Among the many reasons why a regime would wish to eliminate all knowledge of antiquity and the insights ancient writers offer is the desire to shield the subject masses from anything that might make them uneasy. We might view it as a kindness on the part of the ruling class.
This week history buffs mark the birthdays of two men who made the twentieth century what it was. Lenin and Hitler were born within days of one another, under the sign of Taurus in the cruelest month of April. The more effete among us, however, mark the birth of Immanuel Kant, 300 years ago as of the day before yesterday, same day as Hitler’s.
I paid my taxes early this year. Even though I made about the same as last year, Joe Biden and Gavin Newsom grabbed more than ever. They needed the extra money for more wars and abortions.
Recently more than in times past, the month of April triggers some ominous memories that have become more vivid somehow with distance in time. I had relegated my memories of the events of Operation Eagle Claw (OEC) to my mind’s recesses after leaving the First Ranger Battalion for Special Forces (SF) in August of 1980 following the ill-fated mission that past April.
Pico della Mirandola’s “Oration on the Dignity of Man” is celebrated by leftists and conservatives as a classic statement on human dignity. In fact, this confused product of a a brilliant young mind is one of the opening shots in the rebellion against God and human nature. There is, however, a happy ending.
As a rational and classically trained writer, Machiavelli begins with definitions. He first distinguishes the two types of government as republics and principalities.
Artificial Intelligence is the operation of a machine programmed by dullwitted aliens posing as human beings.
My favorite scene in the 1983 movie “The Right Stuff” is where astronaut Gordo Cooper is sleeping on the launch pad waiting for the Atlas rocket to propel him in his Mercury capsule into outer space. It’s based on Tom Wolfe’s great non-fiction account of the same name about the early U.S. space program. It’s what Hemingway called courage: Grace under pressure.
The dates of Machiavelli’s life are significant: He was born in the year Lorenzo “the magnificent” succeeded his father as ruler of Florence and died in the year the Medici were again expelled and when the Emperor Charles V sacked Rome.
Duane Allman, founder and leader of The Allman Brothers Band, from 1969 until his tragic death in a motorcycle crash in October 1971, called Dickey Betts the best player in the band.
