Category Archives: International Affairs

To Talk of Many Things… (Vol. #16 – Russia)

Posted on September 22, 2022 by Joel D. Hirst

I read a lot of Russian literature and history. It is after all the great unknown; a land that lies behind a snowy curtain long after the Iron Curtain fell. A place of philosophy as deep as the cold dark … Continue reading →

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On Home

Posted on September 21, 2022 by Joel D. Hirst

We are all born for somewhere else, I think. While we all have a sense of place coded deep within our DNA, a source of conflict and anger to be sure but also something that gives a tremendous sense of … Continue reading →

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Our Age of Un-Ideas

Posted on September 21, 2022 by Joel D. Hirst

Listening to the United Nations General Assembly today, which I do out of habit not interest, was uninspiring. The Iranians blasted ‘hegemony’ (whatever that means); the Argentines complained about how the U.S. treats Cuba (and demanded the Falkland Islands back). … Continue reading →

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Money

Posted on September 1, 2022 by Joel D. Hirst

Continuing on my theme, though it has not been universally well received, of a ‘reality’ check – I felt it was important to address the issue of money. There are a lot of misconceptions about money; most hovering around ideas … Continue reading →

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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 →

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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 →

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A Work of Tremendous Evil

Posted on July 11, 2022 by Joel D. Hirst

This book has been called the most dangerous book ever written. Julius Evola was said to have inspired Mussolini, whose spiritual power he feared. It inspired Goering and Goebbels. More recently, it is often on the tongue of Aleksandr Dugan, … Continue reading →

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Colombia – A Death I Foretold

Posted on June 20, 2022 by Joel D. Hirst

Five years ago, when the political restrictions were lifted on Colombia’s terrorist guerilla murderers and kidnappers, I wrote about it, as I am wont to do. I assumed Colombia would fall in a generation. It fell in one election cycle. … Continue reading →

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Hic Sunt Dracones

Posted on June 12, 2022 by Joel D. Hirst

I often entertain conversations with colleagues one or two generations older than I about past adventures. Hitchhiking from Johannesburg to Cairo, bussing through northern Uganda and Southern Sudan and to Juba catching a boat to Khartoum and upward downriver. St. … Continue reading →

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A Parenthesis Utopia

Posted on May 29, 2022 by Joel D. Hirst

One of the difficult lessons I learned from COVID and beyond (because the world won’t be the same, at least not for us) was how futile efforts at utopia are. When COVID hit in February 2020 I was living in … Continue reading →

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