Some eighteen years ago, I launched Arts & Ammo with the modest ambition of commenting on the passing parade of human folly. There was no shortage of material then, and I had every reason to expect that the supply would remain adequate.
I underestimated the productive capacity of the industry.
For a while, I did my part, pointing out absurdities, occasionally offending the professionally offended, and offering unsolicited advice to people who were unlikely to take it. Then other obligations intervened, and I withdrew from the field.
I assumed that civilization would muddle along without my supervision.
It has not gone well.
In my absence, we have discovered that men can become women, criminals can become victims, and universities can confer degrees without imparting knowledge. We have placed artificial intelligence at the disposal of people who have demonstrated little aptitude for the natural variety. We have developed machines capable of answering almost any question, while steadily losing interest in asking intelligent ones.
Meanwhile, the guardians of our cultural inheritance have been busily improving it. Shakespeare requires correction, history requires revision, and Beethoven presumably awaits a suitable diversity consultant.
The barbarians are no longer at the gates. They’ve been appointed to the faculty.
I had considered returning with a lengthy examination of these developments, but the prospect seemed exhausting. Besides, there are people who make a comfortable living explaining the decline of Western civilization, and I see no reason to interfere with their livelihoods.
Instead, I propose to resume my observations as circumstances warrant. Some will be serious, others frivolous, and a few may be both. I expect to encounter politics, music, firearms, food, history, and the occasional manifestation of common sense, which has become sufficiently rare to merit special attention.
There will be no particular schedule. Folly is industrious enough without my encouraging it.
Welcome back to Arts & Ammo.