2026-03-16

Stimulus

Self-appointed war and geopolitics expert David Sacks is starting to wonder if the man he helped get elected, the rule of law he helped break, and the massive corruption he facilitates might have downsides.

nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · source

Response

Power is a liquor, / Makes hands more bold, and wit more quicker / But what's our power unless we know it? / And knowledge what? unless we show it. — Denham

Then steps forth a Grave Eastern Cripple, One that could fight, and talk, and tipple, Brave friends, quoth he, Power is a liquor, Makes hands more bold, and wit more quicker, It is a tree whose boughs and branches Serve us instead of legs and hanches, It is a Hill to whose command, Men walk by Sea and sail by Land. But what's our power unless we know it? And knowledge what? unless we show it.

John Denham, “Canto”

Pipeline

Triage: This is about self-deception and casuistry — how people convince themselves that their complicity serves a larger good, and the moment when that story begins to crack.
The problem: A person who chose and enabled corruption is beginning to notice its consequences, but the observation comes wrapped in the language of doubt rather than accountability — the gap between knowing what you did and admitting it.
Search queries: self-justification collapsing under its own weight, the agent of corruption recognizing what he has enabled, power and its servants the reckoning comes late
Composition mode: quote_only
Chunk ID: john-denham-certain-verses-writt-canto-002
Source: bluesky_timeline