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

Art, Music

Best of Yes, Post 1983

For most music fans, and especially prog rockers, Yes existed between 1969 and 1983.

Some would even end Yes around 1979.

Amazingly enough, though, Yes still exists. And, while the band has never produced a perfect album since 1983’s 90125, it has produced a number of tracks equal to the best of the “classic Yes” period.

The two best albums of this later period were Magnification (2001) and Fly from Here-Return Trip (2018).

For those interested (and with ears to hear), here are my favorites from 1987-present.

  • Birthright (Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe, 1989)
  • Dreamtime (Magnification, 2001)
  • Endless Dream (Talk, 1994)
  • Evensong (Union, 1991)
  • Fly From Here (Fly From Here-Return Trip, 2018)
  • Homeworld (The Ladder, 1999)
  • I’m Running (Big Generator, 1987)
  • In the Presence Of (Magnification, 2001)
  • Into the Storm (Fly From Here-Return Trip, 2018)
  • Life on a Film Set (Fly From Here-Return Trip, 2018)
  • Magnification (Magnification, 2001)
  • Minddrive (Keys to Ascension 2, 1997)
  • New Language (The Ladder, 1999)
  • Order of the Universe (Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe, 1989)
  • Shoot High Aim Low (Big Generator, 1987)
  • Silent Talking (Union, 1991)
  • Spirit of Survival (Magnification, 2001)
  • Subway Walls (Heaven and Earth, 2014)
  • Themes (Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe, 1989)
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, I went riding at the margins of the Olympic National Park. The plan was to loop through a couple of scenic forest roads, but eventually, I ran into a closed gate. So, had to turn around and ride back through the same bridge I had crossed earlier. 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 the coincidence. How often do paths 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 intersecting at some point. For instance, ferry times, riding patterns, and outdated GPS maps are all preceding links in my causal chain. If we go further back, there are other causal sequences that explain why ferry times are the way they are, or how I ended up riding in a specific way. But we can only speculate about the causal events related to the mysterious hiker.

All we can say is – every event has a causal chain with known and unknown preceding events. Even in my case, we can only speculate whether the map was incorrect and led to a private road or if someone just shut that gate on that particular day. Maybe my riding pattern was immaterial. That means if all the other factors remained the same, all types of riders would have faced the mysterious hiker twice! To estimate causal weight, we’d need to replay events and control for variables – practically impossible. That implausibility hints at the layered, multidimensional nature of the system.

 Causal chains operate at multiple levels as well. For instance, the riding pattern could be attributed to upstream causes of motorcycle gear ratios. The engineering of gearboxes has its own causal chains. But a motorcycle spare part is an abstract, reusable node involved in multiple chains – linking several motorcycles, models, and riders. Such a part’s functions are abstracted enough to serve multiple similar purposes. Eventually, the world itself can be interpreted as an interconnected network of abstract sub-systems, each with its own contextual functions. Larger sub-systems are composed of smaller systems and nodes with similar abstract qualities. Imagine building blocks with clear, logical, and physical boundaries, but operating without explicitly articulating their internal structure.

All kinds of systems — biological, chemical, or even social frameworks can be modeled through such a view. In the case of societies, components involved are individuals, families, organizations, and their workflows. For instance, the same individuals when at work serve a different contextual purpose than at home — becoming time-shared abstract nodes within different domain-specific workflows. The structural parallels between larger social institutions and a lonely motorcyclist in the wilderness illustrate the concept of organized complexity. They both function with a level of efficiency that hides the chaos of their own causal chains.

Within any such order — recurring patterns typically indicate underlying drivers. With complex systems, there is a difficulty in isolating them. There are even more challenges with designing optimal solutions for obvious problems. For instance, rising college tuition, health care costs, or government deficit spending are recurring and contentious phenomena. But there are also recurring beneficial patterns – like plummeting smartphones or fast-food prices! Rarely do we see political rallies about unaffordable fries.

The dominant agency causing these patterns can be a specific group of people, natural forces, or an incentive structure. But general discourse is rarely about correcting complex causal factors that led to a contentious pattern. This happens because it’s expensive to dive deep, isolate causality, then arrive at a hypothesis that fits multiple contexts, and then propose and test a generic solution. The general tendency is to introduce new factors into the mix as workarounds — like price/licensing controls, a new tax, maybe a trade war, or even an actual war. There is also a strong political incentive not to do root cause analysis of social problems — often, they ruffle too many feathers. The benefit of a complex interconnected system is overall productivity, and there is even a romantic side to all this.

Republished at ridersmodel.com

Music, Books, Poetry, Film