Closing Down the Shop

NOTE TO THE PEOPLE WHO FIND THEMSELVES ON THIS PAGE: As of Feb 2013 The Scholar’s Stage has been reborn. A round up of all posts published in its first month can be found here. Pressing the “Home” link on the sidebar will show you the most recent posts. 

This will be my last post for the Scholar’s Stage.

Or at least, the last post for quite some time.

I started this blog more than three years ago. At the time it had a paltry readership, limited to a few close friends I badgered into reading my material. At the present time the Stage receives thousands of hits every month from readers across the world. I believe that the growing readership of the Stage reflects the increasing quality of the posts written for it. My earliest posts were such embarrassing attempts at political analysis that I later removed from the Internet entirely. Nothing so woeful can be said of the Stage’s more recent posts; I am confidant that the best of these rank with the finest material I have ever written. There is litle question that creating and maintaining this blog has improved my ability to analyze and write about the course of world affairs beyond measure. While the number of hits this website receives suggests that others have found value in what is posted here, the main beneficiary of the Scholar’s Stage has been its primary author.

Believing the biography of a pundit less important then the strength of his arguments, I have divulged details of my own life sparingly. Despite this, attentive readers will be able to put together a fuzzy profile from the sparse pickings I have provided them, including my membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Like many Mormons of my station, confidant in their testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ and his Church, I have decided to serve as a missionary. Those unfamiliar with Mormon missions should understand that it is a very ascetic experience. For the two years in which I will be serving, I will have little to no access to newspapers, secular books, computers, or the internet. Were these things allowed I would have no time to pursue them

Thus it is with a glad heart that I say farewell to the blogosphere. Running the Stage has been a fruitful experience and I am thankful to all that have helped make it happen. A special thanks must be given to John Kranz of ThreeSources, “Joseph Fouche” of the Committee of Public Safety, Nick Nielson of Grand Strategy: The View From Oregon, “LFC” of Howl at Pluto, Antoly Karlin of Sublime Oblivion, Wil Robinson of International Political Will, and commentator “YT” for taking a special interest in what I have written here, penning many thoughtful critiques of my ideas and providing the inspiration for many of my best posts with their comments here at the Stage, on their own websites, or through private correspondence.

I also thank “Fabius Maximus“, Mark Safranski, and the bloggers of ChicagoBoyz. The Scholar’s Stage gained many, if not most, of its readers because these bloggers saw fit to repeatedly highlight my work. For this I am most grateful.

For the convenience of those who may find my material useful for the development of their future writings, a short compendium of the Stage’s most notable posts is provided below:

America’s Greatest Challenge — and Danger


Death of a Nation


We Laugh Because It Is True – Perhaps We Should Be Crying Too


Connecting the Dots: Social Mobility and Family Structure


A Few Brief Thoughts on the Senate


Health Care: America’s Sickness, or Her Symptom?


Made by Washington: Ignorance and Hackery


Cases in Plutarchy? The U.S. Senate by Graduating Class.


Straight Talk of the TSA, Paragon of the Creeping Security State

Dreaming Grand Strategy


Addendum to Dreaming Grand Strategy


A New Definition of Grand Strategy (Again)


Manifest Destiny: A Case Study in National Purpose

Notes on the Dynamics of Human Civilization: The Growth Revolution, Part I


Musings — How We Ought to Think About History


The Chinese Strategic Tradition: A Syllabus


Musings — on the Cognitive Consequences of Historical Metaphors


Through the Agency of Demons: A Small Sketch of Western Thought

Naxalism: A Short Introduction to India’s Scariest Security Threat


Update here: Roots of the Naxal Insurgency


Stealth Wars and the American Republic


America Quibbles as Mexico Crumbles


Meet our New Ambassadors (And Foreign Policy Priorities)


Three Headlines and a Moral


The Many Sided Turk


Update here: Turkey as Seen on September 12th


Copenhagen: A Failure of American Statecraft


Can Modern America Wage a Counterinsurgency Campaign?


The Missile Shield: Why We Planned It, Why We Scrapped It, and Why it Matters

Pick Your Metaphor With Care


Peak Oil and EROI: Understanding a Concept


Death by Climate


Foxes, Hedgehogs and Forecasting


Tyranny, Towards a Definition


Addendum on Tyranny