It’s my habit to fall asleep listening to a podcast. Usually, I only make it through the first few minutes and then I’m off to la la land, only to wake up a few hours later and do the same thing all over again. This up and down, in and out, tends to go on all night, with rarely more than two hours steady sleep. What saves me, usually, is that I get a few hours of sleep in before midnight.
But that’s NOT what happened last night.
I should have known. Whenever I turn on/tune in to my new discovery, VDH, I get riveted, and pay attention all the way through. He’s just so wise — and so nuanced! The very rare soul who has lived a long time (though only in his mid-60s), has amassed vast historical knowledge, and uses that knowledge to help illuminate the current geopolitical drama. I have a feeling that VDH’s wisdom comes, in part, from being the 5th generation to have lived in the same place, in the same home, in the Central Valley of California where, when he was a child, immigrants of all stripes lived nearby, each on their own 40 or 80 scres as farmers, helping each other out when needed, getting along fine. Now, beyond his walls, monocultures and developments. Corporate California. Being there, settled in place, he has been able to hold his own center while illuminating the vast changes that have transmogrified this vast land, tearing the fabric of small communities into shreds. The book I ordered, The Land Was Everything: Letters from an American Farmer, arrived yesterday. Here’s a session where he does a Q & A in regards to his recently published book, The Case for Trump.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPLCiXRSBNk
The title of that youtube video mentions Heather MacDonald, and her question was interesting, but so were many others. It turns out she has also recently published a book, The Diversity Delusion: How Race and Gender Pandering Corrupt the University and Undermine Our Culture. So I tuned into a youtube session with her. Also, extremely instructive, especially given that I live in an academic town, where indoctrination (to transmogrified leftism) seems to have replaced education. Her thesis is that this transformation began in the ’80s . .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffIpRC9cSUc.
By that time it was midnight. I finally fell asleep, and didn’t wake up until 6 am.! Good.
