I am visiting NYC today, after a week researching ancient cultures and genetics in Japan.

Last night while walking back to my hotel from seeing an incredible performance by Showing Teeth, I thought about the need to visit China soon for a few reasons, one of which is to continue to de-escalate tensions between the US and China related to joint (or at least mutually respectful and peaceful) longterm work on colonization of space. I also thought about my stops for a trip to visit Israel for the first time, which has been long overdue.

But this morning, in thinking about these trips and other travel that it would be good to make happen before the end of the year (another research trip to Japan, and visits to, in no particular order, LA, SF, Rome, London, NYC, and DC), I am realizing that publishing a few writings should happen before these trips.

These include an essay on a longterm...

Not Weapon, but Enemy: What we are fighting is not this or that enemy who could be attacked or liquidated by atomic means, but the atomic situation as such. Since this enemy is the enemy of all people, those who, up to now, had considered each other to be enemies, have now to become allies against the common menace.–Peace actions from which we exclude those with whom we wish to live in peace amount to hypocrisy, self-righteousness and a waste of time.
from Theses for the Atomic Age by Günther Anders

I do not believe Xi Jinping and the Chinese people are evil, although I do see many mistakes they have made in their development as a modern nation (but we all make mistakes).

I believe Xi Jinping and the leadership of China, at least in the last few years, have acted more times than not to stabilize world order, prevent wars, increase commerce, invent new technologies and solve major...

Peter Thiel is either dead, imprisoned, a liar, or intellectually inept.

From the last page of The Straussian Moment, which I consider to be Peter Thiel’s magnum opus work of political philosophy:

“But also there cannot be a decision to avoid all decisions and to retreat into studying the Bible in anticipation of the Second Coming, for then one will have ceased to be a statesman or stateswoman.”

What a strange sentence. What does he mean?

The opening paragraph of this final segment of the essay addresses the fact that the modern age, even if it is in twilight, still exists. At the beginning of the essay, he says that the 9/11 terrorist attacks called into question the modern age, with its “emphasis on deterrent armies, rational nation-states, public debates and international diplomacy.” Further, in the middle of the essay he highlights that the inconsistencies apparent from...

Two truths I found today (April 10 2026):
1) Stewart Brand is a liar, cheat, and/or imbecile.

At the Interval cafe and listed on the website, there is heavy emphasis on this timeline of 20,000 years as “the Long Now.” And yet:
a) he shows linear time with no mention of Jesus Christ, who broke us open to linear time and
b) he mentions Ise Shrine of Japan as 4BCE, but makes no mention of the 10000+ years of Japanese civilization before this, including pottery dated to 14000 BCE.

Why mention the shrine, but not the wider culture. Is he lying? Does he just not know?

Either way, how can an organization established to think longterm not acknowledge two of the most important data points of longterm civilizational thinking in history without entirely failing in its stated mission?

2) Curtis Yarvin is a liar, cheat, and/or imbecile.
Curtis talks about formal rule-based systems and...

I recommend only Girard’s preface, not the material that follows it. Unless, as Girard says in the preface, you are seeking “amusing reading”, or entertainment.

And read Schmitt.

Can we return to a culture of external mediation?

This question should not be possible by the works of many so-called Girardian scholars, and yet it is because Girard explicitly states in the work “Innovation and Repetition” that we left the last phase of external mediation around 500 years ago:

From Girard’s work “Innovation and Repetition”:

“In the vulgar tongues, the need for the word appears only in the last phase of external mediation, which I roughly identify with the 16th and 17th centuries.”
and “External mediation gives way to a world in which, at least in principle, individuals and communities are free to adopt whichever models they prefer and, better still, no model at all.”

By these two quotes in this essay, it is clear that external mediation no longer exists in our world. And yet, works from Eric Gans, Johnathan Bi, Luke Burgis, Elias Carr and others say the exact...

Written in April and May 2024; Published in March 2026

The problem with using the katechon as a rationalization for action, is that with many parties involved and with a complicated (and malicious) information environment – it becomes harder to know if our countries are the good guys acting in self defense, or are the bad guys using a good-guy mask to gain sympathy while intentionally doing bad actions.

Eric Voeglin’s lesson for us is that it is wrong to immanentize the eschaton. Byrne Hobert and Tobias Huber’s lesson for us is that it is wrong to immanetize the katechon. But these two are not enough, because simply attempting to definitively name the katechon (even if one doesn’t work to bolster it) dramatically increases the risk of immanentizing it. Or, naming could lead to the problem of rationalizing no action in analyzing alternative options to the katechon at hand. Because if...

Sharing a few videos here that explain some complicated topics from my life in 2025 and early 2026.

February 2026 Driving Discussion Video One

• Where I’ve been, what happened, learnings, and what’s next
• I, Jeremy Welch, tied to responsibilities by writing Catastrophe of the Soul
• American Dream, parts founded on lies, known or unknown by leaders
• Always working to be the most responsible person in the room

February 2026 Driving Discussion Video Two

• Key questions and works: Catastrophe of the Soul, Leviathan Loop, Welchian time theory, Can Holy Quests stop Sacred Wars?, Formation theory and Reflective theory, Being as Gift
• Surveillance protection / katechon system,
• Events 2025 to 2026
• New Theory: Epstein Island is Everywhere

February 2026 Driving Discussion Video Three

• Video Two review, Epstein Island is Everywhere
• Who I am, why I’m thinking about this
• My Catholic Christian...

Palantir has been around since what… mid 2000s?

And they’ve had access to MASSIVE amounts of data on peoples bank accounts and movements. It’s effectively a privatized version of the surveillance systems that Snowden revealed.

How could they not know about the pedophile control and blackmail systems that are now being exposed?

Why would Shyam or anyone else affiliated with Palantir need to call for an unlimited Schmittian exception right now of all times? Is it possible that their unlimited surveillance and business model collapses if the rules-based order is actually enforced within a country and outside a country, including civil liberties protections in the USA?

If international order is based on international law and country-to-country treaties and alliances, which are always negotiated and very flexible, then there’s no need to declare a Schmittian exception with Shyam’s...