Date: July 16th, 2026 8:43 PM Author: Richard Ames
Apparently this is empirically true. A 115 IQ today is more like a 100 IQ 100+ years ago. The average person is dumber and we have fewer geniuses. Ed Dutton (professor in one of the Nordic countries) used to talk about this in detail and with research to back it up.
Not totally related, but I’ve been reading the classic James Bond novels and the diction is phenomenal and would challenge most readers today IMO. The baseline was just so much higher.
Date: July 17th, 2026 11:05 AM Author: Richard Ames
"guenon’s solidification of the world" - I don't know what this is, but have some ideas. I have wanted to read Guenon because I have always loved Thiel, but am sort of tapped on reading philosophy stuff. Though I do check out your blog when you poast links here.
Date: July 17th, 2026 11:10 AM Author: Olive spectacular school cafeteria
Basically guenon saw humanity in a giant supercycle where mankind would become more and more “solidified” - ie more materialist and less spiritual - and time would concurrently feel like it is speeding up faster and faster, until it reaches a point where further solidification and time compression wasn’t possible and the whole cycle would end and then begin again
His writing tbh sucks pretty badly but the idea is one that aligns with observations
Date: July 16th, 2026 9:58 PM Author: Harsh maroon quadroon
I changed my moniker to william james after reading it a few years ago. The sick soul vs healthy soul and different types of religiosity based on those dispositions is what stood out to me. Might have to read parts of it again
Date: July 17th, 2026 12:34 PM Author: Olive spectacular school cafeteria
he considered the sick soul superior to the healthy soul so long as the sick soul had been "twice born", as it integrated the concept of evil into its perspective instead of denying it which was therefore closer to wholeness
Date: July 17th, 2026 12:40 PM Author: Harsh maroon quadroon
That part was very intriguing to me, though i don't know if i fully grasped the meaning. will re-read to see what resonates with my inner world these days ty
Date: July 17th, 2026 12:50 PM Author: Olive spectacular school cafeteria
“But provisionally, and as a mere matter of program and method, since the evil facts are as genuine parts of nature as the good ones, the philosophic presumption should be that they have some rational significance, and that systematic healthy-mindedness, failing as it does to accord to sorrow, pain, and death any positive and active attention whatever, is formally less complete than systems that try at least to include these elements in their scope.”