Yesterday I came across a video from the Menger Institute, Matthew James Geiger interviewing Scott Horton, author of Provoked and several other books on the wars we keep starting. From my perspective it was not much of an interview. Geiger low-balled Horton, who was angry enough to rant about the st…
Blog posts : "In English"
It's the economy stupid!
Famously Bill Clinton kept returning to the state of the economy during his campaign for the presidency, challenging the incumbent George H. W. Bush. This was not about the economy from any scientific point of view. That was the subject of the article I published two days ago. It was about perceived…
Failing to read the room
Zelensky and his fans blew up over Trump’s announcement that he had concluded a deal with Russia on diesel for the United States, and by extension for the world. Confronted with the dismay, the administration shrugged. A US official said Zelensky was misreading the room. [1] Trump was under no contr…
Watch your six
What on earth happened to good old capitalism? As a blogger I try to be an inspiration, not a guide. I assume I am dealing with responsible adults. That may be false. I am not blind to the disastrous decisions and policies in the world we live in. From my perspective they are my bread and butter as …
Don't let schooling get in the way of your education
Our formal education is a cramped box we share with most of the people around us. Thinking outside it may pay. It may also add to the confusion. And if the thinking has left the real world, you are only of use to people who want to sound mystical. I borrowed the title from a line usually given to Ma…
What are you even talking about?
In my previous article I argued that the Ukrainian Revolution of Dignity, which ended the rule of the democratically elected president, was a coup, and not a revolution. I also said it was far from dignified to have supported it. This article is why.
Outside forces, from NATO countries, openly inte…
Doing the Lord's work
In this article I’ll explain why I insist that the Revolution of Dignity, the Maidan movement which overthrew the elected government, was a coup. First I need to make it clear that I am not a religious person. I do visit churches, mosques, shuls and temples, admiring the buildings and the artwork, t…
The art doesn't have to match the sofa
In my previous article I described how people with high hopes for a better world were caught by the people who control the money, the credit, and folded into NGOs and matching government structures to do war the fun way, as I put it. I said this has nothing to do with “soft power.” It is beyond hard…
With friends like that, you don't need enemies
As Sigmund Freud set out to unearth the functioning of the mind, he could not have imagined the consequences. That is not me saying he should not have done it, or that he should have been more careful. This article is about the abuse that grew out of it. The man inspired discoveries that have done a…
Make up your mind
According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, CIA director John Ratcliffe went to Moscow in late August to tell the Russians that their economy was set to collapse, as the Soviet economy had, and that the United States would be glad to accelerate the process if Putin did not come around to a deal…
Not a conspiracy
It began with a non-profit. The Club of Rome, these days working out of Winterthur. A British adviser to the government, Alexander King, Director-General for Scientific Affairs at the OECD, noticed a 1965 speech by the Italian industrialist Aurelio Peccei. Together they worked toward a path, and in …
What are you expecting me to do?
Human beings are fairly unique. Our genetic make-up and evolution — or divine intervention, if you prefer — gave us the capabilities that led to this. “This” is what it is. “That” is where we might go next. Or not. Missing from my analysis of peace and war is the “how.” At least, if you expect me to…
No, you don't know
Modern wars are extremely complicated affairs. Not because of the technology, but because of the people behind it at every level. In operational circles it is treated as a fact that the best-laid battle plans are useless the moment the shooting starts — at least if you are fighting a peer. Even agai…
It is a matter of efficiency
Over the past two weeks I have written several articles about peace, stating that it is a precondition for prosperity. It is only thus if we are talking about prosperity for all, obviously. In The Wealth of Nations — a well-chosen title — Adam Smith pointed out how free markets cut costs, got rid of…
Divided we fall
As announced in previous articles, I was at the peace rally in Amsterdam yesterday. It had been organised and underwritten by a host of (far) left groups and parties.[1] Not all that many people turned out, compared with the peace manifestations I remember from the previous century. I blended in, ta…
The meaning of meaningless
In 1911 the Dutch businessman J.H.F. Grönloh, writing under the alias Nescio, published a story titled De Uitvreter (the sponger, the man who lives off others). It is regarded as Dutch literature. It is about a man who never paid a dime for anything and never had the urge to work, despite having no …
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
We are all marked by the path we took. The choices we made came naturally, or they were forced upon us. Libraries are full of biographies and autobiographies of exceptional people. YouTube is filled with self-help videos meant to take people by the hand towards a goal they desperately want, without …
Do you want war?
In Germany, hospitals have been told to prepare for a wartime surge: planning scenarios speak of up to a thousand fresh casualties a day, to be absorbed not only by the handful of Bundeswehr hospitals but by the civilian system as well. In the Netherlands, which had to lean on German capacity during…
Discussing matters with Grok 12
War or Peace
Closing essay in the series
This will be my last article in this series, but not my last discussion with Grok. I am going on a short trip. When I am back I will keep posting — on war and peace, and on other urgent matters. To close this series I have no option but to add…
Discussing matters with Grok 11
In 1946 the German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller wrote the poem “First They Came.” It is both a confession and a condemnation of the intellectuals and the clergy for not standing up to the Nazis while the movement was still in its infancy. The incremental purging of society did not meet the princ…
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