PART ONE Knowledge of secret magical techniques and the search for hidden wisdom were frequent concerns for the ancient heroes in the Norse pantheon of Gods. The “Seeress’s Prophecy,” also known as the “Prophecy of the Völva,” is one of the most famous epic poems from pre-Christian Norse mythology; part of an ancient text referred […]
PART TWO According to scholars, eight of the nine known worlds consist of: the gods, the Aesir and the Vanir (Asgarth); the Wanes (Vanaheim); the elves (Alfheim); men (Mithgarth); the giants (Jotunheim); fire (Muspellsheim); the dark elves (Svartalfaheim), and finally, the dead (Niflheim). Presumably a world of dwarfs exists, although the ninth world is uncertain […]
PART THREE All known versions of the Völuspá end with a final, cryptic phrase uttered by the völva: “Now I must descend.” By this the seeress indicates that she has finally said enough, and it is time to sink back into the underworld; back to the land of the dead. These final passages in particular […]
Secrecy is the most important component of any successful military campaign. It is a fundamental rule of combat: you don’t want the enemy to know your next move. The concept goes back to ancient times and the very beginnings of civilization. Nearly a thousand years ago, the brilliant military strategist and philosopher Sun Tzu encapsulated […]
There are many problems in the world today: rampant corruption, disease, inequality, hunger, poverty. But the worst by far is war. Warfare destroys the very foundations of what makes us a civil society. Indeed, war is the negation of civil society. War demolishes the things we build, it disrupts our lives; it destroys the environment. […]
I’ve always hated the term African-American, because I found it downright patronizing and vituperatively ‘Politically Correct.’ I am old enough to remember when that whole PC thing happened: during the odious Reagan era of the early 1980s. The ‘Reagan Revolution’ was a complete fraud; a Ponzi scheme of monumental proportions foisted upon an ignorant, gullible […]
The US Festival was a milestone in the history of rock music. It lasted for only two years – 1982 and 1983 – but the shows laid the groundwork for today’s enormous, week-long festivals: Lollapalooza, Glastonbury, Bonnaroo, Outside Lands, Coachella among them. The US Festival was three days – not of peace and music, but […]
The purpose of propaganda is to invoke an emotional response from the target audience: one which is not based on critical thinking. Terror bombing is so morally offensive to its victims that it has always been used as a propaganda tool by the government. The greatest success of the ‘myth of the Blitz’ was the […]
The critical timeframe between the bombing of Hiroshima and the surrender of Japan has been largely ignored by historians. Sadao Asada’s essay, The Shock of the Atomic Bomb and Japan’s Decision to Surrender – A Reconsideration is a well-reasoned, critical exploration of the true factors which led to Japan’s surrender to the allies in August, […]
The Comstock Law, passed in the United States in 1873, was part of an ongoing – to this day! – campaign to legislate public morality in the United States. The Comstock Law was initially meant to stop the trade in “obscene literature” and “immoral articles,” particularly through the mail. It was named after Anthony Comstock, […]
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