WARNING – ANOTHER SUPER LONG POST (Sorry I keep throwing these things on you guys). An interesting discussion has been enfolding over at Zenpundit’s place. The topic of the day is grand strategy and its relation to moral and national purpose. My previous foray into the topic, “Dreaming Grand Strategy”, drew the attention of Mark […]
Via Arts and Letters Daily comes this fascinating presentation by psychologist Jonathan Haidt on ‘moral psychology’. More interesting than Hait’s thesis is the qualifiers he adds to it, noting two important studies that gave him cause for intellectual humility. Says he: The New Science of Morality Jonathan Haidt. Edge. July 2010. But before I come […]
In a previous discussion I mentioned the important part narrative building plays in human cognition. As it turns out, I am not the only person to reach this conclusion. This week’s “intriguing passage” comes from the pen of Azar Gat, excerpted from his awesome War in Human Civilization. It excellently illuminates the human need to […]
A while back I wrote of the danger historical metaphors pose to statesmen, analysts, and others concerned with public affairs. While the focus of that post was analogies of a historical nature, the general points of concern extend to any metaphor we use to explain the world around us. Human beings have a difficult time […]
Sometime last year I stumbled across a series of 500 word think pieces written by various professors of international relations, senior fellows housed in foreign policy think tanks, and other eminent experts on all matter of topics related to security studies. From what I could tell the series was a weekly affair; every week a […]
Author’s Note: A few days ago I finished reading Europe in Crisis, 1598-1648, by Geoffrey Parker. Parker is a renowned scholar of 17th century Europe, and for those unfamiliar with the period’s history I can think of no better introduction than this volume. This reading was the impetus for the following post. You can summarize […]
I often find myself frustrated with the lack of historical perspective present in contemporary political discourse. History is something pundits have little use for– why bother when one can blame society’s problems on the politicians one wishes driven out of office? This proclivity to see evil only in the machinations of one’s political opponents is […]
