A reader who is a teacher is troubled by the fact that one of his teenage students firmly believes in fascist government. The teacher seeks advice on how to deal with this situation. He relates this situation to similar experiences he had as a soldier in Afghanistan when he was speaking with local villagers.
A former NKVD agent describes a meeting with Joseph Stalin and the special assignment he was given. We reflect on the fact that power and glory are fleeting, and that they can vanish faster than most people believe.
A reader from Italy writes to say he is frustrated and angry with the deceit and fraudulence of a certain political figure on the world stage. We explain why it is best to take a detached, philosophical view of such men, since experience shows that they eventually bring about their own ruin. What matters is to be a man of substance, not a man of straw, a hollow man. We close by reading T.S. Eliot’s immortal poem, “The Hollow Men.”
Two different readers ask questions from their own personal experience:
1. One man is trying to overcome feelings of discomfort when ordering his men to go places where they may face certain harm.
2. Another man is trying to deal with a boss whose passive-aggressive comments may mean trouble for him.
When your back is against the wall, you need to fight back however you can. Don’t allow society or other people to denigrate you. Remember that the only one who cares about you is you. Sometimes the best way to get people to listen is to force them to listen. Hit them hard, and keep hitting them as long as necessary.
I’ve written before on the extreme social dangers that come about from excessive concentrations of wealth in the hands of a few. An important series of articles by Robert and Pamela Bunker in Small Wars Journal has taken this idea one step further: they have identified the current vast income disparities as a form of insurgency warfare. This is a very significant step, and one that is supported by the facts. This condition–in all its forms–they call the plutocratic insurgency. This podcast discusses some of their conclusions, and asks readers to ponder the implications of this insidious form of warfare on the social health of Western nations.
I recently saw the 2004 documentary Metallica: Some Kind Of Monster. The film shows the group trying to keep itself together in the wake of band tension, personal issues, and creative deadlock. How these problems are confronted and solved make this a film very much worth watching. We discuss some of the lessons learned.
There is nothing wrong or shameful in having problems. The measure of a man is how he confronts and handles those problems.
I received a great email the other day from an accomplished ex-military man who is currently enrolled in a higher degree program at a major US university. He wanted to know my thoughts on these questions:
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.
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 the Reds win and the Whites lose? Why were the Reds able to remain in power? We explore some answers.
Quintus Curtius 
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