Flood)

No species can last forever without evolving into something new. Sooner or later the distance from Earth, from the environment humanity evolved to live in, genetic engineering and eventual interminglings of the gene pool with other species these were bound to have the inevitable, cumulative effect of turning humanity into a completely different species.Eighth Doctor [src]

A chain of posthuman worlds became the breeding-grounds of the Remote. (PROSE: The Book of the War)

Some posthuman subspecies had physical aspects of other animals originating from Earth, including dolphins and tigers. (PROSE: Of the City of the Saved...)

The Immaculata Formosii was a posthuman War Goddess who allied with many sides of the War in Heaven, including the Enemy and Faction Paradox. (PROSE: The Book of the War, Against Nature)

The posthuman (PROSE: A Hundred Words from a Civil War) Malkuthites killed the native population of Yesod, including the Yesodi, and adapted themselves into the Yesodites, who were once visited by the Eighth Doctor, Samson, and Gemma. (PROSE: The Long Midwinter, AUDIO: The Wake)

The Quire were a group of posthuman scholars who once sent six of their people to the Braxiatel Collection in the 2600s. (PROSE: Work in Progress, Tribal Reservations, Quire as Folk, Intermissions, Future Relations)

The giant Bribori Zadig with a city on his shoulder. (PROSE: Furthest Tales of the City)

There existed posthuman giants for whom a planet was comparable in scale to a mountain to a normal-sized human. (PROSE: Unification Theory) The largest giant was Bribori Zadig, who constituted his own class of posthuman and was suspected by some to have been engineered as a piece of living art. (PROSE: Sleeping Giants)

Many posthumans became became parts of hive minds, such as the Saqqaf Hive (PROSE: Saqqaf) and Angstrom Hive. (PROSE: Of the City of the Saved...) The shoal-people spread their individual minds among many fish, each person their own hive mind. (PROSE: Just Passing Through)

Akroates came from an isolated society of posthuman shepherds who resembled cyclopses. (PROSE: Akroates)

A fabled clan of long-limbed posthumans lived on Trapezium. (PROSE: The Baker Street Dozen)

The Entrustine Horde were an obscure posthuman barbarian guild. (PROSE: Of the City of the Saved...)

The colonists of the ocean world Widowseed diverged into the Seaborn and Airborne, who brutally warred for control of the gigawrack, each denying the others' humanity. (PROSE: Salutation)

A-Ph-Aa came from a cuboid race of posthumans with a rich history who were made to never exist once history changed so that humans never colonised their homeplanet. (PROSE: Mourning the Story)

In the 11th billennium, several posthuman types were created along eugenic principles, including the Neotonic Clade. (PROSE: Unification Theory)

Two of the Pilots' Coterie manifest at Salomon's House in 1671 with the use of praxis. (PROSE: Newtons Sleep)

About two million years after Earth's demise, circa 12,000,000, the posthuman era entered its height as empires began emerging from the decadant movement. (PROSE: The Book of the War) The most notable of these were the aristocratic Blood Coteries based in Siloportem. (PROSE: The Book of the War, AUDIO: Movers) The Blood Coteries included the Pilots of Civitas Solis, (PROSE: The Book of the War, Newtons Sleep) the Weavers, and the Silversmiths. (PROSE: The Book of the War)

The miniscule Plume Coteries were librarians who lived in the distant reaches of dead space. (PROSE: Cobweb and Ivory)

Gargil Krymtorpor, who lived from 12,023,711 to 12,023,967, was a posthuman interstellar pirate who renegaded from Siloportem and became indentured to the Celestis. (PROSE: The Book of the War)

At the time of the last humanoid Arcadians of the Milky Way, posthumans led by Linemica resurrected Cernunnos using delicate craftmanship and illegal time travel. Dignitaries from countless posthuman cultures attended Cernunnos' unveiling on Terra Primagenia. (PROSE: Cobweb and Ivory)

A Drashig striking. (TV: Carnival of Monsters)

A splinter Coterie became lost on a million-year mission across the cosmos, during which radiation affected their evolution by activating "a few forgotten DNA pathways". Little Brother Intrepid of Faction Paradox transported some of their eggs backwards through time to a prehistoric swamp, where they evolved into Drashigs (PROSE: Daring Initiation)

Marko Marz was a transhuman Plutocrat from an openly mercantile posthuman period. Despite time travel being taboo among the Coteries, Marz publicised his interest in it (PROSE: Subjective Interlock) and had his book Retroeconomics and Timeschism for Dummies published in the past, 4973. In the book, Marz mentioned that the Dealers in Yellow operated in his era. (PROSE: Pre-narrative Briefing L)

Megropolis One on Pluto. (TV: The Sun Makers)

The Chance Coteries were a wealthy cymbiont civilisation who, during the reign of Scacia De Rein circa 19,531,250,000,007,031, manipulated public perception of technosapiens across the posthuman hegemony. De Rein secretly supported the revolution on Pluto against the Company which led to the foundation of the Plutonic Republic of Technosapien Enhanced Cultures. The revolution led to increased sympathy and understanding for technosapiens. PROTEC's president, Sojourner Hooper-Agog, later teamed with Faction Paradox Bankside to cause the fall of the Chance Coteries. (PROSE: Weapons Grade Snake Oil)

The Technosapien Interstellar Cooperative spanned many worlds, including the AutoFolk's homeworld Mechanique II. (PROSE: Happily Ever After Is a High-Risk Strategy)

The Million-Star Alliance did not actually span a million stars, but it did include the mining planet Isoptal, where posthumans survived by turning themselves into artificial intelligences known as the Isoptaline. (PROSE: Weighty Questions, Salutation)

By 6,000,000,000, the posthumans previously living on Pluto had modified themselves into homo solarians and colonised the expanding Sun. They died when the Sun was swallowed by Grandfather's Maw. Compassion considered this to be the ultimate fate of humanity, with all the posthuman groups outside the solar system being mere off-shoots of the core continuity. (PROSE: The Brakespeare Voyage)

The Lasthumans were widely considered the final posthuman civilisation. (PROSE: Of the City of the Saved...) Their God-King was Het Linc. (PROSE: The Book of the War) They created the Universal Machine in their last millennia before being massacred by House Mirraflex in 334,961,147,104. (PROSE: Of the City of the Saved..., The Book of the War)

The Toclafane. (TV: The Sound of Drums)

While the psychics of the Lasthumans had scoured the universe and found no other human minds, there also existed strands of humanity posthumously termed the "revolved" who evolved into mindless beings then "revolved" back into conscious creatures. (PROSE: Of the City of the Saved...) The Tenth Doctor encountered a group of humans on Malcassairo in 100,000,000,000,000 whose ancestors had spent millions of years evolving into gas and another million as downloads. The Master hid from the Last Great Time War among these humans (TV: Utopia) and caused their evolution into the Toclafane. (TV: Last of the Time Lords)

Near the end of the universe, when the universe was ruled from the Needle by the Imperial Family, the planet Endpoint was home to the human-descended Endpointers as well as a secret faction of "genetically pure" humans (PROSE: Hope) of the Arcadian viewpoint (PROSE: The Book of the War) in suspended animation. The Eighth Doctor, Fitz Kreiner, and Anji Kapoor came to Endpoint, got caught up in the reawakening of the humans, and ensured peace between the Endpointers and the humans. (PROSE: Hope)

Posthumanity's final creation, the Universal Machine, was one of the Secret Architects of the City of the Saved. (PROSE: Of the City of the Saved...) All of posthumanity was resurrected in the City. (PROSE: The Book of the War)

During the City of the Saved Civil War, the most sophisticated posthuman factions fought in ways incomprehensible to common humans. Five Districts warred entirely with music and representatives of two cultures went into combat in Flautencil's Plaza which appeared to consist only of smelling orchids and exchanging meaningful glances. (PROSE: A Hundred Words from a Civil War)

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Posthuman | Tardis | Fandom

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Are We or Arent We? – National Review

Posted: at 4:54 pm

President Calvin Coolidge on October 22, 1924(Library of Congress)

In Impromptus today, I begin with patriot games. The Chinese dictatorship has decreed that only patriots may serve in the Hong Kong government. By patriots, they mean loyal servants to the Chinese Communist Party. We Americans sometimes play patriot games ourselves.

I further discuss Afghanistan, Magnitsky acts, George W. Bush, an engineering feat, an NBA coach, an anniversary, etc.

What about the anniversary? This month, oddly enough, marks the 20th anniversary of my column, Impromptus. So, happy anniversary to all who celebrate. Seriously, great thanks to my readers and correspondents, with whom it has been a privilege to share some of life, or a lot of it.

Speaking of correspondents, lets have some mail. In an Impromptus two days ago, I quoted Calvin Coolidge, at length. I was talking about the new and popular phrase post-liberal. In my judgment, liberalism has no post- (and were talking about classical liberalism, the outlook of our Founding). It has friends and enemies a relative handful of the former and multitudes of the latter.

A person can be no more post-liberal than he can be post-freedom, post-democracy, or posthuman rights. You either are or you arent. Youre fer or agin.

On the 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in July 1926 President Coolidge gave a whale of a speech. About the Declaration there is a finality that is exceedingly restful, he said. You want more? Heres a lot more:

It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that day, and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern. But that reasoning can not be applied to this great charter. If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction can not lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Revolutionary fathers.

In my column, I wrote, Well said, Cal. They called him silent, but when he spoke it was worth it.

I received a note from a reader in the beautifully named town of Vestavia Hills, Alabama.

Jay,

When reading the passage from Calvin Coolidge in todays Impromptus, I couldnt help but think of Ecclesiastes 1:9-10.

In the King James Version, those verses go,

The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us.

Our reader comments,

Yes, they all want to regress and when doing so call it progress.

A young friend of mine from Seattle writes,

Jay,

I enjoyed your appreciation for President Coolidge in your latest Impromptus! I was actually thinking of that speech in the lead-up to your quoting it....

Yesterday, in a Clubhouse room centered on Teddy Roosevelt, I quoted the paragraph just before the one you focused on. Governments do not make ideals, but ideals make governments....The people have to bear their own responsibilities.

Too many people want to use the government to create social change, and they miss this crucial fact. Theyre going about it completely the wrong way.

A phrase I used above, fer or agin, I used in my Wednesday column. A reader from Piedmont, S.D., writes,

Jay,

...I noticed your use of Youre fer or agin. That was awesome and somehow reminded me of Git er done, by Larry the Cable Guy. One of my favorite colloquialisms is from the Coen Brothers movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? (a movie that always gets a laugh out of me): Is you is, or is you aint, my constituency? I just love how that sounds . . .

Me too. I am further reminded of something that Andr Acimans uncle (I believe) often said. You will find it in Acimans classic memoir I am declaring it a classic Out of Egypt. The uncle would say, Siamo o non siamo? Are we or arent we? What are we made of? Are we mice or men? That sort of thing.

Again, todays Impromptus is here. Thanks to all yall.

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Are We or Arent We? - National Review

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Federalist – Wikipedia

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The term federalist describes several political beliefs around the world. It may also refer to the concept of parties, whose members or supporters called themselves Federalists.[1]

In Europe, proponents of deeper European integration are sometimes called Federalists. A major European NGO and advocacy group campaigning for such a political union is the Union of European Federalists. Movements towards a peacefully unified European state have existed since the 1920s, notably the Paneuropean Union. A pan-European party with representation in the European Parliament fighting for the same cause is Volt Europa.

In the European Parliament the Spinelli Group brings together MEPs from different political groups to work together of ideas and projects of European federalism; taking their name from Italian politician and MEP Altiero Spinelli, who himself was a major proponent of European federalism, also meeting with fellow deputies in the Crocodile Club.

Notable European Federalists are former European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, current EC president Ursula von der Leyen, leader of ALDE group Guy Verhofstadt, German Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy of Germany Peter Altmaier, German MEP Elmar Brok and the former leader of the SPD Martin Schulz.

In the Spanish-speaking parts the Latin America the term "federalist" is used in reference to the politics of 19th-century Argentina and Colombia. The Federalists opposed the Unitarians in Argentina and the Centralists in Colombia through the 19th century. Federalists fought for complete self-government and full provincial autonomy, as opposed to the centralized government that the Unitarians and Centralists favored. Furthermore, Federalists demanded tariff protection for their industries and, in Argentina, called for the end of the Buenos Aires customs as the only intermediary for foreign trade. During the Federal War (1859-1863) in Venezuela, liberal caudillos confronted conservatives, leading to the establishment of the modern federal States of Venezuela.

The one Federalist leader in the Platine Region was Jos Gervasio Artigas, who opposed the centralist governments in Buenos Aires that followed the May Revolution, and created instead the Federal League in 1814 among several Argentine Provinces and the Banda Oriental (modern-day Uruguay). In 1819, the Federal armies rejected the centralist Constitution of the United Provinces of South America and defeated the forces of Supreme Director Jos Rondeau at the 1820 Battle of Cepeda, effectively ending the central government and securing Provinces' sovereignty through a series of inter-Provincial pacts (v.g. Treaty of Pilar, Treaty of Benegas, Quadrilateral Treaty). A new National Constitution was proposed only in 1826, during the Presidency of Unitarian Bernardino Rivadavia, but it was again rejected by the Provinces, leading to the dissolution of the National Government the following year.

Federalist Buenos Aires Governor Manuel Dorrego took over the management of the foreign affairs of the United Provinces, but he was deposed and executed in 1828 by Unitarian General Juan Lavalle, who commanded troops dissatisfied with the negotiations that ended the War with Brazil. The following year, Juan Manuel de Rosas, leader of Buenos Aires Federalists, defeated Lavalle and secured his resignation. Rosas was elected Governor of Buenos Aires later that year by the Provincial Legislature. To counteract these developments, the Unitarian League was created by General Jos Mara Paz in 1830, uniting nine Argentine Provinces. The 1831 Federal Pact between Buenos Aires, Entre Ros and Santa Fe Provinces opposed a military alliance to the League and ultimately defeated it during 1832, its former members joining the Federal Pact into a loose confederation of Provinces known as the Argentine Confederation. Although the Unitarians were exiled in neighboring countries, the Civil War continued for two decades.

Buenos Aires Governor Juan Manuel de Rosas exerted a growing hegemony over the rest of the country during his 1835-1852 Government and resisted several Unitarian uprisings, but was finally defeated in 1852 by a coalition Army gathered by Entre Ros Federalist Governor Justo Jos de Urquiza, who accused Rosas of not complying with Federal Pact provisions for a National Constitution. In 1853, a Federal Constitution was enacted (the current Constitution of Argentina, through amendments) and Urquiza was elected President of the Argentine Confederation. However, on the aftermath of 1852 Battle of Caseros, the Province of Buenos Aires had seceded from the Confederation. In 1859, after the Battle of Cepeda the State of Buenos Aires rejoined the Confederation, although it was granted the right to make some amendments to its Constitution. Finally, after the 1861 Battle of Pavn, Buenos Aires took over the Confederation.

The following federal governments fought the weaker Federalist and Autonomist resistances in the countryside until the 1870s. The last Autonomist rebellion in Buenos Aires was quelled in 1880, leading to the federalization of Buenos Aires city and the stabilization of the Argentine State and government through the National Autonomist Party.

Federalism, in regard to the National Question, refers to support for Quebec remaining within Canada, while either keeping the status quo or pursuing greater autonomy and constitutional recognition of a Quebec nation, with corresponding rights and powers for Quebec within the Canadian federation. This ideology is opposed to Quebec sovereigntism, proponents of Quebec independence, most often (but not for all followers) along with an economic union with Canada similar to the European Union.

In the United States the term federalist usually applies to a member of one of the following groups:

The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies is an organization of conservative and libertarian lawyers and others dedicated to debate of these principles.

The World Federalist Movement is a global citizens movement that advocates for strengthened and democratic world institutions subjected to the federalist principles of subsidiarity, solidarity and democracy. It states that "[w]orld federalists support the creation of democratic global structures accountable to the citizens of the world and call for the division of international authority among separate agencies".

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Full Text of The Federalist Papers – Federalist Papers …

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1.General IntroductionHamiltonFor the Independent Journal--2.Concerning Dangers from Foreign Force and InfluenceJayFor the Independent Journal--3.The Same Subject Continued: Concerning Dangers from Foreign Force and InfluenceJayFor the Independent Journal--4.The Same Subject Continued: Concerning Dangers from Foreign Force and InfluenceJayFor the Independent Journal--5.The Same Subject Continued: Concerning Dangers from Foreign Force and InfluenceJayFor the Independent Journal--6.Concerning Dangers from Dissensions Between the StatesHamiltonFor the Independent Journal--7.The Same Subject Continued: Concerning Dangers from Dissensions Between the StatesHamiltonFor the Independent Journal--8.The Consequences of Hostilities Between the StatesHamiltonFrom the New York PacketTuesday, November 20, 17879.The Union as a Safeguard Against Domestic Faction and InsurrectionHamiltonFor the Independent Journal--10.The Same Subject Continued: The Union as a Safeguard Against Domestic Faction and InsurrectionMadisonFrm the New York PacketFriday, November 27, 178711.The Utility of the Union in Respect to Commercial Relations and a NavyHamiltonFor the Independent Journal--12.The Utility of the Union in Respect to RevenueHamiltonFrom the New York PacketTuesday, November 27, 178713.Advantage of the Union in Respect to Economy in GovernmentHamiltonFor the Independent Journal--14.Objections to the Proposed Constitution from Extent of Territory AnsweredMadisonFrom the New York PacketFriday, November 30, 178715.The Insufficiency of the Present Confederation to Preserve the UnionHamiltonFor the Independent Journal--16.The Same Subject Continued: The Insufficiency of the Present Confederation to Preserve the UnionHamiltonFrom the New York PacketTuesday, December 4, 178717.The Same Subject Continued: The Insufficiency of the Present Confederation to Preserve the UnionHamiltonFor the Independent Journal--18.The Same Subject Continued: The Insufficiency of the Present Confederation to Preserve the UnionHamilton and MadisonFor the Independent Journal--19.The Same Subject Continued: The Insufficiency of the Present Confederation to Preserve the UnionHamilton and MadisonFor the Independent Journal--20.The Same Subject Continued: The Insufficiency of the Present Confederation to Preserve the UnionHamilton and MadisonFrom the New York PacketTuesday, December 11, 178721.Other Defects of the Present ConfederationHamiltonFor the Independent Journal--22.The Same Subject Continued: Other Defects of the Present ConfederationHamiltonFrom the New York PacketFriday, December 14, 178723.The Necessity of a Government as Energetic as the One Proposed to the Preservation of the UnionHamiltonFrom the New York PacketTuesday, December 17, 178724.The Powers Necessary to the Common Defense Further ConsideredHamiltonFor the Independent Journal--25.The Same Subject Continued: The Powers Necessary to the Common Defense Further ConsideredHamiltonFrom the New York PacketFriday, December 21, 178726.The Idea of Restraining the Legislative Authority in Regard to the Common Defense ConsideredHamiltonFor the Independent Journal--27.The Same Subject Continued:The Idea of Restraining the Legislative Authority in Regard to the Common Defense ConsideredHamiltonFrom the New York PacketTuesday, December 25, 178728.The Same Subject Continued:The Idea of Restraining the Legislative Authority in Regard to the Common Defense ConsideredHamiltonFor the Independent Journal--29.Concerning the MilitiaHamiltonFrom the Daily AdvertiserThursday, January 10, 178830.Concerning the General Power of TaxationHamiltonFrom the New York PacketFriday, December 28, 178731.The Same Subject Continued: Concerning the Power of TaxationHamiltonFrom the New York PacketTuesday, January 1, 178832.The Same Subject Continued: Concerning the Power of TaxationHamiltonFrom the Daily AdvertiserThursday, January 3, 178833.The Same Subject Continued: Concerning the Power of TaxationHamiltonFrom the Daily AdvertiserThursday, January 3, 178834.The Same Subject Continued: Concerning the Power of TaxationHamiltonFrom the New York PacketFriday, January 4, 178835.The Same Subject Continued: Concerning the Power of TaxationHamiltonFor the Independent Journal--36.The Same Subject Continued: Concerning the Power of TaxationHamiltonFrom the New York PacketTuesday, January 8, 178837.Concerning the Difficulties of the Convention in Devising a Proper Form of GovernmentMadisonFrom the Daily AdvertiserFriday, January 11, 178838.Incoherence of the Objections to the New Plan ExposedMadisonFrom the New York PacketTuesday, January 15, 178839.Conformity of the Plan to Republican PrinciplesMadisonFor the Independent Journal--40.The Powers of the Convention to Form a Mixed Government Examined and SustainedMadisonFrom the New York PacketFriday, January 18, 178841.General View of the Powers Conferred by the ConstitutionMadisonFor the Independent Journal--42.The Powers Conferred by the Constitution Further ConsideredMadisonFrom the New York PacketTuesday, January 22, 178843.The Same Subject Continued: The Powers Conferred by the Constitution Further ConsideredMadisonFor the Independent Journal--44.Restrictions on the Authority of the Several StatesMadisonFrom the New York PacketFriday, January 25, 178845.The Alleged Danger From the Powers of the Union to the State Governments ConsideredMadisonFor the Independent Journal--46.The Influence of the State and Federal Governments ComparedMadisonFrom the New York PacketTuesday, January 29, 178847.The Particular Structure of the New Government and Distribution of Power Among Its Different PartsMadisonFrom the New York PacketFriday, February 1, 178848.These Departments Should Not Be So Far Separated as to Have No Constitutional Control Over Each OtherMadisonFrom the New York PacketFriday, February 1, 178849.Method of Guarding Against the Encroachments of Any One Department of Government by Appealing to the People Through a ConventionHamilton or MadisonFrom the New York PacketTuesday, February 5, 178850.Periodic Appeals to the People ConsideredHamilton or MadisonFrom the New York PacketTuesday, February 5, 178851.The Structure of the Government Must Furnish the Proper Checks and Balances Between the Different DepartmentsHamilton or MadisonFrom the New York PacketFriday, February 8, 178852.The House of RepresentativesHamilton or MadisonFrom the New York PacketFriday, February 8, 178853.The Same Subject Continued: The House of RepresentativesHamilton or MadisonFrom the New York PacketTuesday, February 12, 178854.The Apportionment of Members Among StatesHamilton or MadisonFrom the New York PacketTuesday, February 12, 178855.The Total Number of the House of RepresentativesHamilton or MadisonFrom the New York PacketFriday, February 15, 178856.The Same Subject Continued: The Total Number of the House of RepresentativesHamilton or MadisonFrom the New York PacketTuesday, February 19, 178857.The Alleged Tendency of the Plan to Elevate the Few at the Expense of the Many Considered in Connection with RepresentationHamilton or MadisonFrom the New York PacketTuesday, February 19, 178858.Objection that the Number of Members Will Not Be Augmented as the Progress of Population Demands ConsideredMadison----59.Concerning the Power of Congress to Regulate the Election of MembersHamiltonFrom the New York PacketFriday, February 22, 178860.The Same Subject Continued: Concerning the Power of Congress to Regulate the Election of MembersHamiltonFrom the New York PacketTuesday, February 26, 178861.The Same Subject Continued: Concerning the Power of Congress to Regulate the Election of MembersHamiltonFrom the New York PacketTuesday, February 26, 178862.The SenateHamilton or MadisonFor the Independent Journal--63.The Senate ContinuedHamilton or MadisonFor the Independent Journal--64.The Powers of the SenateJayFrom the New York PacketFriday, March 7, 178865.The Powers of the Senate ContinuedHamiltonFrom the New York PacketFriday, March 7, 178866.Objections to the Power of the Senate To Set as a Court for ImpeachmentsFurther ConsideredHamiltonFrom the New York PacketTuesday, March 11, 178867.The Executive DepartmentHamiltonFrom the New York PacketTuesday, March 11, 178868.The Mode of Electing the PresidentHamiltonFrom the New York PacketFriday, March 14, 178869.The Real Character of the ExecutiveHamiltonFrom the New York PacketFriday, March 14, 178870.The Executive Department Further ConsideredHamiltonFrom the New York PacketFriday, March 14, 178871.The Duration in Office of the ExecutiveHamiltonFrom the New York PacketTuesday, March 18, 178872.The Same Subject Continued, and Re-Eligibility of the Executive ConsideredHamiltonFrom the New York PacketFriday, March 21, 178873.The Provision for Support of the Executive, and the Veto PowerHamiltonFrom the New York PacketFriday, March 21, 178874.The Command of the Military and Naval Forces, and the Pardoning Power of the ExecutiveHamiltonFrom the New York PacketTuesday, March 25, 178875.The Treaty Making Power of the ExecutiveHamiltonFor the Independent Journal--76.The Appointing Power of the ExecutiveHamiltonFrom the New York PacketTuesday, April 1, 178877.The Appointing Power Continued and Other Powers of the Executive ConsideredHamiltonFrom the New York PacketFriday, April 4, 178878.The Judiciary DepartmentHamiltonFrom McLEAN's Edition, New York--79.The Judiciary ContinuedHamiltonFromMcLEAN'sEdition, New York--80.The Powers of the JudiciaryHamiltonFromMcLEAN'sEdition, New York--81.The Judiciary Continued, and the Distribution of Judicial AuthorityHamiltonFrom McLEAN's Edition--82.The Judiciary ContinuedHamiltonFrom McLEAN's Edition--83.The Judiciary Continued in Relation to Trial by JuryHamiltonFrom McLEAN's Edition--84.Certain General and Miscellaneous Objections to the Constitution Considered and AnsweredHamiltonFrom McLEAN's Edition--85.Concluding RemarksHamiltonFrom McLEAN's Edition--

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Anti-Federalist vs Federalist – Difference and Comparison …

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Anti-Federalist vs. Federalist Debate

The American Revolution was a costly war and left the colonies in an economic depression. The debt and remaining tensionsperhaps best summarized by a conflict in Massachusetts known as Shays' Rebellionled some founding political members in the U.S. to desire for more concentrated federal power. The thought was that this concentrated power would allow for standardized fiscal and monetary policy and for more consistent conflict management.

However, a more nationalistic identity was the antithesis of some founding political members' ideals for the developing states. A more centralized American power seemed reminiscent of the monarchical power of the English crown that had so recently and controversially been defeated. The potential consequences of centralized fiscal and monetary policy were especially frightening for some, reminding them of burdensome and unfair taxation. Anti-federalists were closely tied to rural landowners and farmers who were conservative and staunchly independent.

The most important parts of this debate were decided in the 1700s and 1800s in U.S. history, and the Federalist Party dissolved centuries ago, but the battles between federalist and anti-federalist ideologies continue into the present day in left and right wing American politics. To better understand the history behind this ongoing ideological debate, watch the following video from author John Green's U.S. history Crash Course series.

Prior to the Constitution, there was the Articles of Confederation, a 13-articled agreement between the 13 founding states that covered issues of state sovereignty, (theoretical) equal treatment of citizenry, congressional development and delegation, international diplomacy, armed forces, fund raising, supermajority lawmaking, the U.S.-Canadian relationship, and war debt.

The Articles of Confederation was a very weak agreement on which to base a nationso weak, in fact, that the document never once refers to the United States of America as being part of a national government, but rather "a firm league of friendship" between states. This is where the concept of the "United States"i.e., a group of roughly and ideologically united, individually ruling bodiescomes from in the naming of the country. The Articles of Confederation took years for the 13 states to ratify, with Virginia being the first to do so in 1777 and Maryland being the last in 1781.

With the Articles of Confederation, Congress became the only form of federal government, but it was crippled by the fact that it could not fund any of the resolutions it passed. While it could print money, there was no solid regulation of this money, which led to swift and deep depreciation. When Congress agreed to a certain rule, it was primarily up to the states to individually agree to fund it, something they were not required to do. Though Congress asked for millions of dollars in the 1780s, they received less than 1.5 million over the course of three years, from 1781 to 1784.

This inefficient and ineffective governance led to economic woes and eventual, if small scale, rebellion. As George Washington's chief of staff, Alexander Hamilton saw firsthand the problems caused by a weak federal government, particularly those which stemmed from a lack of centralized fiscal and monetary policies. With Washington's approval, Hamilton assembled a group of nationalists at the 1786 Annapolis Convention (also known as the "Meeting of Commissioners to Remedy Defects of the Federal Government"). Here, delegates from several states wrote a report on the conditions of the federal government and how it needed to be expanded if it was to survive its domestic turmoil and international threats as a sovereign nation.

In 1788, the Constitution replaced the Articles of Confederation, greatly expanding the powers of the federal government. With its current 27 amendments, the U.S. Constitution remains the supreme law of the United States of America, allowing it to define, protect, and tax its citizenry. Its development and relatively quick ratification was perhaps just as much the result of widespread dissatisfaction with a weak federal government as it was support for the constitutional document.

Federalists, those who identified with federalism as part of a movement, were the main supporters of the Constitution. They were aided by a federalist sentiment that had gained traction across many factions, uniting political figures. This does not mean there was no heated debate over the Constitution's drafting, however. The most zealous anti-federalists, loosely headed by Thomas Jefferson, fought against the Constitution's ratification, particularly those amendments which gave the federal government fiscal and monetary powers.

A sort of ideological war raged between the two factions, resulting in the Federalist Papers and the Anti-Federalist Papers, a series of essays written by various figuressome anonymously, some notfor and against the ratification of the U.S. Constitution.

Ultimately, anti-federalists greatly influenced the document, pushing for strict checks and balances and certain limited political terms that would keep any one branch of the federal government from holding too much power for too long. The Bill of Rights, the term used for the first 10 amendments of the Constitution, are especially about personal, individual rights and freedoms; these were included partly to satisfy anti-federalists.

Among anti-federalists, some of the most prominent figures were Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe. Jefferson was often considered a leader among the anti-federalists. Other prominent anti-federalists included Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry, and Richard Henry Lee.

Alexander Hamilton, a former chief of staff to George Washington, was a proponent of a strong federal government and founded the Federalist Party. He helped oversee the development of a national bank and a taxation system. Other prominent federalists of the time included John Jay and John Adams.

Other figures, such as James Madison, greatly supported Hamilton's federalist intentions for a constitution and national identity, but disagreed with his fiscal policies and were more likely to side with anti-federalists on matters of money. Without Madison's influence, which included acceptance of anti-federalists' desire for a bill of rights, it is unlikely that the U.S. Constitution would have been ratified.

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The Culture War Is A Dangerous Distraction That Warrants Total Resistance – The Federalist

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Bill Maher made an interesting point on his show last Friday, arguing that Americas obsession with political correctness is crippling its institutions, leaving the country hobbled in the geopolitical race with China. Thats an accurate assessment, one that also tasks the defenders of cultural sanity with resisting wokeness while not getting bogged down by trivialities at the cost of basic efficiency.

Thats an impossible balance to strike. Despite the lefts false but emergent narrative that conservatives are foolishly and disproportionately obsessed with the culture war, Id contend the response is largely proportionate. That isnt to say flashpoints like the fight over Dr. Seuss are never milked or depicted inaccurately by some. Of course they are.

But its clear that ignoring and conceding perceivably small battles like, for instance, six Dr. Seuss books or Mr. Potato Headis what empowers the lefts culture warriors to take control of everything. By dismissing flare-ups of insanity on college campuses or in the legacy media, leftists normalized their radical new standards before the public even saw it coming. Its like the metaphor of the boiling frog. Death by a thousand cuts.

Standards are set in the small dust-ups. The legacy press covers them from the left, then corporations and government institutions respond to the pressure, sometimes convinced the cost-benefit analysis suggests its easier to roll over. But rolling over sets the standards, and the standards are unjust.

But those standards are also now the ones by which were forced to live, lest we face social and professional consequences for alleged bigotry. Bear in mind that workers without the financial means of a canceled celebrity or journalist are hurt most by those rigid strictures of cancel culture, forced to violate their consciences or suffer financial consequences for perceived transgressions.

Whats sad is that the glass was always half full. Before the acceleration of cancel culture, wed spilled so much blood, sweat, and tears creating a system of equality under the law. Disparities, of course, remained. Equality under the law did not always ensure equality in practice. But measures like the Equality Act, which would create discrimination against women and people of faith, are throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Women, for instance, worked hard to win victories like Title IX that will be undercut by the very bill being sold in the name of womens equality.

I often think back to Dolly Partons Dixie Stampede. Now known simply as Dolly Partons Stampede, the Medieval Times-like attraction was once advertised as an extraordinary dinner show pitting North against South in a friendly and fun rivalry. After a viral Slate article questioned the wisdom of that framing, the show removed all references to the Civil War, including Dixie from its name. That was the right call. Its probably for the best that a tourist attraction no longer treats a conflict that involved human bondage as a kitschy gimmick. The Confederate flag probably shouldnt have been flown at the South Carolina statehouse.

These are just some examples of the bathwater that needs to be thrown out. There are certainly more. To deny their existence would be foolish nobody should have a blanket opposition to cancellation as a concept. The right has learned not to treat political dissenters like The Dixie Chicks while the left has decided to treat everyone to the right of Noam Chomsky (including Noam Chomsky!) exactly like The Dixie Chicks.

Therein lies the problem, which is one of proportionality. This is not a perfect country. We still have work to do. But the lefts wildly disproportionate attacks on our culture have necessitated a strong defense of it, which means conservatives and others must spend adequate time pushing back, even when the target is deeply stupid and seemingly trivial.

This brings us back to Bill Maher. You know who doesnt care that theres a stereotype of a Chinese man in a Dr. Seuss book? China, he said last Friday. But the left cares very much. Its another opportunity for performative outrage, which fuels the media business and another opportunity to construct the facile illusion of an irredeemably bigoted country in need of total scrubbing. Its hardly the end of the world, but ceding the lefts argument that several Dr. Seuss books are so racist they should no longer be printed sets a standard.

Weve clearly learned its dangerous to keep ceding those arguments because they rapidly amount to a total cultural takeover that renders the values ungirding our shared consensus no longer really a consensus: basic values that were uncontroversial everywhere except the kookiest corners of academia just 10 years ago, like free expression, the Constitution, religious freedom, equality. The cultural left is deliberately and openly engaged in a scorched-earth campaign to replace those basic values with their own.

Sadly that means we must fight these battles as they arise. Its not a good thing. Nor is it pleasant to think of all the time, money, and other resources our institutions waste on layers of bureaucracy added to protect from and appease the radical ideological minority that has seized control over the culture. When it comes to fighting this cultural revolution, were damned if we do but especially damned if we dont.

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John Kerry Can Take Off His Mask In A Plane, But Not These 12 Toddlers – The Federalist

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Former secretary of state and 2004 failed presidential candidate John Kerry got away with taking off his mask on an American Airlines flight on Wednesday. The Tennessee Star obtained and posted a photo of Kerry, who is now President Bidens climate envoy, and noted he was neither eating or drinking at the time.

In response to Kerry claiming on Twitter that if he dropped his mask it was momentary, a fellow passenger told Fox News that Kerrys mask was off for five minutes. After Twitter users called on American Airlines to respond, the airline said it was looking into the situation.

There are problems with a culture in which its normal to publicly shame people for dropping their masks. But the fact that Kerry was allowed to fly while airlines have kicked off toddlers for the same behavior, including autistic children with medical mask exemptions, exposes the performative hypocrisy of the mask-police industry.

American Airlines policy threatens to remove maskless passengers and possibly bar them from future travel, as do most other airlines, including United, JetBlue, and Spirit.But while American Airlines neglected to enforce these policies against Bidens special climate envoy, American and other airlines have employed them to kick these families off of their flights.

Carter Kimball is a 4-year-old boy with nonverbal autism. When he and his parents boarded their Spirit Airlines flight out of Las Vegas on Monday, they brought a doctors exemption showing that Carter need not wear a mask because of his medical condition.

The airline kicked the Kimball family off of their flight anyway, even though the family says wearing a mask makes Carter harm himself or hold his breath. After receiving backlash, Spirit has promised to add room for medical exemptions to its mask policy.

Cebastian Lewis is 3 years old and autistic. Back in September, he and his family attempted to board a Spirit Airlines flight to Chicago. Cebastian kept his mask on as he boarded but then removed it while in his seat.

After the airline asked his family to get off the aircraft and they refused, the airline made everyone on the aircraft deplane. The airline also called the police, according to Lewis mother, Zana Shelton.

Two-year-old Makenna and her family were traveling from Michigan to their Florida home in December, when American Airlines kicked them off their flight.

Theyre kicking us off and making everybody deplane because Makenna wont keep her mask on, Makennas mother, Briana, said in a video recording she took of the incident. Her daughter was eating during the time she had removed her mask, Leshinsky added, but the airline still brought a federal air marshal onboard to confront them before forcing them off the flight.

JetBlue kicked Chaya Bruck and her six kids off their flight from Florida to New Jersey in August, after her 2-year-old daughter Dina wouldnt wear a mask.

The flight crew came over to me and told me my daughter was 3 years old, Chaya Bruck said. I told them shes 2. JetBlue policy currently requires passengers 2 years old and older to wear masks, but Bruck insisted that the website at the time said children who are not able to maintain a face covering are exempt from the requirement.

After other passengers on the plane took up for Bruck and her children, all passengers were forced to deplane. There is zero tolerance, a flight attendant can be heard saying in a video from the incident.

Eliz and Erhard Orban were kicked off a United Airlines flight from Denver to New Jersey in December when their 2-year-old daughter Edeline refused to keep her mask on. Were banned from United forever because a 2-year-old would not put on a mask, Eliz said in a video of the incident she posted to Instagram.

Were over here holding this mask on her face, Erhard told the flight attendant in the video. A few minutes later, after kicking the family off of the flight, an airline representative can be heard telling the family theres a no-tolerance policy.

The family told Fox News later that Twitter posted a sensitive content warning on the video, and Instagram threatened to delete Orbans account.

American Airlines removed Lyon, his mother Rachel Starr Davis, and his grandmother from their flight after the 2-year-old wouldnt wear his mask in September. Im shaking holding this piece of cloth to my sons face so that we can take off, Davis said.

American forced everyone to deplane then refused to let the Davis family reboard. Another passenger who had tried to help Lyon put a mask on was also kept from getting back on the flight, according to Davis.

Two-year-old Hayes and his mother, Jodi Degyansky, were on a Southwest Airlines flight to Chicago when he took his mask off to eat a snack, according to Degyansky. The airline staff insisted the toddler put his mask back on. Even though Dgyansky was then able to put her sons mask back on, she said, the plane returned to the gate so staff could escort them off the flight.

In a photo posted by MSN, Hayes has a pacifier in his mouth as hes held by his mother in an airplane seat.

Southwest Airlines booted five-year-old Ava Breiterman, who is autistic, and her mother Kelly off their flight in September. Even though Ava had a doctors note exempting her from wearing a mask, Southwest forced them off the plane, sending their bags on without them.

I was trying to get her to put her mask back on, she wouldnt, Breiterman said. The manager came back in and said, Sorry maam, were going to have to deboard you.'

Safwan Choudhry, his wife, and daughters Zupda and Zara were forced off their WestJet flight in Canada after the airline called the police. Choudhry said the family was kicked off because Zara, who was 19 months, wasnt wearing a mask. WestJet said it was because of three-year-old Zupda.

It started with my toddler and once we got a mask on her, they turned to my 19-month-old infant and said every person on the plane has to wear a mask or the plane cant take off,' Choudhry said.

After police confronted the family and the family did not leave the aircraft, the entire flight was canceled.

Alyssa Sadler was flying with her 3-year-old autistic son from Midland, Texas to Houston when Southwest Airlines booted them from their flight. He was screaming, Sadler said, adding that the plane had left the gate but turned around once the crew discovered that her son wouldnt wear his mask.

Sadler said she had a doctors note about her sons autism, but the airline still kicked her, her son, and her 1-year-old daughter off the flight.

Frontier Airlines kicked a family of Hasidic Jews off a flight in February, eventually canceling the entire flight. The family says it was because their 18-month-old baby was unmasked. Frontier Airlines claims other members of the family were also refusing to wear masks, but video of the incident shows only the baby without a face covering.

One woman said she saw airline staff high-fiving after the incident, and thought she heard them say we did it.

If an airline is going to have a zero tolerance policy for maskless babies, then theres no excuse for giving Bidens buddy John Kerry a pass.

Elle Reynolds is an intern at the Federalist, and a senior at Patrick Henry College studying government and journalism. You can follow her work on Twitter at @_etreynolds.

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California Progressives Are About To Implement A Radical And Sweeping Social Justice Curriculum – The Federalist

Posted: at 4:54 pm

On this episode of The Federalist, RealClearInvestigations reporter John Murawski joins Culture Editor Emily Jashinsky to outline progressive activists battle to create a mandatory ethnic studies curriculum that forces teachings about systemic racism, predatory capitalism, heteropatriarchy, and other structures of oppression on 1.7 million high schoolers in California. President Joe Bidens new education secretary may try to implement it federally as well.

Their hope is that he will take up the ethnic studies cause and will use the power of the federal government, the federal muscle by the federal government to advance ethnic studies in some way to make it a national, to raise the profile of ethnic studies, Murawski said.

He compared the scenario to the transgender bathroom issue that said the government, can withdraw federal funding for schools if they dont cooperate with certain federal policies.

Some of the people involved in the curriculums creation and evaluation, Murawski said, are openly sympathetic to Marxism and treat the ideology behind the literature as a utopian exuberance.

Ethnic studies is very similar to critical race theory. In some ways, I cant tell the difference between ethnic studies and critical race theory, Murawski said. They are very similar, very much focused on the ubiquity of racism, the prominence of racism, white supremacy, systemic racism, and oppression as being inherent to the American experiment.

Read more of Murawskis reporting here.

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California Progressives Are About To Implement A Radical And Sweeping Social Justice Curriculum - The Federalist

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Merciless Teen Vogue Staffers Are Not An Outlier, They’re The Future Of Newsrooms – The Federalist

Posted: at 4:54 pm

Make no mistake, the journalists at Teen Vogue will soon be in charge of every legacy newsroom. The shortsighted media establishment haplessly fueled its own destruction and theres little recourse.

This week, Alexi McCammond lost her job as editor-in-chief of Teen Vogue because the outlets staff couldnt get over tweets she sent as a teenager which, as the New York Times put it, included comments on the appearance of Asian features, derogatory stereotypes about Asians and slurs for gay people. McCammond apologized for the tweets in 2019 and went on to cover the 2020 election for Axios, earning acclaim from her peers.

After Teen Vogue announced her hiring, staff made hay over the old tweets, forcing McCammond to issue more apologies before the situation ultimately became untenable on Wednesday. This is obviously crazy to everyone who hasnt drank the Kool-Aid, which is a rapidly decreasing proportion of the adult population, thanks in no small part to the journalists who normalized these absurd standards. As such, McCammonds peers in the press leaped to her defense, condemning the successful efforts to oust her.

Its too little, too late. The legacy media fueled the rise of cancel culture, indulging the far lefts bizarre and radical scorched-earth arguments for years through their coverage and their own personnel decisions. They mocked conservatives who sounded the alarm about college campuses. They continue to insist the right is disproportionately obsessed with the culture war, even as it consumes their institutions.

This is a problem that will get significantly worse until the left is forced to pay an intense price for using their corporate heft to impose the rules of cancel culture on the public. That means the people ignoring or cheering unjust retribution against the right will need to grow up and defend the principle of free expression, whether or not its politically convenient.

Just earlier today I wrote about why these small battles are worth fighting. When institutions like Conde Nast hold the line, it prevents the far left from setting standards that unjustly govern our culture. Those unjust standards leave our institutions distracted and weakened and leave our people needlessly divided and paranoid. This is a good example but the point is that its one of many.

Look no further than the leaks from Politicos staff meeting after the outlet let Ben Shapiro guest author Playbook for literally one day. Read Donald McNeils account of how he was pushed out of the New York Times for repeating a slur in the context of a conversation about it. Revisit the Grey Ladys leaks about Bari Weiss, or the downfall of Sue Schafer at The Washington Post, The Atlantics internalfreakout over Kevin Williamson. This isnt happening at Slate. Its happening at the worlds premiere objective news institutions, the publics biggest access points into world affairs. And theyre utterly broken.

Lets not forget that McCammond was hired at Teen Vogue after news broke that shed been dating a top staffer for Joe Biden while still covering him. That, of course, was fine with them. The 10-year-old tweets on the other hand? Unacceptable.

Teen Vogue just cut a promising young center-left journalist loose for tweets she sent as a kid, that clearly dont represent her adult worldview, and that she apologized for. Its ridiculous and telling that even a big slice of the corporate media agrees and is publicly saying so despite saying silent in other cases.

Not only did they heavily contribute to the creation of this problem, they mocked and ignored the people trying to prevent it. They will also be the casualties, which is exactly what conservatives warned would happen.

Theres no good reason for the right to take a victory lap. Whats happened to our culture is far too sad to warrant any celebration.

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Merciless Teen Vogue Staffers Are Not An Outlier, They're The Future Of Newsrooms - The Federalist

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