Heather Cox Richardson: Just before he became vice president of the Confederate States of America in 1861, Alexander Stephens of Georgia made it clear what that country, and the upcoming Civil War, was about: Slavery, the supremacy of white men, and that “slavery subordination to the superior [white race is [the Black man’s natural and normal condition.” Stephens dreamed of spreading this ideology around the world.
Richardson:
On March 21, 1861, former U.S. senator Alexander Stephens of Georgia delivered what history has come to know as the Cornerstone Speech, explaining how the ideology and power of elite enslavers in the American South were about to usher in a new era in world history.
Speaking in Savannah, Georgia, just before he became the vice president of the Confederate States of America, Stephens set out to explain once and for all the difference between the United States and the Confederacy. That difference, he said, was human enslavement. The American Constitution had a crucial defect at its heart, he said: it based the government on the principle that humans were inherently equal. Confederate leaders had fixed that problem. They had constructed a perfect government because they had corrected the Founding Fathers’ error. The “cornerstone” on which the Confederate government rested was racial enslavement.
In contrast to the government the Founding Fathers had created, the Confederacy rested on the “great truth” that some people were better than others. Black Americans were “not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth.”
Stephens believed that the new doctrine of the Confederacy would spread around the world until southerners had the gratification of seeing “the ultimate universal acknowledgment of the truths upon which our system rests.” Stephens expected the old Union to dissolve and the Confederacy to be “the nucleus of a growing power which, if we are true to ourselves, our destiny, and high mission, will become the controlling power on this continent.”
And yet, when we remember the era that elite southern enslavers thought would see their ideology spreading around the globe and ushering in a new era in human history, we do not remember it as the “Stephens Era.” It is the Era of Lincoln, the man who came to represent those who stood against Stephens and his ilk.
How the Midwest Became the Place to Move. By Olga Khazan at The Atlantic. Julie and I have been talking about moving to Columbus, where she grew up, for nearly as long as we’ve been married. We’ve lived in San Francisco and currently San Diego for all that time.
RIP Metaverse, an $80 Billion Dumpster Fire Nobody Wanted
I was a Second Life enthusiast and I still believe something metaverse-ish might prove powerful. But Zuckerberg’s vision was dead wrong.
The complete and utter failure of the metaverse is a reminder not just of the fact that the future Silicon Valley is force feeding us is not inevitable, but that quite often these oligarchs quite simply cannot relate to real people, don’t know how or why people use their products, and very often have no idea what they’re doing.
A new stereotype about Jews dropped, and I can absolutely live with it, even though I am an example of its being utterly untrue.
How far back in time can you understand English? I got back to the 1300s or 1400s.
I’m now seeing this every time I go to my Facebook profile.
What next? Use AI to watch TV for me? To read science fiction? To pet the dog and cats? To drink coffee? To do any of the other things in life that I do only because I enjoy doing them?
Tucker Carlson’s and Candace Owen’s’ antisemitism was in the news lately, and I posted about that because I took it personally because I’m Jewish. Republican Islamophobia is in the news now and though I am not Muslim I say fuck thst.
I support Muslim, Black, Asian, Latino and LGBTQ rights in part because it is right, in part because I have friends in every one of those groups and also because hate becomes anti-Semitidn eventually.
The white supremacists may pretend to be friends to the Jews for a while, but anti-Semitism sleeps lightly.
I withdraw my previous comment about God sending Trump and his cabinet of Ku Klux Klowns to destroy America. That kind of talk is despairing, and despair is not an outlook we can afford.
These buffoons are incompetent and doing serious damage. They must be removed from office and prosecuted to the maximum penalty allowable by law.
In the middle of a war, the Secretary of Defense, whose previous experience was as a weekend anchor on Fox News, bans press corps photographers because they make him look gross. And the director of the FBI, who formerly raised funds for people who attempted the violent overthrow of the U.S. government, is bringing in UFC fighters to train agents.
I’m not a religious man but I am coming to the conclusion that God sent Donald Trump to bring the United States to its knees and make us humble. Or maybe God is just plain done with us and wants us gone.
When you’re watching TV show set in or around 1970 and Doors music comes on, something bad is gonna happen. When the Doors song is “People Are Strange,” somebody’s gonna OD.
Fresh Air remembers Neil Sedaka. He had a great career.
Currently reading: Derby Dugan’s Depression Funnies by Tom De Haven. I’ve reread this a few times. I love this book. 📚
Inside the secret meeting that led to the AI political resistance. Strange bedfellows, uniting progressives, conservatives and MAGA: The Pro-Human Declaration has been signed by the American Federation of Teachers, the Congress of Christian Leaders, the Progressive Democrats of America and Steve Bannon.
Oh great, here comes 6G. A good explainer.
Tokyo University graduate student Takatsugu Kuriyama built an accurate three-dimensional model of Tokyo’s incredibly complex subway system “using multi-colored tubes strung with wire. Different color liquids pulsate throughout all 18 lines, creating a staggering picture of what goes on below the streets of Tokyo every day.”
Looking at this diagram, I realized that I visualize subway systems (like Tokyo’s, New York’s or London’s) operating on a single plane. Flat. But Tokyo’s, at least, is tall as well as broad. It’s like an anthill or termite’s nest.
Having contingency plans beats agility for emergency preparedness. “In an unexpected and urgent situation you don’t rise to the occasion. You sink to the level of your training.”