Category Archives: Philosophy

Republic of Letters

Why do men fight? What makes for a great military unit?

“Fighting for one’s comrades is thought to be the main driver, I believe. Anyone?” – Richard Brookhiser.

MUNRO: speaking as a former Marine and son and nephew of WWII Army vets and descended from a long line of Argylls @ArgyllsMuseum, 1) comradeship is vital but only a part of what makes for a great military unit.

For example, (2) not a single Argyll was executed for desertion or cowardice 1914-1945. But Auld Pop witnessed the French executing their own, especially Black Colonial troops. The men shared great love with their NCO’s and officers, great love and friendship.

3) there is more than just fighting for your comrades in arms. The Argylls represented Scotland as an honored member in the British Empire. The 1914 volunteers were mostly mature men 25-42. They were the Empire builders. They had great pride in the Empire, their Regiment.

4) They were very close to their officers whom they addressed by nicknames and with whom they spoke in Scots dialect or Gaelic or that Hindi-Punjabi patois many old India hands knew. The Argylls was a brotherhood. They shared music, song, literature, a stoic philosophy & sports.

5) why did they fight? To keep England safe. They knew very well if Little Belgium fell the channel ports would become U-boat havens and Britain could be strangled to death.

But they were the Thin Red Line. They were British soldiers. They were Scots and Highlanders.

6) they would have been ashamed to fall beneath a certain standard or let down their chums who were the longtime friends, relatives, co-workers and in-laws. They were fun loving but highly disciplined and magnificently trained.

7) and they followed in an ancient tradition of fearlessness in close combat -the mire-catha -the ancient battle frenzy -the ancient blood lust. They were very aware of the primordial roots as the last White Barbarians -the very last relic of Iron Age warriors.

8) you could hear it in their war cries and in their piper’s skirling tunes of glory. Tunes everyone knew. Tunes, in some cases that were connected to bardic poetry. Tunes that were 10 years old or 1 year old (like Col Bogey or 500 or 800 years old.)

9) the very best troops have deep esprit d’corps, elan and shared values and history. This is why the Marines emphasize tradition and history so much. Every Marine learns of Tripoli and the ‘Canal and Iwo Jima. The very best troops have a deep culture and identity.

10) culture and identity are essential to creating the deep philia love that is the brotherhood of warriors and fighting men. Auld Pop used to say, “A soldier will die for the Colours but not for an extra two bob a day.”

10:37 PM – 13 May 2019 from Bakersfield, CA

Republic of Letters

Measuring the Influence of Russell Kirk and Other Conservative Authors ~ The Imaginative Conservative

As noted on the slide itself, this slide compares and considers, arguably, the seven most influential male conservatives of the 20th century: Irving Babbitt; Friedrich Hayek; Christopher Dawson; Eric Voegelin; Leo Strauss; Russell Kirk; and Harry Jaffa. [As a sidenote, had I included Paul Elmer More, his reputation would have paralleled, almost exactly, Irving Babbitt’s, so I left it off for sake of clarity.] This chart makes several things clear. First, and most significantly, the most important conservative thinker of the century came at its beginning, not its end: Irving Babbitt. At his height, Babbitt soared above all others, and he experienced three peaks. Second, the most important conservative as of 2008, without compare, is Leo Strauss. Yet, interestingly, his reputation declined rather shockingly during the Clinton years, and only rebounded with the election of George W. Bush. Third, Christopher Dawson and, to a lesser extent, Eric Voegelin each enjoyed considerable and sustained popularity over decades.
— Read on theimaginativeconservative.org/2019/05/russell-kirk-influence-conservative-authors-bradley-birzer.html

Republic of Letters

Six Colors: Apple, technology, and other stuff from Jason Snell and Friends

The keyboard itself is good, though the entire keyboard surface is made of gray plastic that feels a little cheap when compared to the aluminum-framed keyboards you’ll find in Apple’s laptops (or Brydge’s iPad Pro keyboard). The keycaps have a smooth texture and typing feel that remind me of classic Apple laptop keys. (That’s a good thing.) There’s a full function row, giving you control over keyboard backlighting, screen brightness, media playback, volume, and other shortcuts that users of Apple’s own Smart Keyboard Folio don’t have access to. The arrow keys are in the familiar inverted-T configuration that Apple has unfortunately moved away from in its own laptops.
— Read on sixcolors.com/

Republic of Letters

Using a Mac from iOS, Part 2 – Luna Display and macOS as an App – MacStories

These are just some examples of tasks that I need to perform for my job and apps I need to use for personal reasons that, despite my unending iOS optimism, cannot be completed in a reasonably efficient way on the iPad alone. Which means that, while I consider the iPad Pro my primary computer, I also have a use for the Mac these days, and I don’t begrudge this at all. I like using macOS for what it’s good at, and I’m having fun re-learning my way around apps like Hazel and Keyboard Maestro.
— Read on www.macstories.net/ipad-diaries/using-a-mac-from-ios-part-2-luna-display-and-macos-as-an-app/

Republic of Letters

Barnes and Noble isn’t doing enough to protect their shoppers

Almost all of these problems occured in the past few months inside Barnes and Noble bookstores and right in front of them. Obviously for any problem that actually makes the news, there are likely dozens that go unreported. This could be due to the customer feeling ashamed that they let it happen, outright denial or it isn’t worth reporting, it is easier to just leave and not come back. Retail shoppers make up the vast majority of sales, and if B&N is not protecting them, this leads to a crisis of confidence.
— Read on goodereader.com/blog/barnes-and-noble-nook-ereader-news/barnes-and-noble-is-not-doing-enough-to-protect-their-shoppers

Republic of Letters

Faith, Family, and the Future of Europe ~ The Imaginative Conservative

“Hungarians are family-oriented,” she says, “and they love their families, their culture and their traditions. We’ve been given this direction by the Hungarian people. We want to strengthen families, women and young people. We want to provide security, and we want to protect our Christian culture.”

In the light of such heart-kindling wisdom from the peoples and governments of Poland and Hungary, rooted in faith and family and the future they offer, we are seeing the sun rising in Europe’s East, even as we see it setting in its decadent West.
— Read on theimaginativeconservative.org/2019/05/faith-family-europe-joseph-pearce.html

Art, Faith, Music, Poetry, Republic of Letters

Seeking the Humane: Big Big Train’s “Grand Tour” ~ (Birzer’s Second Review)

If all of this sounds too intelligent and too good to be a part of popular culture, it’s because it is! No, no, no. This is not pop. This is art. True, good, real, and beautiful. Imagine, for a moment, how many other manifestations of secular culture take seriously a Christian saint, let alone analyze the very stones used in the art of Byzantium? Truly, what this band offers us is a precious gem. And, while the members of the band (at least as far as I know) are not religious, they certainly take the religion of the past quite seriously. Not just Theodora, but the band has also written gorgeously on its previous releases about St. Edith, the granddaughter of King Alfred, the first great English king, the first to codify Anglo-Saxon common law, and the blessed recipient of Marian visions.
— Read on theimaginativeconservative.org/2019/05/big-big-train-grand-tour-bradley-birzer.html

Philosophy

Causal Chain

Recently went riding at the margins of Olympic, was actually planning to do a loop through couple of forest roads, but eventually ended up running into a road gated shut. So, had to turn back half way, and ride across the same bridge seen on my way up. And not just the same bridge, I crossed paths with the same hiker who was now walking back from the other end. Clearly, even he was amused at this bizarre coincidence. How often do the path of a motorcyclist, and a hiker in the wilderness converge on a bridge — twice!

In a way, coincidences or accidents are just separate causal chains coinciding at some point. For instance — ferry time, riding pattern, not up-to-date maps on the GPS etc were all immediate preceding links on my causal chain. If we go further back, then there are other causal sequences explaining why ferry times are the way they are, or how I ended up riding in some quirky way etc. But, we can only speculate about the causal events related to the mysterious hiker.

 

In that sense, every moment is the consequence of a set of connected or disconnected and known or unknown preceding causal events. Actually, even in my case, we can only speculate whether it was the incorrect map or did someone just decided to shut that road the previous day? Or maybe my riding pattern was immaterial. That means if all the other factors remained same, all types of riders would have faced the mysterious hiker, twice! If only we could replay life, and control it for various factors.

Some coincidences are rare, but others tend to be recurring and contentious. For instance, rising college tuition, health care costs or govt deficit spending tend to be recurring and divisive. But there are also recurring less contentious coincidences – like plummeting smart phone or fast food prices! Rarely do we see political rallies about unaffordable fries. Recurring events tend to have some dominant agency – it can be some specific group of people, natural forces, or some incentive structure etc. But general discourse is rarely about correcting these complex causal factors, which led to the present contentious pattern. But it’s usually more about introducing new factors into the mix — like price/licensing controls, or a new tax, or may be a new war? So, instead of fixing the root cause we keep introducing workarounds. Sounds like another recurring pattern.

Art, Faith, History, Music, Poetry, Republic of Letters

What Hath the train Wrought, Part II

1 Comment

Part II of our symposium. A second indepth look at the philosophy and emotions behind Big Big Train’s latest album, GRAND TOUR.

***

Beginning with genteel blushings and awed whispers, David Longdon’s vocals—so plaintive and so earnest and so full of wonder—begin Grand Tour by sharing hard-earned wisdom.

After all, this story begins far from home, and the craft in question flies along shadowed paths beyond all human sight, but never beyond human imagination. By whatever measure of success or failure, the craft made the attempt. And, by necessity, so did those who launched it in the first place.

Whatever the fate of that craft, it was made by human hands, and those hands should be celebrated. And, thus we should celebrate not just the act of creation but the very life that gave the very intelligence to act.

We are, after all, ALIVE!

And thus begins Big Big Train’s latest album, Grand Tour, a masterpiece even among masterpieces. Ostensibly, this hook—which catches onto the eighteenth-century ideal of English travel throughout the European continent and, especially, into and around the Mediterranean and Aegean—ties the latest album together. By employing such a story, the band can travel not only across space but also back through time. The album explores ideas and as well as biographies.

This is, simply put, an album for the intelligent and meaningful person.

With track three, “The Florentine,” the band looks at the very core of the Italian Renaissance and one of its four greatest figures, Leonardo.

On track four, “Roman Stone,” the band digs deep back into western civilization, finding the very stones that created the Roman Republic and the various Mediterranean powers of the ancient world. There is both regret at the loss and admiration at the gain. See what we once were, the band claims. See what we could’ve been, the band asks. After all, things that have broken have often been made whole again. Sometimes even with the very material that had fallen into ruin becomes the cornerstone.

[please scroll down a bit and go to PAGE 2]

Pages: 1 2