Best Dozen Articles I've Read in 2024

Introduction

See also Best Things of 2024. and Best Dozen Articles I've Read in 2023 and Best Articles 2021.

The Best

1. The OSS's Simple Sabotage Field Manual: "(11) General Interference with Organizations and Production," (1944) on disrupting organizations by things like making meetings go too long and not decide anything.

(1) Insist on doing everything through "channels." Never permit short-cuts to be taken in order to, expedite decisions.

(2) Make "speeches." Talk as frequently as possible and at great length. Illustrate your "points" by long anecdotes and accounts of personal experiences. Never hesitate to make a few appropriate "patriotic" comments.

(3) When possible, refer all matters to committees, for "further study and consideration." Attempt to make the committees as large as possible - never less than five.

(4) Bring up irrelevant issues as frequently as possible.

(5) Haggle over precise wordings of communications, minutes, resolutions.

2. "My Correct Views on Everything: A Rejoinder to Edward Thompson's `Open Letter to Leszek Kolakowski'", Leszek Kolakowski (1974).

We want a society with a large autonomy of small communities, do we not? And we want central planning in the economy. Let us try to think now how both work together. We want technical progress and we want perfect security for people; let us look closer how both could be combined. We want industrial democracy and we want efficient management: do they work well together? Of course they do, in the leftist heaven everything is compatible and everything settled, lamb and lion sleep in the same bed. Look at the horrors of the world and see how easily we can get rid of them once we make a peaceful revolution toward the new socialist logic. The Middle East war and Palestinian grievances? Of course, this is the result of capitalism, just let us make the revolution and the question is settled. Pollution? Of course, no problem at all, just let the new proletarian state take over the factories and no pollution any more. Traffic jams ? This is because capitalists do not care a damn about human comfort, just give us power (in fact, this is a rather good point, in socialism we have far fewer cars and correspondingly fewer traffic jams). There is such a simple answer to everything and, moreover, the same answer to everything!

3. "Modern Theology and Biblical Criticism," CS Lewis speech to seminarians (1959).

The undermining of the old orthodoxy has been mainly the work of divines engaged in New Testament criticism. The authority of experts in that discipline is the authority in deference to whom we are asked to give up a huge mass of beliefs shared in common by the early Church, the Fathers, the Middle Ages, the Reformers, and even the nineteenth century. I want to explain what it is that makes me skeptical about this authority. Ignorantly skeptical, as you will all too easily see. But the scepticism is the father of the ignorance. It is hard to persevere in a close study when you can work up no prima facie confidence in your teachers. First then, whatever these men may be as Biblical critics, I distrust them as critics. They seem to me to lack literary judgement, to be imperceptive about the very quality of the texts they are reading. It sounds a strange charge to bring against men who have been steeped in those books all their lives. But that might be just the trouble. A man who has spent his youth and manhood in the minute study of New Testament texts and of other people's studies of them, whose literary experience of those texts lacks any standard of comparison such as can only grow from a wide and deep and genial experience of literature in general, is, I should think, very likely to miss the obvious thing about them. If he tells me that something in a Gospel is legend or romance, I want to know how many legends and romances he has read, how well his palate is trained in detecting them by the flavour; not how many years he has spend on that Gospel.

4. "Messing with Texas," Nate Silver, FiveThirtyEight.com (2009).

Technically speaking, Texas does not have the right to divide itself up into five new states. Rather, it can spawn as many as four new states; whatever is left over would be called ‘Texas’, although for clarity I refer to this region as ‘New Texas’. This portion of the state gets to keep the Texas moniker because it contains the current state capital, Austin, and because it is in the middle of Texas’ present territory. However, it would actually the smallest, area-wise, of the five ‘new’ states, at about 25,000 square miles. New Texas would, however, be a swing state, its eight electoral votes in play as Democrats fought to turn out enough votes in Austin and the Hispanic portions of San Antonio to fend off a heavy Republican advantage in the suburban and rural portions of Hill Country.

5. "A Guide to Talking Politics at the Thanksgiving Table; Keeping silent is the surest way to remain ignorant," Bill Frezza, Forbes (2012).

Remaining silent in the face of a string of progressive inanities ending with the question, Dont you agree? is nearly impossible. A friendly smile and a simple no never seem to suffice. The room grows quiet as if someone just discovered a whiskey salesman in the middle of a temperance convention. Heads turn to the alpha dog, wondering whether he picked up the scent. He sizes you up before he speaks, gathering his audience to deliver a crushing rebuke, sure of the admiring glances that will be his as soon as he puts you in your place.

6. Twitter thread on "Shape and Drape" in clothes, by Derek Guy, @dieworkwear (2024).

1. Try to wear a jacket. Or find ways to layer
2. Pay attention to the complex construction of clothes
3. Don't assume everything has to be slim-fit
4. Think about outfits as shapes
5. Pay attention to how fabric drapes

7. "The Heresy of Christian Buddhism: Modern Christianity has become infected with Buddhist ideas," by The Social Pathologist, in Aaron Renn's Substack (2024).

"Any form of assertion, strength, self-improvement or force would be seen negatively in this kenotic schema, and it’s no surprise that traditional masculinity with its close association to the former attributes would be foreign to this line of thought. Many commentators have spoken of the apparent feminisation of Christianity but they have noted are the effects and not the cause, since what we’re are actually observing is the “Buddhisation” of Christianity resulting in the worship of God in an apparently feminine submissive mode. By its influence, Christianity becomes a celebration of self-abasement, non-resistance and pathological altruism, where sensible actions to preserve the self and assert the truth of Christianity are seen negatively."

8. "The 7 Tribes of Intellect," James Thompson (2013).

These are the next 20% of the population in terms of ability.They would be 2,000 citizens in the town of 10,000 inhabitants. Learning is somewhat faster, and achievements are of better quality. Learning varies from the slow pace, simple materials and careful supervision already mentioned previously, to very explicit,hands-on training. They tend to credulity, belief in god and superstition. They can locate the intersection of two streets on a map, identify two features in a newspaper sports story, perhaps calculate the total cost of purchases listed in a catalogue, and draw inferences from two identifiable facts and deal with some distractors.

9. Charles Murray, "Aztecs vs. Greeks" (2007).

Many high-IQ students, especially those who avoid serious science and math, go from kindergarten through an advanced degree without ever having a teacher who is dissatisfied with their best work and without ever taking a course that forces them to say to themselves, “I can’t do this.” Humility requires that the gifted learn what it feels like to hit an intellectual wall, just as all of their less talented peers do, and that can come only from a curriculum and pedagogy designed especially for them. That level of demand cannot fairly be imposed on a classroom that includes children who do not have the ability to respond. The gifted need to have some classes with each other not to be coddled, but because that is the only setting in which their feet can be held to the fire."

10. "Fragmented Future: Multiculturalism Doesn’t Make Vibrant Communities but Defensive Ones," Steve Sailer, The American Conservative (2024).

Putnam couldn’t cite any mistakes of fact, just a failure to accentuate the positive. It was “almost criminal,” Putnam grumbled, that Lloyd had not sufficiently emphasized the spin that he had spent five years concocting. Yet considering the quality of Putnam’s talking points that Lloyd did pass on, perhaps the journalist was being merciful in not giving the professor more rope with which to hang himself. For example, Putnam’s line—“What we shouldn’t do is to say that they [immigrants] should be more like us. We should construct a new us”—sounds like a weak parody of Bertolt Brecht’s parody of Communist propaganda after the failed 1953 uprising against the East German puppet regime: “Would it not be easier for the government to dissolve the people and elect another?”.

11. "This Sceptered Isle," Joshua Trevino,Armas (2024).

The Home Secretary appeared on the BBC and reassured viewers that Britain remains a free-speech society, while presiding over the expedited arrests, trials, and convictions of those who spoke wrongly. A father of small children got more than three years for a tweet. A middle-aged woman in Cheshire had her arrest announced by local authorities: she posted incorrect information on Facebook. The list is extensive and growing, each destruction of a wrongthink-posting nobody’s life amplified by the regime pour encourager les autres. The 1381 rebellion of English peasants under Wat Tyler ended with the victorious Richard II, having prevailed in part through a double-cross of the credulous rebels, sneering to them that “villeins ye are still, and villeins ye shall remain,” and this is still the message of the regime in 2024.

12. "The Democrats’ Insanity Defense; Republican Activists Say They Have to Water Down the Reality of Their Opponents’ Agenda in Focus Groups. ‘They ust don’t believe it’s true. It can’t be.‘" Tablet, Park MacDougald (2024).

The same GOP staffer, who is currently working on a competitive congressional race, told me that one problem his campaign regularly faces is that aspects of Democratic governance are simply too insane for voters to find credible, even when they are documented as official U.S. government policy. “When you outline the Democratic agenda, you have to water it down, because in both polling and focus groups, people just don’t believe it,” he said. “They are critical of things like boys in girls’ sports, but they tune out stuff about schools not informing parents about transitioning their children. They just don’t believe it’s true. It can’t be.”

Oddities

• Photos of People with big things, X (2024).

• "Thread of before and after photos" Epic Maps (2024).

The Runners Up

1. "Hesitant hitmen jailed over botched assassination in China," BBC News (2019)

Businessman Tan Youhui hired a hitman to "take out" his competitor for $282,000 (£218,000), a court heard. But the hitman hired another man to do the job, offering $141,000. That man hired another hitman, who hired another hitman, who hired another hitman. The plan crumbled when the final hitman met the man, named only as Wei, in a cafe and proposed faking his death."

2. The Ego has Landed: George Galloway basks in his swearing in as MP," John Crace (March 4, 2024).

Until then, it’s George Time. And he’s going to make the most of it. Worried he may not be able to get many opportunities to speak in parliament, he chose to hold court for a gaggle of hacks looking for a story on a slow news day. So the Ego had Landed. Was in its element. First boasting about how he was far brighter and had served far longer than either Sunak or Starmer. He may be right, though he should aim higher. Then setting out his campaign to get Rochdale its own postcode. That’s the last anyone will hear of this."

3. Linda Gottfredson article

The median of an applicant pool is often recommended as a minimum passing score for further consideration of applicants to that job (Wonderlic Personnel Test, 1992, p. 14), so it can be viewed as a threshold for applicant competitiveness. By this measure, one needs an IQ of about 120 (the 91st percentile of the general population) to be competitive for the highest level jobs in Figure 1 (research analyst and advertising manager)."

4. "The Pipe Bombs Before Jan. 6: Capital Mystery That Doesn't Add Up," Julie Kelly, (February 28, 2024).

The Secret Service also is mum on the issue – and under suspicious circumstances. Text messages belonging to at least two dozen officials and agents from Jan. 5 and 6 were deleted at the end of January 2021 and never recovered. Jan. 6 committee investigators, when first informed the messages were purged during “a pre-planned, three-month system migration,”...D’Antuono also testified that a search warrant failed to scoop up data of the alleged suspect, who is seen handling a cell phone on his walk in the vicinity. Stating the FBI did a “complete” geofence warrant for Jan. 6, D’Antuono disclosed that data from one company strangely was missing. “Some data that was corrupted by one of the providers, not purposely by them, right. It just – unusual circumstance that we have corrupt data from one of the providers. I'm not sure – I can't remember right now which one."

5. Cremieux, has a great article on the rich-poor gap exploring all different facets, and on the Chinese national test (2024).

Should China Keep the English Listening Exam? An unfortunate part of the English listening exam debacle is that it’s a justifiable test. Think about medical exams. When they’re found to have biased items, committees look at the questions and then they often make the decision to keep those items in the tests. The reason to keep biased items is that they ask about important topics. For example, women’s health is important to many doctors, but questions about it will almost always favor women. That’s almost unavoidable, but if the questions are out, men might never learn about the content. We end up with good reasons to keep the questions in, unless we want to segregate doctor-patient pairs on the basis of sex.

6. Edward Luttwak, "Why Israel Is Winning in Gaza," The Tablet (2024).

In Gaza, the Israeli air force was hardly allowed to contribute more than a fraction of its strength to the fighting, in deference to the insistent requests coming from the White House. . . Unique to Israel is the turretless Namer infantry carrier, a battle taxi in effect, that allows Israeli troops to move about in the perilous urban space protected by more armor than any combat vehicle in history."

7. Pastor Michael Foster on influence

Several weeks passed, and I realized I hadn’t seen David since that conversation. I asked a few students what happened to him. Someone mentioned he might have moved back home to Dayton or Columbus. So, I gave him a call and asked, “David, I haven’t seen you in a while. Is everything okay?” “Everything is great,” he said. “I thought about what you said. You were right. I broke up with Anna, quit college, and took a job at my dad’s car lot. It’s been fantastic.” After I finished the conversation, I just sat there in the silence for a while. In less than five minutes, an unplanned conversation had completely shifted the direction of this young man’s life.

8. Rob Long, "Prestige on a Car Window Sticker," Rob’s Free For Now Newsletter (January 29, 2024).

I could quickly discover, years ago, which of my English friends were secret aristocrats. I would simply ask them what they thought about the accidental death of Diana, Princess of Wales. My middle class English pals would say something along the lines of, “It was a tragedy. She was indeed the ‘people’s princess.’” But my upper class friends would say something more like, “Good Lord, just as well she’s dead. Mad as a brush.”

9. Ryan Burge, "Cultural Evangelical: A State Level Analysis| Where Do Non-Attending Evangelicals Live?" Substack (JAN 29, 2024).

In 2008, about one in five Americans were religiously active evangelicals. That percentage has now dropped to 13%. For comparison, about 12% of Americans identify as atheist or agnostic. Approximately 8% of all U.S. adults are white evangelicals attending church every week. It's sort of amazing that a certain segment of the population fears the rise of a theocracy from this group of Americans, despite being only 8% of the population. This is a decline from 16% when Barack Obama was elected in 2008. It wouldn't be surprising if there are more atheists than weekly attending white evangelicals in the next 5-10 years."

10. "Bring back the Law Lords: Tony Blair’s introduction of a US-style Supreme Court has served to undermine the supremacy of Parliament," Yuan Yi Zhu, The Critic (2 Feb. 2024).

The Supreme Court gift shop will be the first to go, with its Supreme Court-branded teddy bears and its unsold copies of the laudatory coffee table book about the building’s architecture. Baroness Hale’s leek-themed carpet, a 1970s style fever dream, will be next, revealing the sturdy floors underneath. Then their lordships can return to the anonymous backrooms of the House of Lords, safe from the temptations of being supreme over Parliament. Middlesex Guildhall, that much-abused building, can be restored to its former glory, if it ever had any, and assist in dealing with London’s rising crime levels. Then the ghosts of the Blairite constitution may finally be exorcised."

11. "Review: Surprised by Joy, by C.S. Lewis," Jane Psmith, The Psmiths (2024).

Even this portrait of half-a-life shows a recognizable kind of guy — brainy, cynical, intellectually committed to rationalist materialism but intensely romantic at heart. Everything he thinks is true is lame and boring; everything that actually moves him, he considers in some sense fake. His fate, as he puts it, is “to care for almost nothing but the gods and heroes, the garden of the Hesperides, Launcelot and the Grail, and to believe in nothing but atoms and evolution and military service.”

12. "REVIEW: Fears of a Setting Sun, by Dennis C. Rasmussen, Jane Psmith (2024).

Franklin died only a year into the new regime, so he went out still satisfied with the Constitutional order and the government it created. But he was one of the only ones. Nearly all of the American founders, from the august figure of George Washington on down through John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Samuel Adams, Elbridge Gerry, Patrick Henry, John Jay, John Marshall, George Mason, James Monroe, Gouverneur Morris, Thomas Paine, and Benjamin Rush, would conclude by the ends of their lives that their “great experiment” had failed.

13. German Nihilism, Leo Strauss.

They believed to have found such teachers in that group of professors and writers who knowingly or ignorantly paved the way for Hitler (Spengler, Moeller van den Bruck, Carl Schmitt, Ernst Junger, Heidegger). If we want to understand the singular success, not of Hitler, but of those writers, we must cast a quick glance at their opponents who were at the same time the opponents of the young nihilists. Those opponents committed frequently a grave mistake. They believed to have refuted the No by refuting the Yes, i.e. the inconsistent, if not silly, positive assertions of the young men. But one cannot refute what one has not thoroughly understood. And many opponents did not even try to understand the ardent passion underlying the negation of the present world and its potentialities.

14. Littlejohn and Castaldo discussion on why Protestants convert to Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicim, a transcript from an Aaron Renn podcast. Extremely good. Lots of points.

You walk into your typical American megachurch that is Protestant and it's a lot like the experience you have throughout the week in terms of the screens, in terms of the felt needs that are addressed, the music, pelvic thrusting praise teams, that sort of thing. I think people get tired of that and they want to have an experience that approximates Isaiah in chapter six, where they lift their eyes above the horizon and they see the holy God. When they look to Rome and there they find a measure of reverence, it has a certain attraction.

15. "On Why There Is No Milton Friedman Today: Sui Generis, Sui Temporis", Econ Journal Watch 10(2) (May 2013) 197-204 Steven G. Medema. Full of insights-- on Galbraith too, for example.

Where Stigler saw people thinking, acting, and voting their self-interest,

Friedman believed that a message about the larger social good could get through and that narrow or unenlightened perceptions of self-interest could be reformed in ways that caused people to see that things which might at first glance appear to be contrary to their interests were, through the larger benefits they provided, in their self-interest after all.4 Here, too, he harnessed—in vocabulary intelligible to the average lay person—the power of his price-theoretic system, often combined with his belief in the virtues of freedom and individual liberty, in outlets ranging from books (Capitalism and Freedom) to magazines (the Newsweek columns that ran for 18 years) to television (Free to Choose).

• Noah on tribal lands