English philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) famously described life in a state of nature as “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short,” a condition in which one is obliged to engage in an endless war of “all against all.” For Hobbes and other Enlightenment thinkers, the purpose of government was to avoid such a fate by means… Read More
Legacy of Hate
If undue attempts to smear a book by those it threatens to unmask are any indication of the power of said book’s arguments, then Nancy MacLean’s “Democracy in Chains” is indeed a juggernaut. In a work of rare historical insight and persuasion, MacLean lays bare the long legacy of right-wing ideologues and their schemes to… Read More
White Nationalism: The End of an Error
If the labels associated with the recent violence in Virginia are any indication, White Supremacists have gone in for a name change, preferring to call themselves White Nationalists. That the group should attempt to re-brand itself is understandable; however, the reasoning behind the new distinction isn’t nearly as apparent. After all, nationalism has a checkered… Read More
The Confederate Monuments Controversy
Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s speech on the fate of four prominent monuments in New Orleans addresses a long-standing debate between those who profess a love of history and those who see that history reflected in present-day racism. The speech provides a cogent summary of this debate and a compelling argument–supported by all three branches of the… Read More
This week in history: The Overland Campaign
In the spring of 1864, with the Army of the Potomac encamped in northern Virginia, Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant vowed, “I propose to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer.” As it happened, the ensuing campaign would take all of that and more. From FATEFUL LIGHTING, “Every Day and Every… Read More
This week in history: Battle of Shiloh
The two-day battle at Shiloh (Pittsburgh Landing, Tennessee) marked the first major Union victory of the Civil War and proved a gruesome portent of the fighting to come. From “The Devil’s Own Day,” FATEFUL LIGHTING, by William Hillenbrand: By the first week of April, 1862, General Grant was in camp at Pittsburg Landing on the… Read More
A Modest Proposal revisited
Back in the early 1700’s, Irish satirist Jonathan Swift sought to redress the suffering of his impoverished countrymen with a simple suggestion. In a parody of careful reasoning, Swift proposed that they sell their infant children to the English for use as food, going so far as to suggest that Irish babies would quickly become… Read More
Trump crosses “event horizon”
With President Trump’s return to Twitter warfare in leveling unsubstantiated charges that his predecessor ordered the wire-tapping of his offices, what little hope existed for a return to some semblance of normality in the White House has now been extinguished. After six weeks of the most dysfunctional presidency in American history, the verdict in the… Read More
The Donald v. The World
Among the many questions Donald Trump has not been asked during his meteoric—as in large, dense object on a collision course with everything humanity holds dear—rise to become his party’s nominee for the highest office in the land, is the question of what he sees as his obligations as president. While we have been treated… Read More
Republican debate heroes
Call it a moment of karmic resonance or proof that irony is the soul of wisdom. While channel-surfing in advance of the latest Republican debate I happened upon a scene from the movie “Billy Jack Goes to Washington” (1977). For those with the good fortune never to have seen it, the movie features Tom Laughlin (who… Read More