Promotional image from the UK’s Almeida Theatre production of The Duchess of Malfi (performed from November 30, 2019 through January 25, 2020)

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I. Classical Western Thought on Justice and Revenge

One of the most fascinating discussions to emerge from our collective Western inheritance concerns the definition of justice and the double-sided nature of justice or vengeance (personified memorably in pop culture through the literal “two-faced” character of Harvey Dent and his Janus-faced coin). Aristotle (384-322 BC) determined that “justice” had at least two different meanings: (more…)

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There is a fascination with seemingly random piles of bricks showing up at riots unlawful assemblies protests benefit balls in major cities across the United States. To the eagle-eyed observer, pallets of blunt objects appearing in the line of planned marches and gatherings is just a little too convenient — and concerning — to brush away as a coincidence. (more…)

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In tyrannies. . . to test the tyrant’s authority was to risk incarceration, torture, and death; in America’s democracy, by contrast, to contest the president’s authority was to win media attention, big book advances, posses of fellow-travelers, and lawyers such as Ken Starr crowding for business and prominence.

— Nigel Hamilton (more…)

Niccolò Machiavelli

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Recently the question of realpolitik in the White Nationalist movement came up, and it generated the best kind of debate: pointed and informed, yet civil. In my favorable review of the 2017 film Chappaquiddick, I decided to take a novel approach to the Chappaquiddick affair by suggesting that Ted Kennedy had done the right thing by not resigning afterward and that the people of Massachusetts had done the right thing by standing by him, despite their man’s transparent acts of cowardice and deception. In other words, can – or should – a person sacrifice his own soul for the betterment of a political movement? (more…)