REASONS FOR INQUIRY The global font of user-generated wisdom provides the following definition of plutarchy: Plutocracy is rule by the wealthy, or power provided by wealth. The combination of both plutocracy and oligarchy is called plutarchy. In a plutocracy, the degree of economic inequality is high while the level of social mobility is low. This […]
I know that more than a few of my readers have a penchant for strategic thinking. To these I suggest a website just added to the Stage’s blog roll, Grand Strategy: The View From Oregon. “Geopolicraticus”, the author of this blog, writes with the “intention to view geopolitics through the prism of ideas.” To this […]
Last week PLoS One published an interesting study (H/T Climate Shifts) by behavioral ecologist Daniele Fanelli concerning the relationship between professional pressures to publish material and bias in the scientific literature: Do Pressures to Publish Increase Scientist Bias? Support From US States Data Daniele Fanelli. PLoS ONE. 21 April 2010. The objectivity and integrity of […]
I have been a little busy this last week. Odds are that I will be busy over the next week as well. The wait should be worth it, however – I have written drafts of several posts that might just pique the readership’s interest. Later this week I should have time to hammer down their […]
The author announces his intent to take Sundays off. The Hebrews were on to something with this one. A day set aside for reading, rest, spiritual edification, and general recuperation will do a man good, and it is not something he can get when participating in inflammatory online debates or ceaselessly monitoring the constant stream […]
This week has not been a pleasant one for Hamid Karzai. Following an embarrassing outburst where he declared, among other things, “I might join the Taliban”, Western media outlets have kept up a steady barrage of open editorials lampooning the President. Foreign Policy, Slate, Small War Journal, The Weekly Standard, the Huffington Post, and Politico […]
If one political philosopher must be named my patron saint, it would be Alexis de Tocqueville. It is hard to read a page of that he has written without coming across a gem of wisdom relevant to today’s affairs. Take this small excerpt from the second chapter of Democracy in America: In most European nations, […]
I like ecology. It is a fascinating subject, and it deserves much more credence than many will ever allow it. Its importance is hard to contest: long before man played any part in sizeable political or economic systems, he was a node in the Earth’s many extensive ecological networks. It was upon these networks mankind […]
War and Peace and War: The Life Cycles of Imperial Nations, Peter Turchin’s sweeping application of cliodynamics to the rise and fall of great powers, has been making the rounds recently. Both the Committee of Public Safety and Sublime Oblivion have posted responses to the book. As my past posts on cultural cohesion might suggest, […]
A collection of articles, essays, and blog post of merit. THE REPUBLIC America, the Land of Limited Opportunity. We Must Open Our Eyes to the Truth. “Fabius Maximus”. Fabius Maximus. 31 March 2010. Fabius Maximus points to a painful truth: increasing inequality of income and declining social mobility is tearing our America apart at the […]
