The game of chess has never been held in great esteem by the North Americans. Their culture is steeped in deeply anti-intellectual tendencies. They pride themselves in having created the game of poker. It is their national game, springing from a tradition of westward expansion, of gun-slinging skirt chasers who slept with cows and horses. They distrust chess as a game of Central European immigrants with a homesick longing for clandestine conspiracies in quiet coffee houses. Their deepest conviction is that bluff and escalation will achieve more than scheming and patience (witness their foreign policy).
J.H. Donner, “The King: Chess Pieces”, New In Chess, 2008.
WWI more or less demonstrated the validity of this idea. Scheming and back-stabbing led to the powder keg that was lit off by the assassination of what was in fact a relatively unimportant government official. In contrast, the USA–despite being of comparable size to Europe–was much more stable.
Turns out learning how to read others, but generally being plane-spoken, and knowing that you’ve got to put your cards on the table, are good for a country.
Comment by Dinwar — September 18, 2025 @ 13:07
I wouldn’t go so far as to call the heir apparent to the King-Emperor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire “relatively unimportant”, it did turn out to be the spark that did start burning the metaphorical fuse. But as I tried to document in my “Origins of WW1” series of posts, it could easily have been a different minor spark that did the job … almost everyone who was paying attention expected a major war to break out. Flare-ups had been going on for more than a decade, and regional wars certainly had the possibility of triggering a wider conflict.
Comment by Nicholas — September 18, 2025 @ 15:39
When noting the Chinese money going into Antifa it is always worth mentioning the irony of how close in policy and political philosophy the Chinese government is to Italian Fascism.
Fascism came from socialists trying to overcome the problems of central control. They realised that totalitarian government need not own business to control it, just use overbearing regulation. China made this move in the 1980s and 90s. Note in both cases this led to corrupt intertwining of government and business.
Note China is also institutionally racist (pro-Han), nationalist, expansionist, militaristic and is committing genocide against a longstanding cultural and religious minority.
Then look at Antifa.
Fascists were revolutionary, collectivist, anti-capitalist authoritarians.
Antifa are revolutionary, collectivist, anti-capitalist authoritarians.
Their victims are conservatives, individualists, capitalists and libertarians.
Comment by Doubting_Rich — September 19, 2025 @ 10:38
China managed the trick of governing fascist while still proclaiming communism. Like German fascism, it allows (even encourages) cut-throat competition in some areas provided that it never can challenge the rule of the party in the larger sphere. The Chinese are culturally very accustomed to that kind of competition, and by allowing it to happen the party helps bleed off a lot of the anger and frustration that might otherwise lead toward violent revolution.
Comment by Nicholas — September 20, 2025 @ 11:11