Stalin biographer Stephen Kotkin spends several pages of his book discussing the lessons to be learned from Mussolini’s seizure of power in Italy in the early 1920s. It was something that happened gradually, in stages, when institutions that should have been able to bring him to heel did nothing, either due to their own lack of resolution or tacit support of his power grab.
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 television series Battlestar Galactica. When the news came in 2006 that the series would be “re-imagined” (i.e., feminized) with a woman playing his old role, he was moved to write the following essay.
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 moral insights, and matchless rhetoric. His profiles of flawed men led inexorably to ruin by excessive ambition or character defects resonate with us today more powerfully than ever.
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 Massachusetts in the 1970s and 1980s, and one side of your family was Irish immigrants in Boston, chances are just about 100% that you knew something about the Bulger family. And by this I mean Billy Bulger, at one time the most powerful politician in the state, and his older brother James “Whitey” Bulger.
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.
I usually do movie reviews on Sundays, but what the hell. Sometimes it’s good to vary up the routine a bit.
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 a balance between such extremes and navigate the white-crested waters of Fate as best they can.
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 early 1920s. His career illustrates the principle that no man is capable at everything. As leaders we should focus on evaluating character and talent, and seek to find the right person for the right job.
Quintus Curtius 
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