Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Politics

  • The Post-Modern Protocols of War: Victor Davis Hanson on the Gaza Rules

    Required reading from the pen of Victor Davis Hanson.  Since I cannot do better than him, I will simply provide excerpts of five key points he makes.  Be sure and read the whole piece.  Here are Hanson's Gaza rules in his words but with material omitted: First is the now-familiar Middle East doctrine of proportionality. Legitimate…

  • Hezbollah Disproportionality

    I wrote the following in the summer of 2006 in response to the Left's asinine and morally obtuse bandying-about of such phrases as 'disproportionality' and 'asymmetry of power,' but it is relevant to current events.  Substitute 'Hamas' for 'Hezbollah' and make minor factual adjustments as necessary. Of course, I don't mean to suggest that Hezbollah plays…

  • Why Not Stick to Pure Philosophy?

    I ask myself this question. Why not stick to one's stoa and cultivate one's specialist garden in peace and quiet, neither involving oneself in, nor forming opinions about, the wider world of politics and strife? Why risk one's ataraxia in the noxious arena of contention? Why not remain within the serene precincts of theoria? For…

  • Weakness Does Not Justify

    Might does not make right, but neither does impotence or relative weakness. That weakness does not justify strikes me as an important principle, but I have never seen it articulated. The power I have to kill you does not morally justify my killing you. In a slogan: Ability does not imply permissibility.  My ability to kill, rape,…

  • Russian Predicts USA Will Disintegrate in 2010

    Haven't had enough doom and gloom yet?  Then try this WSJ piece on for size. The shape of things to come:

  • Morality Private and Public: On Not Confusing Them

    Socrates and Jesus are undoubtedly two of the greatest teachers of humanity. Socrates famously maintained that it is better to suffer injustice than to commit it, and Jesus, according to MT 5:39, enjoins us to "Resist not the evildoer" and "Turn the other cheek." No one with any spiritual sensitivity can fail to be deeply…