Astral Codex Ten

JFK

4 min read

JFK

Article

JFK is a recurring person in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 3 times across 3 issues between September 17, 2021 and June 23, 2023. The archive places it in contexts such as “There was a very interesting section on JFK’s failure at the Bay of Pigs”; “the notorious ‘missile gap’ helped JFK defeat Eisenhower’s VP two years later”; “Moynihan was JFK’s Assistant Secretary of Labor”. It most often appears alongside High Modernism, Kennedy, New Deal.

Metadata

  • Category: People
  • Mention count: 3
  • Issue count: 3
  • First seen: September 17, 2021
  • Last seen: June 23, 2023

Appears In

Source Context

Recovered passages from the original issue text. When the raw archive preserved outbound links inside the source passage, they are listed directly under the quote.

Book Review: The Revolt Of The Public
September 17, 2021 · Original source
There was a very interesting section on JFK’s failure at the Bay of Pigs. Kennedy tried to invade Cuba, but the invasion failed very badly, further cementing Castro’s power and pushing him further into the Soviet camp. Representatives of the media met with Kennedy, Kennedy was very nice to them, and they all agreed to push a line of “look, it’s his first time invading a foreign country, he tried his hardest, give him a break.” This seems to have successfully influenced the American public, so much so that Kennedy’s approval rating increased five points, to 83%, after the debacle!
Highlights From The Comments On Bobos In Paradise
December 09, 2022 · Original source
Post-war all colleges organized themselves into a hierarchy. Harvard came out on top, as the "best." Elites had found a new competition: to get into the best schools. And Harvard restricted its membership because selectiveness (and the education it conferred) was a status symbol. A meritocratic ideology sprung up about "whiz kids", especially around Johnson and Kennedy's time. And college access greatly expanded. But at the same time as college access was expanded access to these elite spaces contracted. In effect the mid-century turned what had been a pretty open system into a series of sorting tests.
Military service. T. Roosevelt dropped out of his career twice because he felt he needed to face danger to be a proper leader. When Joe Kennedy was raising his family into the WASP elite, both his sons felt they needed to distinguish themselves in battle if they wanted a chance at political office. As late as the 1960's, John Kerry had "get medals commanding a PT Swift Boat" on his career checklist.
Your Book Review: Public Citizens
June 23, 2023 · Original source
But by the 1960s, the cracks in this model were starting to show. A report prepared for President-elect Kennedy outlined the problem of regulatory capture, the process by which agencies intended to regulate private businesses got too close to their subjects and end up serving them instead4. And a new class of liberal intellectuals rose to prominence by pointing out the ways in which the political establishment’s plans sometimes rode roughshod over the citizens they were supposed to serve. Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring criticized the USDA’s indiscriminate use of pesticides, and Jane Jacobs’ grassroots movement successfully blocked Robert Moses—the ultimate agency man—from ramming a highway through the West Village.
Inline links: 4