Tag Archives: politics

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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Goodreads Year In Review – 2021

Posted on December 19, 2021 by Joel D. Hirst

I like to look back upon the books I read during a given year. A sense of accomplishment, a feeling that I’ve learned something. To remember things that moved me; where I was or what I was doing. Sitting in … Continue reading →

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Midnight at the Pera Palace

Posted on December 17, 2021 by Joel D. Hirst

“Everybody is writing their Turkey books,” said Rose Macaulay in “Towers of Trebizond“. The Black Sea region of the world is the oldest. Jason and his Argonauts – the chaining of Prometheus. The confluence of empires: Russian and Ottoman and … Continue reading →

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The Great Reversal

Posted on August 13, 2021 by Joel D. Hirst

The great reversal is coming. Is, in fact, already here. “The future will be nothing like the past” is the contention of Charles Goodhart in his and Manoj Pradhan’s extraordinary book. Nothing like the past. The great deflation is over; … Continue reading →

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The Return of Pessimism

Posted on May 29, 2020 by Joel D. Hirst

During the heady days of hubris which now seem so long ago but in reality were only a few months back, I was often accused of pessimism. The world, as I saw it, was not headed to a good place. … Continue reading →

Posted in America, International Affairs, philosophy, Uncategorized | Tagged | 1 Comment

The Limitlessness of our Discontent

Posted on April 29, 2019 by Joel D. Hirst

We have at long last arrived at the limitlessness of our discontent. That peculiar period of empire when the expansion knows no bounds and the shape of our resolve acquires a formlessness for never having to retrench and a softness … Continue reading →

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“We” by Yevgeny Zamyatin – A Book Review

Posted on March 8, 2019 by Joel D. Hirst

“Dystopian literature is a genre of fictional writing used to explore social and political structures in ‘a dark, nightmare world’.” ‘We’ by Yevgeny Zamyatin is a dystopian novel set in the distant future. Published first in 1924 in New York, … Continue reading →

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“The Coming Anarchy” – A Review

Posted on December 22, 2018 by Joel D. Hirst

It is cold here, in the middle of the Tennessee mountains where I have come; Christmas vacation for my little boy with grandma and grandpa. The little houses are picture perfect, the mailman knows everybody’s name and the community center … Continue reading →

Posted in America, Book Review, International Affairs, Uncategorized | Tagged | 13 Comments

While Belshazzar Drinks

Posted on June 20, 2018 by Joel D. Hirst

While Belshazzar drank; the aromas of fine wine and elegant foods prepared by the cooks of the greatest empire in the world filled the opulent Assyrian halls of power. The party was reaching crescendo, that moment of inebriation and abandon … Continue reading →

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America’s New Aristocracy

Posted on May 22, 2018 by Joel D. Hirst

Every morning, here in West Africa, as I prepare my little boy for his school – the gym and the recess and the library, PE and science class and field trips – I look through the window of my kitchen … Continue reading →

Posted in America, Liberty, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 7 Comments