Sublime

If social scientists today continue to reduce past generations to simplistic, two-dimensional caricatures, it is not so much to show us anything original, but just because they feel that’s what social scientists are expected to do so as to appear ‘scientific’. The actual result is to impoverish history – and as a consequence, to impoverish our sens

A formal note of apology and explanation was sent to King Abdullah. Indeed, the Deir Yassin massacre certainly contributed to the controversial decision by David Ben-Gurion—Israel’s first prime minister—to disarm, by force, these paramilitary groups in June 1948. But the effect of Deir Yassin, and the publicity surrounding it, was clearly to provok

Only second to the futility of pursuing ends reckless of the means is that of attempting progress by compulsion. History shows how often it leads to reaction. It also shows that the surer way is to generate and diffuse the idea of progress—providing a light to guide men, not a whip to drive them. Influence on thought has been the most influential f

Walter Lippmann, for example, wrote in 1920: “There can be no liberty for a community which lacks the means by which to detect lies.”

The flu felled 43,000 American military personnel. In retrospect, the flu was the greatest factor in the war and hastened its end. In fact, it killed more people than the war itself, as many as 40 million. Epidemiologists have speculated on the origins of the outbreak with no success.

“In every civil war,” says a Greek historian, “the great object is to change fortunes.”579 Every demagogue acted like that Molpagoras of Cios,580 who delivered to the multitude those who possessed money, massacred some, exiled others, and distributed their property among the poor.

Nassim Taleb writes in his book Fooled By Randomness: In Pharaonic Egypt … scribes tracked the high-water mark of the Nile and used it as an estimate for a future worst-case scenario. The same can be seen in the Fukushima nuclear reactor, which experienced a catastrophic failure in 2011 when a tsunami struck. It had been built to withstand the wors

Like the English under Victoria, we were trying to fool ourselves with the notion that weapons are the real source of strength. In the 1800s, the British lost their preeminence. They did it by forgetting what counts the most in the pecking order of nations. To stay in place, you have to run. To get anywhere, you have to run even harder!