Tag Archives: Liberty

On Vargas Llosa and Writing

Posted on December 17, 2021 by Joel D. Hirst

What makes great writers great? I’ve often wondered that. I’ve stumbled across dusty stories once-translated and lost to time in the ancient bookstalls of Armenia that are breathtaking; then I try and re-read Hemingway every other year, realizing that life … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Review, Liberty, Literature | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Not The Days of Revolution

Posted on February 7, 2020 by Joel D. Hirst

Don’t look now, but a quiet contentedness has settled upon the land. A Pax Americana might be upon us. It seems most Americans are pretty happy; 90% if you believe the polls. Certainly much of this has to do with … Continue reading →

Posted in America, Liberty, Uncategorized | Tagged | 4 Comments

To Talk of Many Things… (Vol. #1 – Obstruction)

Posted on June 2, 2019 by Joel D. Hirst

“The time has come,” the Walrus said, “To talk of many things: Of shoes—and ships—and sealing-wax— Of cabbages—and kings— Each morning as the African mists release their hold on the stories-high trees just visible over the concertina-crowned walls of my … Continue reading →

Posted in America, Liberty, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 10 Comments

Human Rights and the Discovery of Empathy

Posted on July 11, 2018 by Joel D. Hirst

In my first year of humanitarian work I was called on to help start up a program in Kosovo after the end of that bloody conflict. Ethnic cleansing they called it, genocide without the murder I suppose. I was 21 … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Review, Liberty, philosophy, Uncategorized | Tagged , | 10 Comments

To Hate or to #WalkAway

Posted on July 8, 2018 by Joel D. Hirst

Our national discourse has become like that carnival which set up in an abandoned lot on California State Route 180 which we might have gone to as a child. Rising early, we are pushed into our clothes by our excited … Continue reading →

Posted in Liberty, philosophy, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Venezuela’s Zombie Election

Posted on May 19, 2018 by Joel D. Hirst

Two years ago I wrote about a suicide. A sad, bitter, rueful blog that went viral, capturing the desperation of a prescient people who saw clearly what was coming just over the horizon. The timeless tides creating currents that follow … Continue reading →

Posted in International Affairs, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 12 Comments

Deneen and the Defense of Culture: on “Why Liberalism Failed”

Posted on May 2, 2018 by Joel D. Hirst

I recently returned home from a business trip. West Africa, Istanbul, Bangkok, Paris and back to West Africa. It’s appropriate that my journey started in West Africa, from whence Robert Kaplan twenty-five years ago warned us of the ‘coming anarchy’, … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Review, Liberty, philosophy, Travel, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 11 Comments

Venezuela and the Plastic Sheeting People

Posted on April 17, 2018 by Joel D. Hirst

Yesterday I came across a little video on Twitter produced by the U.S. Government’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance describing an aid package to Venezuela’s refugees living in camps in Brazil and Colombia. There are upwards of 700,000 now in … Continue reading →

Posted in International Affairs, Liberty, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

Of Rand and Chernyshevsky

Posted on December 17, 2017 by Joel D. Hirst

I’ve always thought that stories carry much more power in the minds of men than cardboard tomes full of equations. “What Is To Be Done,” juxtaposed against “The Communist Manifesto”; “Atlas Shrugged” against “Wealth of Nations”. It is said that … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Review, Literature, Uncategorized | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Africa And The Peacemakers

Posted on April 29, 2017 by Joel D. Hirst

It is raining again today in Africa. The grass is singing, if you listen closely you can hear it; the earth is rejoicing. Before the rains things are still: puffs of brown, a remaining dust girding itself for a final … Continue reading →

Posted in International Affairs, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 5 Comments