Sunday Movie Roundup (4/16/2017)

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Disorder (2015)

Director:  Alice Winocour

This is one of those great, slow-burning movies that slipped under the radar (at least here in the United States).  It’s part character study and part suspense drama, but the end result is a very satisfying cinematic experience.  Lead actor Matthias Schoenaerts is a great actor whom I’ve admired for a long time; he deserves to be a big star and I hope he continues on the trajectory he’s on.  To get an idea of just how good he can be, you should check out the great horror film Left Bank (2008) and the drama Bullhead (2011).

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The Hollow Men (Podcast)

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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.”

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C. Licinius Macer’s Advice To His People

Quintus Curtius History ,

I recently came across a passage from a speech appearing in Sallust’s Historiae (III.48).  The oration is put in the mouth of the popular tribune Caius Licinius Macer, who was battling the influence of the Roman patricians.  It purportedly was delivered in 73 B.C.; Macer’s intention was to rouse the common people to action against the venality and greed of the elites who controlled Rome and who refused to listen to the will of the people.  A continuous theme in the era of the late republic was the constant attempt by the elites to prevent economic reforms that might benefit the state as a whole, rather than just them.  We this same motif, of course, played out again in our own day.

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Resources Can Come In Unexpected Ways: The Bounty Of Imad al-Dawla

Quintus Curtius Literature , ,

Imad ad-Dawla Ibn Buwaih (A.D. 891-949) was the founder of the Buyid Dynasty in medieval Persia.  His name in Persian is given as Ali Ibn Buya, but he is more commonly known as Imad al-Dawla (“pillar of the state”).  Ibn Khallikan’s short sketch of his life contains the story related here; this story in turn is taken from the historian al-Mamuni.  It reminds us of the fact that, sometimes in life, a bit of good fortune can provide us with all we need.  The world, somehow, has its own way of providing for us; and if we persist long enough, some problems eventually solve themselves.

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François-René de Chateaubriand: The Apostle Of Romanticism

Quintus Curtius Literature ,

The nineteenth century literary, artistic, and intellectual movement we today call “romanticism” is not easily defined, but is generally acknowledged to embrace the following sentiments:  an idealized view of the past, the emphasis of feeling and sentiment over rationality, a preference for exotic locales and peoples, and the primacy of emotion.  One of the founders—perhaps the founder—of romanticism in French literature was François-René de Chateaubriand, whose memoirs I have just finished.  He titled his book Memories From Beyond The Tomb, since they were specifically intended to be published after his death.

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Joseph Persico’s “Infamy On Trial” (Book Review)

Quintus Curtius History ,

We live in an age of power without responsibility, an age where ambition and hubris are too often permitted to run roughshod over institutional controls and the dictates of common decency.  We are too often made to feel helpless in the face of power exercised so far beyond the reach of accountability that many of us have simply given up, and abandoned hope of calling to account those who abuse the trust of the people they were tasked with serving.

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Leadership Questions: Pulling The Trigger, And Dealing With A Passive-Aggressive Boss

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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.

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Machiavelli’s Principles Of Conspiracies

Quintus Curtius Thought ,

Machiavelli, in book III, chapter 6 of his Discourses, enunciates the principles of political conspiracies. He considers an understanding of them to be of primary importance.  I intend to paraphrase his relevant points here, so that readers without access to the original text may have a better understanding of them.  He begins with a point he considers self-evident:

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Sunday Movie Roundup (3/26/2017)

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Here are the latest results and post-mortems.  All in all, it was a great week.

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