Which is worse – the tyrant who lives afar or the tyrant who lives next door? Tyranny from local powers is often worse than the tyranny of more distant despots. Yet local tyrannies, as oppressive as they may be, face limits to their power that larger tyrannies need not fear. Man will wield power. Its form may change with time and place, […]
In one of the Stage’s most popular posts, I asked if the “far right” and “far left” are really just two peas of the same pod. On the face of things America seems divided between two hostile cultures. Yet look beneath the surface and a different picture emerges: underneath partisan rhetoric are two parties united […]
It is unusual for me to read a book aimed at popular conservative audiences. I am something of a disaffected conservative. Crony capitalism and government overreach have proved to be bipartisan endeavors, and I have long lost faith that the Republican party can ever be more than an organ of America’s governing elite. [1] Outside […]
A collection of articles, essays, and blog post of merit. This collection is a large one. TOP BILLING Our Internet Surveillance StateBruce Schneier. Schneier on Security. 25 March 2013. The Internet is a surveillance state. Whether we admit it to ourselves or not, and whether we like it or not, we’re being tracked all the […]
Infographic from Ty Morteson. Image Source.One might add “Governments consistently bails out corporate interests with tax-payer money” to the center of the diagram. Several months ago I published a post that describes how the extreme partisanship emanating from Washington is a really just a surface veneer that covers a plutocratic consensus lying beneath. [1] Ashwin Parameswaran, blogging […]
Scrolls containing the Seven Military Classics of the Chinese strategic canon. Image Credit. Last month I wrote a post on the difficulties Westerners face learning about China’s military history and expansive strategic canon. Reflecting on this military tradition, Martin Hewson (who blogs at Breviosity) posed a few interesting questions: Why does China have such a sophisticated tradition […]
I have written several posts that use Carol Quigly’s “institutional imperative” as a lens for understanding contemporary events. [1] Mr. Quigly suggests that all human organizations fit into one of two types: instruments and institutions. Instruments are those organizations whose role is limited to the function they were designed to perform.(Think NASA in the 1960s, defined […]
A collection of articles, essays, and blog post of merit – abridged addition this time around. DEMOGRAPHICS The Wheel of History Turns to The Gods Razib Khan. Gene Expression. 10 October 2010. An extremely important survey of global demographic trends over the next forty years.The post focuses on the difference between the birth rates of […]
Over the last two weeks a few posts deserving wider dissemination have been published by Nick Nielson (“Geopolicraticus”) on his blog Grand Strategy: the View From Oregon. I recommend that those interested in political philosophy and related topics give these posts a quick look. On social contracts, written and unwritten: Fairness and the Social Contract […]
It is one of James Madison’s best known sayings: “Of all the enemies to public liberty, war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other.” As these words get dragged into the public discourse fairly often it is useful to know the context in which they […]
