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Dirk Benedict’s “Lost In Castration”
By some miracle I stumbled on this incredible article written in 2006 by actor Dirk Benedict. For those unfamiliar with his name, he is an American film and stage actor with a career that dates back to the 1970s. His “big break” came in the late 1970s when he won a lead role on the…
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A Letter To A Graduate Student
I recently received an email that asked the following:
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Coming In Summer 2017: Sallust’s “Conspiracy Of Catiline” And “War Of Jugurtha”
Intrigue…murder…the lust for power…and the fatal hubris that leads men to their dooms. These are some of the compelling themes of Sallust’s famous works The Conspiracy of Catiline and The War of Jugurtha. Considered the first of the great Roman historians, Sallust’s gripping narratives have been read for centuries for their penetrating character studies, timeless…
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Sunday Movie Roundup (2/5/2017)
Black Mass (2015) Director: Scott Cooper Boston has always been a more “closed” town than the other big east coast American cities. It’s always been a weird mix of provincialism and internationalism. And even within Boston, South Boston is a very different place from the other parts of the city. If you grew up in…
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Money Is Of Secondary Importance In War
Human nature being what it is, there will always be many different reasons why wars begin. All of these reasons ultimately find their roots in human passions: greed, the lust for power, or simply a desire to “put fortune to the test” (fortunam temptare) as the ancient Latin historians would say.
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Movie Roundup (2/1/2017)
I usually do movie reviews on Sundays, but what the hell. Sometimes it’s good to vary up the routine a bit.
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The World’s Fury, And The Spirit’s Repose
It should be a consolation to us to know that the world’s mindless injustices and furies are of old date. Every age sees and experiences them, and every man finds his own way of adapting himself to the clamor and tumult around him. Some throw themselves into their work; others retreat into solitude; some find…
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Successful In One Job, A Failure In Another (Podcast)
Herbert Hoover, the 31st president of the United States, is generally considered to have been a dismal failure as chief executive. Less well known is the fact that he was a brilliantly successful organizer of humanitarian projects around the world before he became president. Among those successes was his Russian famine relief operation in the…
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Seeking One’s Fortune, And Meeting George Washington
François-René de Chateaubriand (1768-1848) was a French writer, diplomat and historian famous for his posthumous autobiography Memoirs from Beyond the Tomb. The book is appealing for its admixture of blunt honesty and romantic reflection that capture the spirit of the times in a way that enables the reader to feel he is a participant himself.
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Sunday Movie Roundup (1/22/2017)
Not a bad week for film, especially science fiction. Here is the tally.
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Why Did The Reds Defeat The Whites In The Russian Civil War of 1917-1922? (Podcast)
The former Russian Empire was torn apart by chaos and civil war from 1917 to 1922. On one side were the Bolshevists, seeking to impose a revolutionary communist society on the people; and on the other were the so-called “White” Russians, a collection of nationalists and traditionalists trying to dislodge the Red regime. Why did…
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A Fool Is Put In His Place
The following anecdote is related in Ibn Khallikan’s short biographical profile of the philologist and rhetorician Al-Said. His full name was Abu al-Said Ibn al-Hasan Ibn Isa Al-Raba’i. Verbal abilities are highly prized in cultures with rich literary traditions, and this tale bears testament to this fact.
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The Song Of Roland: Duty And Sacrifice
As Europe took shape in the early medieval period, the vernacular languages found their voices in popular epics and ballads. This was not an accident; access to Latin and its literature required literacy, and this was something not easy to come by at that time. But the lay audiences of Europe began to develop their…
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Sunday Movie Roundup (1/15/2017)
I had a chance to see a few movies while aboard ship during the past couple of weeks. Here are some of the results.
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Some Impressions On Travel In Central America (Podcast)
This podcast was recorded several days ago but I was only now able to upload it. In it we talk about some impressions gained from brief visits to Panama, Costa Rica, Colombia, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Mexico.
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Some Requirements For Political Stability
In recent weeks I have had a chance to visit for a short time a few of the republics in Central America: Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama, Colombia (South America, but close enough), Guatemala, and Mexico. I have been trying to upload a podcast I recorded on the subject, but internet connections are so slow that…
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Machiavelli’s Three Key Concepts
If a political scientist were asked who might be the most misunderstood writer of political theory, he would probably have the name of Machiavelli high on his list. To his name have been ascribed sinister motivations and calculated duplicity; and unscrupulous cherry-picking of his quotes has fashioned him into an ogre in the popular mind.
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A Retreat Can Spur Creative Energy: Machiavelli’s Letter To Francesco Vettori
Sometimes being away from the fray and the fracases of life can allow us to compose our thoughts and regenerate our spirits. This has the effect of spurring the creative soul on to higher amplitudes of output. We forget just how distracting it is for the mind to be bombarded with invasive stimuli; and while…
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Through The Panama Canal
I am on a ship that will transit through the Panama Canal tomorrow. For me this is a big moment: to be able to see one of the great engineering marvels of the world; to experience the incarnate will of one of my idols, President Theodore Roosevelt; and finally, to see the natural tropical beauty…
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Harry Truman’s Presidential Retreat In Key West: Thoughts And Observations
A couple days ago I had a chance to tour the vacation retreat of former president Harry S Truman. The experience prompted some thoughts and observations on the value system of our current political elites.
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Video Review Of “On Duties” Translated By Quintus Curtius
Today Mr. Andrew Vittoria released a very detailed and cogent You Tube video review of my On Duties. Readers seeking an in-depth and reasoned commentary will no doubt find this video useful. I have embedded the video below.
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Seek It, And It Recedes; Ignore It, And It Comes To You
The biographer Ibn Khallikan relates the following anecdote about a man named Abu Amir Orwa Ibn Uzaina, a scholar and poet who died around A.D. 736. Not much is known of his life except that he was a member of the Iraqi tribe of al-Laith. It illustrates the importance of not chasing things in…
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The Ship Of Aeneas: A Unique And Mysterious Vessel
In life and in history, there are a great many things we do not know, and will never know. Corporeal images recede slowly into the mist: some to return, some to glimmer faintly without revealing tangible form, and some never to be seen again. It is the way with things.
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Sunday Movie Roundup (12/25/2016)
If you find yourself with free time on your hands during the next few days, you might want to check out a few of these titles. As always, I try to focus on the films that get little mainstream attention. You can decide whether you want to see them.
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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