Generational Warfare

 City Journal: Joel Kotkin calls for a truce.

Great film: "Because we're here, lad. Nobody else."

 

Veterans Day

There have been, of course, many excellent books written about the military. The usual reading lists include ones as diverse as Once an Eagle by Anton Myrer and Catch-22 by Joseph Heller.

Two which deserve more attention are: 

Stationed Safe Out Here by George MacDonald Fraser. Fraser is known for his Flashman novels, but this book is nonfiction; a memoir of his service with the British forces in Burma during World War II. It's excellent.

Balcony in the Forest by Julien Gracq. A short but memorable novel about a young French lieutenant who is in command of an anti-tank blockhouse in the Ardennes forest in World War II. It was believed that the Ardennes area was impregnable to German attack, but one day a French armor officer arrives and explains to the lieutenant just what will happen if the Germans show up. 

Modern Medicine

 

You Watch but Do You Listen?

 

I have posted a Substack quiz on lines from the movies. How many can you identify?

[Photo by Simon Ray at Unsplash.]

A New Collaboration

Michel Houellebecq, author of Submission and other notable works, is under investigation for remarks about Muslims.

We may be seeing a new version of the Vichy government in France.

Page Three

 

Two Blogs About Life

 I recall the days when Nicholas Bate was darting off from Oxford, teaching workshops in Asia one week and in Europe another. During that time, he was producing a flow of highly practical books on business. 

It was exciting when he expanded to writing novels.

More and more, his blog is about a life well lived.

Kurt Harden has revealed similar interests and truths. While Nicholas is a go-to authority on The Beatles, Kurt's musical interests are harder to pinpoint since they are so diverse.

Each is extraordinary. Both are wise and well-grounded. They give valuable perspectives on life.

Always worth a visit.

First Paragraph

 We need to talk about white identity. Not as a fabrication designed to maintain power, but as a set of myths and symbols to which people are attached: an ethnic identity like any other. The big question of our time is less 'What does it mean to be American' than 'What does it mean to be white American' in an age of ethnic change. The progressive storyline for white majorities is a morality tale celebrating their demise, and, as I hope to show, much of today's populist reaction stems directly or indirectly from this trope.

- From Whiteshift: Populism, Immigration, and the Future of White Majorities by Eric Kaufmann

Good Times Ahead