Imp's Updates

Imp is on page 325 of 400 of 1983

Thu, 01 May 2025 05:29:28 -0700

Imp is on page 325 of 400 of 1983.
Imp wrote: 1988.05.31: Reagan, Gorbachev go for walk in Red Square.
Looked like genuine equals, elderly tourists.

UK TV journalist Jon Snow: 'Do you still think you're in an "Evil Empire"'
Reagan: 'No, I was talking about another time, another era.'

Now genuine understanding, even friendship, symbolized by Red Square walk. End of Cold War in sight.

Imp is on page 323 of 400 of 1983

Thu, 01 May 2025 05:26:50 -0700

Imp is on page 323 of 400 of 1983.
Imp wrote: 'Gorbymania' in America. Gorb. hosted receoptions.
Raisa also popular.

3rd day of summit: Gorbachev stops limousine to shake hands w/ fans.
Gorb's approval in USA higher than Reagan's, 65 vs 58 %

1988.04: Accords signed, Soviets withdraw from Afghanistan
1988.05.29 - 06.02: Reciprocal Summit in Moscow

No progress, Soviets propose declaration to denounce war, US rejects it, fearing it would affect defense budget.

Imp added 'The Phantom Public'

Sat, 26 Apr 2025 04:38:34 -0700

Imp gave 4 stars to The Phantom Public (The Library of Conservative Thought) by Walter Lippmann
bookshelves: owned, politics, non-fiction, philosophy
The main thrust of The Phantom Public is Lippman dispensing with romantic notions of Democracy, Nationalism, Socialism and other dominating ideologies of the time, substituting them instead with what in his view is a practical and realistic model.

And so, Democracy is not "rule by the people" any more than a Monarchy is rule by the soldiers who stood behind the victorious monarch. The outcome of an election is not the "will of the people" but merely a compromise substitute (ballots for bullets) of a physically violent civil war that might otherwise result.

Indeed, the Public is not a monolithic ruler.
It does not lead. The member of the Public arrives long after the interested insider parties in any dispute already lined up against each other without outsider input, and stays only long enough to take the side of one or the other pre-existing parties in this dispute. The actual governing is then continued to be carried out by the victorious insiders.
It is not a monolith. Not only is the Public composed of different individuals with different purposes, but who is included in the Public changes depending on the dispute at hand. This is because the fundamental difference between the disputants and the Public is not "the enlightened few vs. the ignorant many", but rather then insiders to an issue vs. the interested outsiders. Whoever belongs to the outsiders in a given issue belongs to the Public with regards to that issue.

Lippmann also spends significant time critiquing the Monoisitic theory of Nationalism and Socialism, a similarly romantic notion to the Democratic "will of the people" at odds with reality. Here he explains the innumerable problems caused by the maintained illusion that the members of a society constitute an organic whole, with one will and purpose (which, of course, is determined by the ruling class). He points out that doing away with this illusion all the dilemmas and complications he so far introduced become soluble if we at once recognize that it is the individual who acts, and not the nation, and that any conflict is between individuals, and not nations.

His overall goal with the book then is to offer an alternative for the place of the Public, disabused of romantic notions that led only to catastrophe in practice. In this he lays out the following points:

Not for the Public:
1. Executive action
2. Merits of a question
3. Analysis of the solution
4. Criteria for handling the question

This is because as outsiders, they cannot be expected to fully know the merits of the question or have the expertise to evaluate a solution or put it into practice.

For the Public:
5. Judge if actors are following settled rule of behavior
6. Criteria suitable to nature of Public opinion for #5
7. Reasonable behavior follows settled course in handling a rule

Since the public is only interested in having a settled, workable rule that everyone can agree to, and are not interested in the particulars of that rule, it is this lens through which they should judge whether to take one side or the other in a dispute.

Imp is currently reading 'The Phantom Public'

Mon, 17 Mar 2025 10:58:22 -0700

Imp is currently reading The Phantom Public by Walter Lippmann

Imp finished reading 'Don't Make Me Think, Revisited: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability'

Wed, 22 Jan 2025 03:42:44 -0800

Imp finished reading Don't Make Me Think, Revisited: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability by Steve Krug

Imp finished reading 'The Colour of Magic'

Wed, 22 Jan 2025 03:42:24 -0800

Imp finished reading The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett

Imp is currently reading 'Bloom into You, Vol. 3'

Wed, 22 Jan 2025 03:41:01 -0800

Imp is currently reading Bloom into You, Vol. 3 by Nio Nakatani

Imp has read 'Bloom into You, Vol. 2'

Wed, 22 Jan 2025 03:40:53 -0800

Imp has read Bloom into You, Vol. 2 by Nio Nakatani

Imp has read 'Bloom into You, Vol. 1'

Wed, 22 Jan 2025 03:40:00 -0800

Imp has read Bloom into You, Vol. 1 by Nio Nakatani

Imp has read 'Adachi and Shimamura Manga, Vol. 1'

Wed, 22 Jan 2025 03:39:35 -0800

Imp has read Adachi and Shimamura Manga, Vol. 1 by Moke Yuzuhara