I’ve decided to bring back the film review posts due to popular demand. So here are a few movies I’ve seen recently, with my opinions of them. I’ve said it before, and will say it again: movies can open up windows of creativity for you. If you see the right ones, they can help you in ways you might not anticipate.
I am an admirer of the author Victor Suvorov. I wish I could meet and speak with him. He served for thirty years as an officer in the Soviet Army before defecting to the West in the 1980s. In his book Inside The Soviet Army, he tells the following anecdote:
Justice, as we all know, does not always win out in the end. Sometimes the wicked escape unpunished for their crimes, for a variety of reasons. This seems to have been what happened with one strange murder case I read about recently. It is notable for the involvement of the future president John Adams in the affair, as well as for the role that politics can play in criminal trials.
The first of the Seljuk sultans was Togrul Beg. Of him Edward Gibbon said, “It would be superfluous to praise the valour of a Turk; and the ambition of Togrul was equal to his valour.” This is a supreme compliment, and entirely true. By the time of his death in 1063 he had firmly laid the foundations for the Seljuk Empire in the Middle East and Central Asia.
One of the greatest of the medieval Turkish princes was Mahmud of Ghazni (محمود غزنوی) or Mahmud Ghaznawi. He lived from about 971 to 1030. During this time his forces conquered large parts of what is now Iran, Afghanistan, and northern India. It was apparently for him that the title of sultan was first invented.
The question here is: “How do I avoid burnout?”
But–as is often the case–I sense a hidden question lurking below the surface here that deals with isolation and loneliness.
We discuss some answers.
The Soviet Union is no more, as everyone knows. Its political system proved to be unsuccessful; it was incapable of adapting to the challenges of history.
Janusz Bardach’s Man Is Wolf To Man: Surviving The Gulag ranks among the best prison-camp memoirs of the Second World War era. As an epic of suffering and survival, it makes an excellent companion to Siegfried Knappe’s Soldat: Reflections Of A German Soldier, 1936-1949, another dark chronicle of a dark era.
So-called “experts” and pundits will always try to pigeon-hole you. They will try to categorize you as they see fit, in order to make themselves feel good. If you are pursuing your passions or mission, you’ll notice people trying to “put you in your place.” Some alleged “authority” will try to cut you down.
Here’s a very good paper from 2014 that discusses the importance of On Duties in the Western tradition.
It’s one of the best summaries out there, and I think readers will benefit from going through it. The writers call it a “core text for every curriculum.”
Quintus Curtius 
You must be logged in to post a comment.