Monthly Archives: March 2022

Ukraine, The Fumes of Madness

In about 50 BC the Latin poet Publilius Syrus said, “By knowing nothing, life is most delightful” (In nil sapiendo vita iucundissima est.) And in 1788 English poet Thomas Gray rendered the idea in English, “Where Ignorance is Bliss, It is Folly to be Wise.” The preamble is necessary, I think, for two reasons. I Read More

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Revolutions Then and Now

  Plutarch wrote his Parallel Lives, biographies of famous men, arranged in pairs to illuminate their common moral virtues or failings. In a more modest imitation I will draw a parallel between our current historical moment and the phase of the French Revolution called ‘Jacobinism.’ Then I will review some overlooked background of the French Read More

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