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The Lack Of Thankfulness (Podcast)
There are many people who manifest a lack of thankfulness in their daily lives. This comes across not only in how they treat others, but in how they treat themselves. Lack of gratitude comes down to a failure of will: a failure to appreciate the real potential that lies within, and a failure to understand…
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The Mind Of Hippocrates
Thomas Kuhn, in his brilliant 1962 treatise on the structure of scientific revolutions, proposed that the advancement of knowledge takes place more often in periodic surges than through slow, incremental linearity. He proposed that progress can best be understood as a sequence of “paradigms;” in his view, a paradigm was a kind of general consensus…
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The Top 13 War Films
Someone on Twitter recently asked me to make a list of the top war films. The titles below are the result. I present them in no strict order, although I do believe the first five are superior to the remainder. There are a great number of war films, but my goal was to select the…
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Sometimes You Bite Off More Than You Can Chew (Podcast)
If you are out there pursuing your goals, overcoming obstacles, and blasting through barriers, there will be times when you take on more than you can handle. You will misjudge situations and, as the saying goes, will “bite off more than you can chew.” This is part of the growth process. This applies both professionally…
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Roman Surgical Extraction Of Projectiles In Ancient Combat
The most comprehensive treatise on Roman medicine that has survived is Celsus’s De Medicina (On Medicine), a work that fills eight carefully composed books written in a simple and elegant style. His full name was Aulus Cornelius Celsus, and appears to have flourished during the emperorship of Tiberius (A.D. 14—37). But beyond these bare bones…
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Max Hastings’s “The Korean War” (Review)
There are no “forgotten wars.” We may choose to talk about them, to write about them, or to learn from them. Or we may not. It is a question of what value we place on the lessons. Some eras, forged in strife and hardship, embrace history’s lessons, and consume narratives of past conflict with an…
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Some Recommended Books For Boys
In the past I’ve resisted the idea of making lists of recommended books. One gets the sense that the instant something is committed to a list, many will assume that the list is exclusive, and that other options should not be considered. There is also a personal feeling of distaste I have towards the “listicle”…
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Prisoner Of The Bolsheviks: The Ordeal Of Henry Pearson
The newspapers and magazines of previous eras provide us a window on the age. One gets a sense of the mood and odor of the times. Personal accounts are better still, especially when the writer has endured a direful or traumatic experience.
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Do The Job You Were Assigned To Do (Podcast)
When you are in a position of leadership or responsibility, you must carry out your duties. The mission comes first: you don’t have a choice. Too many people today want the benefits of being “in charge,” without being mindful of the responsibilities. Leadership carries many obligations, and some of them are not pleasant. But they…
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The Mystic Conviction Of Ibn Musaed
The mystic Yunus Ibn Yusuf Ibn Musaed was born around 1132 into the Mukharik family, of the tribe of Shaiban (بنو شيبان). The subdivisions of this tribe occupied an area called the Jazira, a region covering what is now eastern Syria and upper Mesopotamia. He would later found an order of dervishes that came to…
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The Top 11 Essays And Podcasts Of 2020 At Fortress Of The Mind
As 2020 staggers to a close, it is time to review the year’s eleven most viewed essays and podcasts here at Fortress of the Mind. The misery of the year’s events was in some way mitigated by its productivity in writing. I list them below, in descending order. Now would be a good opportunity to…
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J.M. Carpenter’s “Lives Of The Luminaries”
For the student of politics and public affairs, there are few fields so richly rewarding as study of historical figures. We find that the same circumstances, the same problems, and the same challenges present themselves again and again; and the solutions crafted in one era, even if not fully applicable to another, at least provide…
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Jack London In The Abyss
In 1902 Jack London resolved to travel seven thousand miles from California to England. His stated purpose was to lose himself in the docks and slums of London’s squalid East End, and see what he might learn from the experience. One might reasonably ask why he would do this, when numerous examples of urban misery…
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Should I Stay Or Should I Go? (Podcast)
A reader writes to ask for advice on whether he should travel to the US to attend college. His family wants him to stay where he is, but he longs for wider horizons and new opportunities. Each option has advantages and drawbacks.
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Sustained Effort Is Needed For Grand Designs
Great enterprises require a sustained effort over a long period of time. They cannot be pursued in fits and starts with intermittent bursts of energy; and they demand a confluence of factors that only coalesce on rare occasions. There must exist the ability and talent to conceive the project; there must be intense initiative and…
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The Apple
There is an allegorical short story written by H.G. Wells entitled The Apple. Several men in a “third-class carriage on a Sussex railway,” each absorbed in his own thoughts, begin to talk among themselves. One announces that he is in possession of what he calls an “apple from the Tree of Knowledge,” and that he…
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Real Kings Are Not Common
We live in times of feeble leadership. Those who occupy public offices often seem more willing to advance their own interests than those of the citizens they represent; they tremble at the thought of taking any action or initiative that might involve risk on their part. And so the citizenry suffers to buttress the careerist…
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Operation Eagle Claw: Disaster In The Desert
In early November 1979, rioting Iranian students entered the American embassy in Tehran and seized fifty-two government employees. Whether this was a spontaneous act, or a planned operation by Iran’s revolutionary government, is still open to debate; but in either instance, the nation’s clerical leadership moved quickly to exploit the crisis. In the United States,…
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“Am I Too Quiet And Withdrawn?” (Podcast)
A 20-year-old man working in law enforcement tends to be quiet and introverted. He’s serious and goal-oriented. Some of his colleagues mistakenly put a negative spin on this, and this is causing him to wonder if he needs to make some personality changes. We offer some thoughts on the situation.
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Flee From Those Who Drain You, And Seek Those Who Sustain You
There is a certain truculence that must figure in the disposition of an independent spirit. He who strays from the approved paths through the forest must be prepared to swing his machete with vigor and persistence at the tangles of vegetation that obstruct his forward movement. He will seek to test the boundaries of the…
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Should I Start A Business? (Podcast)
A reader who was a professional poker player for a number of years is getting restless. He wants to start a business, but has some questions about how he should go about doing it. We offer some ideas.
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Sorrow Is Not The Right Response To Time’s Rapid Passage
In his short biography of the poet Alexander Pope, Samuel Johnson makes the following comment:
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He Who Believes In His Powers, Works Only To Please Himself
Samuel Johnson makes the following comment in his Lives of the Poets when discussing the life of the seventeenth-century poet John Gay:
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Dr. Johnson On Moral Philosophy As A Cornerstone Of Education
We have here very frequently discussed the necessity of training in character and the virtues as a lifelong activity. This subject is the concern of moral philosophy: that is, the study of conduct and the virtues. It is through moral philosophy that a man’s passions are bridled, directed, and channeled for positive use. Without this…
Original copy of Cicero’s De Officiis (On Duties) published in Holland in 1642. From the collection of Fortress of the Mind.
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