Robert Nisbet was an interesting thinker. The first book of his that I read was History of the Idea of Progress. I just finished Twilight of Authority (with a slight treatment over on substack), and I want to expand on what I got out of the book – mostly from his concluding discussion. I thought I would quote him some, but I find I’ve written enough that quotes would only make this piece longer, and it’s a good book – you should read the whole thing (if you find this piece interesting). At some point I will also be reading his Quest for Community, as I think that will be relevant to deepening my understanding of human organization (and how organization tends so strongly toward bureaucracy).
We most commonly, and casually, think of the political divide in contemporary partisan terms. Which is fine, but it isn’t very satisfying, not least because both American political parties occupy relatively narrow niches either side of the center and the violent disdain for each other comes mostly from the outer fringes of both. The only greater example of this that I know of in politics around the world are the two parties in Ireland that both claim to be the true successor of the independence movement there: Fine Gael and Fianna Fail. In ToA, Nisbet digs deeper – as an intellectual should – not just into the 18th and 19th centuries, but all the way back to the real split, between Plato and Aristotle.
I have expressed my contempt for Rousseau, so it is only fair to note his reliance on Plato and to extend my contempt to him. It took a long time, but in the course of my life, I went from being an idealist to seeing the idealist as a buffoon. Plato cursed Western culture with the Ideal. It is one of humanity’s deepest delusions. Nisbet speaks to Plato’s idealization of the centralized, unitary state as the root of all totalitarian thought throughout Western culture. Oh yes, of course this includes Marx, but more than simply him, it includes Rousseau who influenced more than Marx. The state is the highest, foremost institution of human society in this thinking, and of course that appeals greatly to any who would worship power. It is the state that can remake man in an idealized form and this is not merely a Marxist conceit. It is unfortunate that the Renaissance resurrected the corrupt corpus of Platonic thought. And I suspect largely because Aristotle was discredited through association with Thomas Aquinas in service of the Church. Which isn’t to say there aren’t problems with Aristotle’s work, but it does proceed from firmer ground than the Platonic. From Plato, Rousseau would conceive his General Will (in contrast to the ‘will of all’ as expressed democratically) and his belief that this General Will would and should be used to reshape not just human behavior but the human mind (for resisting it is evidence of error). Of course it would take a God-like perspective to grasp this General Will, which should be clearly outside the reach of any human mind(s) save of course for that most human thing – hubris. If Marx introduced an original error to Rousseau’s fundament, it was the teleological conceit – that history has a trajectory and you are on the right or wrong side of that.
Throughout all of Rousseau and his disciples lies the belief that all humans are unconditionally equal, and that any deviation from that – any scent of inequality – is a perversion of the natural order caused by some social institution’s distortion. There is no institution that does not deprive humans of this equality – family (children are the slaves to their parents’ prejudices), property, and on and on. Thus Rousseau would see all of these institutions swept aside so that true equality could reign, and there would be no detectable difference between people because they are in their perfect, equal condition. Only the absolute and central authority of the state (in adherence to the General Will) can free everyone. You can see how equal before the law, and equal opportunity become not just wrong ideas, but actual impediments to the true and proper equality – they foster unequal results. Of course these days we call that equity (and this is the only necessary update from Nisbet’s term the New Equality).
Aristotle was amenable to pluralism, which can most easily be said to be a condition of non-uniformity (in contrast with the absolutist, centralized state of Plato and the pure equality of Rousseau); of various authority as expressed in differing human institutions of which the state is but one and not necessarily the highest. Throughout Western history since the time of Aristotle there were many institutions and it wouldn’t be until the 16th century or so that the state would become one of the most significant. If you think of our history, it is easy to see how we had many institutions – family, church, civic, social, recreational – and for a long time the split state authority under real honest to goodness federalism, even post Civil War (but pre-Progressive era). It really is a chicken-and-egg problem of why and how those institutions decayed and the functions they had served were taken over by the state. But Nisbet is quite clear, we are in an era when authority of all of the intermediate human associations has diminished (thus the Twilight) and been consolidated within the state. The irony being he is writing in 1975, not in the last few years (and thus my other piece being labeled a blinding flash of the obvious). And as he terms them “the clerisy of the state” – those who love the power arrogated thus – are eager to further diminish those competing institutions. Nisbet notes that the family is an institution that the absolutists (of Rousseau as well as Marx) must attack, but I think even he could not imagine then where we would be today (and not just us in the U.S., but the utter failure of Marxism worldwide).
Now Nisbet was not a black-pill conservative, he did not see the inevitability of a dystopian future (and he spoke specifically to Huxley and Orwell). He held out hope that though the tide may rise, it would not be the Biblical Flood. He tended to see something of an eternal recurrence of this dynamic, wherein the centralization of authority in the state (with emphasis on the military and bureaucratic mode) ends up unstable and breaking apart, whereupon, the repressed institutions could be renewed as the authority of the state wanes (or collapses) and pluralism would be again ascendant. Pluralism does matter in that it answers so much more of our needs as humans, though the unanswered question is – if this is so, why does it ever fail. There must be something in us that harkens to the absolutist view, and I suspect it has to do with our desire for certainty and order in this world – even when those are illusions.
Finally, the political divide isn’t necessarily what you think it is. Even populists aren’t opposed to over-weening government – as long as it is used for ends they approve of (recall that Bernie and Trump sounded quite alike at times in ’16). They are almost as Rousseauvian as the progressives, and thus to distinguish each other one must be called communist and the other fascist. Because that makes all the difference! Even honest conservatives or classical liberals (wherever they might be) are stuck because there is no easy way to unwind the decay in the intermediate institutions and attempting to prop them up with government policy is folly of the highest order. The great divide is between those who wear the blinders well (and they are the many, divided though they be), and those who don’t (and are cursed with seeing clearly and being ineffectual).
Going back to my mention of the English Civil War yesterday (which I knew nothing about other than the basics before starting the Revolutions podcast), were The Diggers Christian proto-marxists (which is what the podcast creator thinks) or were they Christian proto-Rousseauans? Or maybe both. Or neither.
Some insight for those who know nothing (like me two weeks ago), there was one group called The Levelers (every group in this time frame got named by their enemies). They were called that because they were accused of trying to level everyone in England, ie proto-marxists. They denied they had any such intent. Continuously. There was a splinter group that called themselves The True Levelers. They agreed that the Levelers had no such intent, because they (The True Levelers) did mean to do it. And they tried to put their utopia in to motion by squatting on unused land and farming it. Hence, they got nicknamed The Diggers.
The Catholic Church of course had no issues with hierarchy in society, it was the Protestants that got it in their heads that we are all – absolutely equal – in God’s eyes. It was Catholicism that stamped out the Albigensian heresy.
🎵 Dominique nique nique…
in God’s eyes sure but not in earthly outcomes
Billy Bragg sings about the Diggers…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWRpl2S9iwk
I guess I’ll have to check out the Revolutions podcast.
Its pretty good. The guy pauses a bit much. Enough I notice, but I generally like his style. He is no Dan Carlin, but that can be good too. I am learning a lot.
Mike Duncan is the creator’s name. I think there are multiple podcasts called Revolutions. This one ended in 2022. Season 1 is from 2013 and covers the English Civil War era. Season 2 is US Revolution. Season 3 is French Revolution. There are 11 total seasons.
I’ll definitely check it out; probably start with French Revolution (I started reading that book Citizens by Schama) and work my way around. Too much of my podcast listening while doing dishes and such is just hot takes on the outrage du jour. I need to spread my wings a little.
I like that his episodes are like 25 minutes each, so you can finish one and not have to worry about where you were, like with Hardcore History.
Bring up any kind of automation and Tucker Carlson and Bernie sound exactly the same.
Get those two in a room to talk about Russian architecture.
Good stuff, JI, though I feel like I’ve been permanently trapped in the philosophical slow lane.
To paraphrase Jefferson Davis, “All I ask is to be left alone”
Everything seems to have sped up and so many are headed backwards, as I see things. So many are ignoring the Laws of Economics , believing that everything will continue on as it has been.
There must be something in us that harkens to the absolutist view, and I suspect it has to do with our desire for certainty and order in this world – even when those are illusions.
The vast majority of people yearn for simple definitive answers to complex problems.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. considering Aaron Rodgers as presidential running mate, report says
Will they draw more trump crazies or more biden crazies?
could be interesting.
I liked the quip that this was the most Jets fans could hope for.
Sitting here idly pondering this, I think it is necessary to distinguish between “authority” based on raw power which craves and demands respeck, and “authority” derived from knowledge and understanding. Only one of those is in its twilight.
A big problem that I don’t see an answer for is the fact that the people who are more likely to run for office or get government jobs are the type that believe in the state.
A problem that I saw even before COVID was that people were injecting national politics into more and more aspect of our lives. Today just about everything you do is somehow a big political issue.
It was feminism that introduced the personal is political.
I always hated that, on account of it is profoundly Marxist and totalitarian. It is the motto for totally eliminating civil society and private life, and putting all under the totipotent state.
They are also of the type that wish to wield power over others.
At some point a societal breakdown occurs. It begins slowly and keeps on building. After a tornado there are still some trees and buildings that escaped the full fury and regeneration begins again.
especially so when you have a professional political and managerial class
Our political divide is artificially narrow. As soon as anyone crosses over the line on the right, they are labeled (Nazi, racist, antisemitic, whatever) and hurled into the void.
Even a guy as mild as Tucker or 1980’s Democrats like Trump and RFK get that treatment.
The long march worked.
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I can post that but not what I was trying to post about my boss saying a mask discussion was political.
Yup. It didn’t like one phrase or something and if you post it again within the next 30 minutes or so it error out again.
Always likes to do it on longer posts too.
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”
“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”
“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master – – that’s all.”
Let me try a condensed version.
When I was arguing that masks don’t work, his answer was that he didn’t want to get political.
Filter out those partisan viruses floating around the workplace.
Almost as annoying as being called anti-science when you bring up RCT results.
The masking cult is religious.
And yet, I bet he mandated them in 2020.
Wasn’t him, it was the people above him.
I gave myself a medical exemption for headaches and no one hassled me too much.
So he was playing office politics?
Masks give me migraines and interfere with my mental health. – I know for next time.
I have expressed my contempt for Rousseau, so it is only fair to note his reliance on Plato and to extend my contempt to him.
I did the same, but in the opposite direction (Plato first).
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/03/14/israel-elections-netanyahu-charles-schumer/
Schumer calls for ‘new election’ in Israel in scathing speech on Netanyahu
Love to see the US reaction if whatever bigwig in the Knesset said the same about Biden.
They just had an election 5 or 6 months ago. Jesus what an asshole.
Schumer of all people aiding Hamas. Yet New Yorkers will continue to vote for him.
He’s on all the Sunday talk shows talking about whatever bad is happening and how FedGov can fix it with a law!
What’s not to trust?
Yeah, the most dangerous place in DC is between Schumer and a TV camera.
Oh to have a tiger trap just a step behind the podium.
We wouldn’t be dealing with a lot of this nonsense if we hadn’t abandoned The Articles of the Confederation.
Sure, it isn’t about people and how they behave, it’s about the words on some paper.
This. The fundamental problem that all politics eventually boil down to is “who watches the watchmen?” Write down the most incredibly well thought out treatise ever devised as a constitution to constrain the state. Get it passed as the law of the land. If there’s no institution with the will or ability to enforce the state’s breaches of that document, it means nothing. And if such an institution did exist, it would be the target of all the corruption that would be unpoliceable.
The saying shouldn’t be “a Republic IF you can keep it”, it should be “a Republic while you can keep it.” As long as there’s a state, it will want to grow and it will want to destroy anything that wants to restrain or restrict that growth. They have the perceived right to violence. They will win.
It is a push-pull thing. The state wants to grow, and people WANT it to grow, at the same time.
Relying on some outside force to turn things around, Trump, SCOTUS, whatever, is a fools errand. The solution is to change minds and needs. Not easy at this point, but you gotta start somewhere, sometime.
The state wants to grow, and people WANT it to grow, at the same time.
See any discussion on entitlement reform, let alone *gasp* ending the programs.
This is the real aim of starting the programs in the first place. Dependency. It takes root almost immediately and people can’t remember how it was even possible to live without the handout they just got 5 minutes ago.
I think you can do reform, and end programs, but you need to be selective in the choices. Gun control is great place to start, as so many people still believe in the value of guns. Electric cars are another area, as people don’t want that shit. But, you have to keep working on it, and not backslide. Also, don’t start with things that make peoples lives, in aggregate, better.
,
Remember, Welfare Reform did happen at one time, and there is a lot of energy out there for things like that still. But don’t start with things that seem to make most peoples lives better. IE, don’t start trying to take peoples holidays away.
Yep. We got where we are because 2 – 3 generations of voters voted for it, over and over again, harder and harder. To the point where the government has achieved escape velocity from democratic accountability, and now carries on with no regard whatsoever for what most people actually want.
well as i stated in my last piece, yes you would be articles of any sorts are only worth the people enforcing them. if by not abandon you mean a majority of Americans believed in them, that is amusingly delusional.
Speaking of authority
Following the hottest year on record, the fight for clean cars and a healthier planet is facing determined foes. Now it looks like the Biden administration may slow-roll the needed transition to clean vehicles, knuckling under to craven automakers, oil companies, and car dealers.
These powerful industries are teaming up to run a proposed Environmental Protection Agency rule off the road, and with it our best measure to keep the climate crisis from careening off the rails.
It’s not just the climate at stake. An American Lung Association study just found that a wholesale switch to EVs and non-combustion electric power would save the lives of hundreds of infants and prevent millions of asthma attacks over coming decades.
The EPA projected that under its proposed standard, due out this spring, up to 67 percent of new cars sold in 2032 would be zero-emissions. That would slash greenhouse gases that cause climate change and reduce soot and smog pollution that worsen cardiovascular disease and lung diseases like asthma.
Weakening the rule would encourage auto companies, which have been stalling on making EVs, to sell more gas-guzzling, pollution-spewing SUVs and pickups—on which they make fat profits—for a longer period of time.
Good vs Evil: whose side are you on?
“clean cars”? The fuck is that? These people are delusional.
Once you factor in the mining, batteries, manufacturing, coal-fired plants, etc. etc. an EV has a much larger environmental impact than an ICE car.
I love how the same people who love abortion suddenly care about “saving babies”. 🙄
I do my part to reduce my environmental footprint by driving, and keeping in top condition, a 25-year-old car.
“the hottest year on record”
I just plain don’t believe this bullshit anymore. Even if they showed data supporting this claim, I wouldn’t trust it.
“on record”
Well, they have systematically cooled the historical temperature record, so, yeah, even if they show you the data, that data has been pre-cooked.
It’s lies from top to bottom, and they don’t even care how obvious it is.
Last year is always the hottest year on record.
“healthier planet” 🙄
“craven automakers, oil companies, and car dealers” – Not going bankrupt is cowardly.
“keep the climate crisis from careening off the rails” – Interesting metaphor. The “climate crisis” is a vehicle you want to keep on track. Hmm.
“An American Lung Association study just found that a wholesale switch to EVs and non-combustion electric power would save the lives of hundreds of infants and prevent millions of asthma attacks over coming decades.” – Another recent study showed that EV’s actually put more particles into the air than ICE cars. Was that factored in?
“on which they make fat profits” – We get it, capitalism is evil. Fuck off, commie.
Not mentioned on the list of evil influences preventing the noble goal of total electrification of all vehicles everywhere – car buyer. They don’t fucking want them. That’s your problem. No amount of mandates or sky-is-falling propaganda pieces seem capable of changing that.
Add this to the growing list of subjects for gaslighting. “Electric cars are amazing” does not match up to most people’s first hand experience.
I’m sure all of this blather didn’t sound like the insane ravings of a tent revivalist in the author’s head.
Again with the damn asthma. Do any of you know people having a lot of asthma attacks?
I remember back in the ’70s and ’80s asthma being a big thing, what with the inhalers people carried. But I haven’t seen one in years, and thing peanuts took its place.
Then again, a lot of smog has been cleared up, so, you know, things got better.
My wife does have asthma, but it is exercise induced and only happens occasionally when she’s playing roller derby or weight lifting. Never happens outside of that.
Weakening the rule would encourage auto companies, which have been stalling on making EVs, to sell more gas-guzzling, pollution-spewing SUVs and pickups—on which they make fat profits—for a longer period of time.
Keep going, there are more rules that need to be
weakenedeliminated. CAFE, chicken tax, etc.“gas-guzzling, pollution-spewing SUVs and pickups”
Look, I already said I was going to drive an SUV. You don’t have to sell me on it.
because consumers, beyond a small fraction, are rejecting them.
“Good vs Evil: whose side are you on?”
Evil, I guess.
This you?
Well, midnight is past my bedtime, so . . . .
The cabal of retrograde automakers, drill-happy oil companies and car dealers reviled for their hidden fees and shady lending want the White House to forget calling global warming an “existential threat.”
Burn the heretics!
“cursed with seeing clearly and being ineffectual”
Cassandra to the white courtesy telephone please.
https://www.thedrive.com/news/toronto-police-just-let-the-thieves-steal-your-car
L, O, fucking, L
That’s quite the PSA there, eh?
Fuck, just leave them in the unlocked car!
Don;t forget to pee in your pants every night as a preventative measure.
No silly, they don’t want your pee, they just want your syrup!
“To prevent the possibility of being attacked in your home, get a gun and learn how to use it. And a couple of German Shepherds.
That’s not nice, eh?
Only if you want to go to Canadian prison.
I saw that and thought for sure it was parody.
Come on man!
THICC Thursday casts particularly shapely shadows on The Cave.
https://archive.is/cYqhp
Fuck, just leave [the keys] in the unlocked car!
Make sure the tank is full. You wouldn’t want to inconvenience the people stealing your car, would you?
Wouldn’t want to have Apple make the feature disabled by default or anything.
https://www.wsj.com/tech/personal-tech/apple-reactions-mac-laptop-camera-video-968b98f0?st=dbxjbbovq2ik5w3&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
GAH!
https://www.dailystar.co.uk/real-life/queen-porn-showcases-insane-body-32350304
Back in college she was a porn goddess; the ravages of time spare no one.
Between all the drug overdoses and suicides she still looks better than many of her contemporaries.
“Johnson Whips Out Ukraine Funding Promise To Appease Senate, No Mention Of Border Security”
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/johnson-whips-out-ukraine-funding-promise-appease-senate-no-mention-border-security
Sweet Jesus, they’re all worthless. Maybe Gaetz can manage to get this douchebag kicked to the curb too. It’s like they’re trying to throw the election.
Stupid party folds like a cheap suit to prog demands, more news at 10.
It’s all a game to them.
Comprehensive sex ed coming to a public school district near you!
https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/us-news/parents-raped-teen-daughter-teach-32351738
Yikes.
Finally, the political divide isn’t necessarily what you think it is. Even populists aren’t opposed to over-weening government – as long as it is used for ends they approve of – I certainly hope no libertarian thinks populism is pro liberty. also i have said before communitarian conservatives are not much better than progs
I don’t for one second think that populism is pro liberty. It does seem to be the only political movement with any teeth at the moment that seems even remotely interested in questioning authority, decentralizing power and holding our elites to any sort of accountability. Like every other movement, it’s filled to the brim with unprincipled opportunists who will abuse their power and authority and generally disregard the wishes of the people that brought them to power in favor of backroom dealers that can line their pockets. I will gleefully abandon my tenuous grip on the populist ship the second it becomes obviously useless at pointing us towards more liberty.
Authoritative sources
Hur’s characterization of Biden played directly into a years-long campaign waged by Biden’s political opponents and the powerful right-wing media machine to depict the president as a senile, aloof man.
The special counsel’s report was something of a gift to outlets like Fox News, which used the special counsel’s characterization to validate its years of ugly attacks on Biden. Such outlets then pointed to the fact that Biden’s mental fitness was being covered by prominent news organizations, contending that the issue had grown so serious the supposed “liberal media” could no longer ignore it.
To be fair to news organizations, they were faced with a thorny, difficult decision after the Hur report dropped. If they chose to dial back coverage, it could have looked like they were covering for Biden. On the other hand, leaning hard into the report, producing scores of stories and television segments about Hur’s characterization of Biden’s age, proved ultimately to be unwise as well.
What news organizations can do now, however, is forcefully acknowledge that the deposition transcript poured cold water on Hur’s over-the-top characterization of Biden’s mental fitness. Given the extensive coverage in the prior weeks, which seeped into the national consciousness, it is not sufficient to only tacitly acknowledge the reality of the situation.
There is a vast network of right wing mudslingers out there. This is an indisputable fact. We must make them pay.
Honda developed a hands-free wheelchair named UNI-ONE that glides as users tilt their bodies in the direction they want to move.
The chair design lets people with mobility problems use their hands while moving, for example in sports.
https://twitter.com/Rainmaker1973/status/1768320260866773319
Interesting. That will be helpful for some, but there still a lot of people without the function of their core muscles who won’t be able to use that.
would not expected it for all,not sure how well it works for some,but some is a step forward
It is. I would be a good candidate for it.
do you play not ice sports?
I do not. I have friends who play wheelchair basketball, football, rugby, and lacrosse. As of right now, you have to use manual wheelchairs for any sports.
I’m picturing George Costanza picking up his mobility scooter a running away with it.
as much as we analyze politics, the problem is human nature. and there is no solution than cycles of growth and collapse, and try to get as man people to understand some basic things as one can to smooth these cycles.
“The state is the highest, foremost institution of human society”
I’m pretty sure this is what the Democrats mean when they talk about “Our Democracy”.
It is. The explanation I’ve heard is that to most of us the word means “people voting for the government they want”. To others, it means “democratic institutions”, such as the administrative state, military, even the mainstream media. So “protecting democracy” means protecting those institutions from populists.
Today, in “I oughtn’t ta done that”, I foolishly clicked an Aibaba link for a pre fab home. Now I am inundated by Alibaba ads. Zog only knows how much it costs to get one of those cheap Chinese doghouses on site and fully erected.
Pre fab homes break into two main categories, apparently. Architecturally interesting and fantastically expensive, or somewhat glorified doublewide.
Buck the trend. Get a single wide.
Those are called tiny homes now. It sounds much hipper.
Another quick thought:
It really is a chicken-and-egg problem of why and how those institutions decayed and the functions they had served were taken over by the state.
The institutional functions which were taken over by the state, particularly the Great Society programs, absolved people of taking responsibility for themselves. All those icky religious organizations and most civil society groups expected their beneficiaries to feel guilt and be motivated to improve themselves. That’s too much work.
“…campaign…to depict the president as a senile, aloof man.”
Once again, people, don’t believe your lying eyes.
“…years of ugly attacks on Biden”
On the other hand, CNN-types calling all of their political opponents Hitler is just sensible analysis.
Well, they are all Hitlers of a very Hitlarian Hitlertype.
The Hitlerishness is plain to see for any reasonable person.
“Batchelor’s, are you tired of the steady drip, drip, drip of Hitlerrhea?”
+1 Peter-Rooter
Older brother had a number of C&C albums. I remember hearing that at an innocent enough age that I had no idea what they were talking about.
*No, Teds’s. Not C&C Music Factory.
**Zelma Davis could really take the wrinkles out of my love-sausage.
+1 zwak finding the records at his aunts house.
How many Hitlers does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
Nein?
Bravo!
Thats a good gas!
So I (((bargained))) as best I could- new Safelite windshield is going to set me back $340 or so.
And that’s with a coupon out of Forbes for $45.
Guess it’s time to buy an ev.
*ducks*
Do you know what else we could celebrate today?
https://preview.redd.it/time-to-celebrate-v0-36nhnzkes9oc1.png?width=1080&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=55a976f54fdd7a53de8e1a237bb97d3502a4ffdc
Good piece JI. I believe it was somewhere here (Tundra perhaps), who argued that the real divide in modern society is statists vs. non-statists, which seems to parallel what you are arguing.
To me, this is starting to look like growing up in Australia where there were really no arguments over the size & power of the state, just who should use it and for what purposes. My theory is that some of this began in the late 1990s. Conservatives were excited after 1994 but were continually sold out by Republicans in Congress. Somewhere along the line they decided that, since they weren’t going to get a limited government, they’d be better off trying to control the government which existed. Trump, of all people, seemed to understand that.
Have you read any of Michael Burleigh’s stuff?
No, I will have to look into him.
His early stuff was fairly traditional academic fare, but try “Earthly Powers: Religion and Politics in Europe from the French Revolution to the Great War” and “Sacred Causes: Religion and Politics from the European Dictators to Al Qaeda.”
Hey Q- apropos of nothing, Do a quick google search “the sun UK sex with cousin” and look at all the repeated themes.
Talk about plagiarism.
So I (((bargained))) as best I could- new Safelite windshield is going to set me back $340 or so.
And that’s with a coupon out of Forbes for $45.
I need a new back window for my Civic wagon (fucking weedeaters can sling a rock harder than you might think). I stopped at Safelight and asked. Roughly $410. That’s a lot to spend on a ~$500 car, but I really miss driving the darn thing. It weighs more than a thousand pounds less than the Element, and I can really feel it.
You can’t drive it without the back glass. Even with al the windows rolled down, it sucks the exhaust in and asphyxiates you.
Knock out the front windshield and buy goggles.
Is used glass a possibility?
Is used glass a possibility?
Doubtful. They only made them (in this body style) for three years, thirty-plus years ago. I wouldn’t take the risk of having a used one shipped to me.
If you love it, fix it. That is my advice. Otherwise it will slowly rot in your driveway.
Solid advice. Perhaps slightly better than my suggestion. Perhaps.
If you love it, fix it. That is my advice. Otherwise it will slowly rot in your driveway.
That’s exactly what I have been doing for twenty years. The first few years I owned it, When something came up, I’d ask myself if it was worth. Every time, the answer was, “Well what would you replace it with? The thing is insanely handy, and fun to drive.” I quit even thinking about it after a few years.