Monthly Archives: August 2022

Moron Clusters

Posted on August 31, 2022 by Joel D. Hirst

Michael Gorbachev has died in Russia. He was a key node in a ‘Genius Cluster’, groups of men and women who somehow magically appear during monumental moments in history to help see humanity through. As the Soviet Union was coming … Continue reading →

Posted in International Affairs | Tagged | 3 Comments

The Misery of 47 Years

Posted on August 30, 2022 by Joel D. Hirst

The facts are in, the research is done. The “social scientists” (note my quotes) have identified the age of 47 as the saddest, most depressed year of your life. Not the worst, not the poorest – just the one when … Continue reading →

Posted in philosophy | Tagged | 5 Comments

The Silk Roads and Slavery

Posted on August 29, 2022 by Joel D. Hirst

There was a thread running through “The Silk Roads: A New History of the World” that demands attention: the issue of slavery. Slavery as a constant. The empires of the past all became wealthy on the slave trade; and it … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Review | Tagged , | 3 Comments

The Wilder Shores of Marx

Posted on August 28, 2022 by Joel D. Hirst

In the twilight hours of the Soviet Union’s disastrous political and economic experiment Anthony Daniels (who now writes as Theodore Dalrymple) began a unique project. To travel to the scraggly peripheries of the USSR, to get a feel for life … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Review | Tagged | 2 Comments

The Silk Roads: A New History

Posted on August 25, 2022 by Joel D. Hirst

We in the west study Western European history. There is nothing wrong with this, it brings the epic story of mankind into manageable chunks, into which we can then delve deeply. And western history is our history, America was made … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Review | Tagged | 3 Comments

The Moon and Sixpence

Posted on August 24, 2022 by Joel D. Hirst

This is not the first time I’ve read “The Moon and Sixpence” by W. Somerset Maugham. Maugham is England’s best Edwardian novelist, living in that turn of the century period when imperial decline was just visible on the edges, but … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Review | Tagged | 1 Comment

Afghanistan’s Republic Within the Republic

Posted on August 12, 2022 by Joel D. Hirst

Republics fail, and then they fall. To be sure, sometimes they just fail and then stay on life support. And then, by the time they have fallen nobody remembers that they had been a republic in the first place. Most … Continue reading →

Posted in International Affairs, Liberty | Tagged | 2 Comments

On Prophets and MISRULE

Posted on August 11, 2022 by Joel D. Hirst

I have been feeling these days more often like my namesake, that grand Hebrew prophet of old seated atop a mountain decrying the wickedness around and imploring people to seek God. They never do, seek God. Wickedness is way too … Continue reading →

Posted in philosophy, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

A Letter from Stalin

Posted on August 7, 2022 by Joel D. Hirst

Some people do only one thing, and that if they are lucky. Given the cacophony of life and the myriad people vying for meaning and significance against each other – 8,000,000,000 souls – how to stand out and be counted … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Review | Tagged | 2 Comments

The (Re) Making of the World

Posted on August 5, 2022 by Joel D. Hirst

Aleksandr Dugin, Russian philosopher and proponent of the idea of ‘Eurasianism’ has often highlighted the difference of what he considers ‘land based powers’ and ‘sea based powers’. In Dugin’s mind, the new war between Russia and the West is really … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Review | Tagged | 2 Comments