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Tag Archives: politics
Hic Sunt Dracones
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
Goodreads Year In Review – 2021
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
Midnight at the Pera Palace
“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
The Great Reversal
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
The Return of Pessimism
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
The Limitlessness of our Discontent
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
Posted in America, Literature, philosophy, Uncategorized
Tagged art, Christianity, faith, Freedom, politics
3 Comments
“We” by Yevgeny Zamyatin – A Book Review
“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
Posted in Book Review, Literature, Uncategorized
Tagged dystopia, Literature, politics
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“The Coming Anarchy” – A Review
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
While Belshazzar Drinks
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
Posted in International Affairs, philosophy, Uncategorized
Tagged America, politics, westphalia
6 Comments
America’s New Aristocracy
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