I cherish the late Jerry Pournelle's quotation from Machiavelli:
"Among other evils, to be unarmed is to be despised."
This resonates with the ongoing attempts by governments to disarm the citizenry, another appreciation of our worth. But do we see the criminal gang warfare homicides as heroic acts?
The levelling towards mediocrity with government-imposed Prussian system education does have a small exception however. I see the International Baccalaureate programmes as a globalist training system for selecting useful recruits, just as minor league sports feed the premier leagues.
As a historian, I love this quote "History and its stories are incredible teachers - and if you decide to be a receptive pupil, there is much to learn." 🥰
Oct 22·edited Oct 22Liked by Aleksandar Svetski, John Carter
You cannot learn from the lessons of history bc they do not repeat themselves, they only rhyme. We have not progressed as a society or a species in the last ten thousand years. People are not happier now than they were ten years ago or a hundred years ago or a thousand years ago or all through history or prehistory besides.
I didn't read past the video. You asked us to watch thar first. So I did. Now I want to read the book without pre reading a portion before it's release. Where can I pre-order it? You had me at "Honour".
Discussion here has been interesting enough that I will buy book when available. I am much more interested in bushido than bitcoin. Hopefully John Carter will give you a follow-up post with reviews.
I've been enjoying Plutarch's "Lives" for months now. The number of battles fought by all the great men he documents is astounding. The stories are compelling, full of virtue and vice and twists of fate, with many valuable lessons for those who want to go into politics or to predict the course of history.
One thing I don't quite understand is how so many of the ancient Greeks survived serious battle wounds over and over. One would think infection would do them in, but it doesn't seem to have usually happened that way. Plutarch mentions that honey was used to treat wounds. Maybe the ancient Greeks had effective medical treatments that we have lost.
The Lives are really fantastic. Took me months to get through them too … crazy how long it is.
Honey has antibiotic properties; presumably they had other herbs that could be added to poultices. Also possible they were also just healthier and stronger, with tougher immune systems better able to resist infection.
Re-reading the comment section of this Stack (and several others) is always a treat - like a sturdy and filling dessert after an already fully sufficient supper.
As John notes, honey is antibiotic (or is it aseptic?) and has been a part of folk-medicine since forever, before written records most probably. It covers the wound and protects it from infectious particles and such, while being free of same. Also, I do believe that most pre-Christian cultures practiced "sanctifying" the implements used in dressing and closing wound: dipping the implements into boiling water while a prayer was chanted and herbs were added.
[With Christianity and its totalitarian power-structure and Truth Ex Cathedra rather than through empirical observation, many good practices our ancestors knew worked (even if they didn't know exactly why or how) were erased. Just look at how long the rigid adherence to Galen held back medical science;instead of building on what Galen discovered through empiricism, his works came to be intertwined with religious dogma and thus could not be challenged or tested.]
Also consider that the men of the warriors-castes or classes were the most well-nourished of their time, used to physical labours outdoors, and being the ones who had survived childhood infectious diseases without being marred by those.
I think Herodotos noted that a lot of the Persian line infantry was made up out of press-ganged poor and beggars from the metropolises of the empire, giving shields of woven grass and a spears with wooden tips, and hurled forwards towards the Greeks at Thermopylae to wear them down before sending in the real soldiery.
Such things also contributes to survival rates: a landowning freeman Greek of a city-state with a family behind him who can feed and care for him as he recuperates vs a beggar from some distant province, treated as little more than an annoyance and tossed aside the second he's a burden.
Honey has been part of my family's medical lore for ages. My grandmother loved to tell about how doctors used to poopoo her when she said it had antibacterial qualities … until doctors finally got around to studying and, and found that, indeed, it did.
The first time she told me the story, I'd banged up my knee, scraping it on a piece of jagged metal when I was at summer camp; being a 14-year-old boy, I ignored it, and it got infected. She sat me down with a bowl of boiling water and made be clean it myself - she explained it would hurt less if I did it - and then told me the story, chuckling to herself about how silly doctors are, as she applied the honey poultice.
Yep. Honey is pure magic. My grandma was the same. When I had acne in my early teens, she treated it with honey and it ended up being the only thing that worked.
I'm also pretty sure that the Ancient Macedonians would basically fill themselves on honey and wine before battle, so they were both a little drunk and buzzing on energy.
I actually just bought a book of Galen passages called "How to be healthy" but was horrified to find that the woman who did the translation deliberately excluded all passages that a modern Western physician would disagree with. Those are exactly the parts I wanted to read!
Unfortunately I bought it from a bookstore which is an hour away, making it difficult to return.
I can very much relate to the feeling of being born in the wrong era (part of me always longs for the grid to go down) and I have also been re-examining my notions of cumulative and linear 'progress.' There's obviously a much bigger range of human activities available to us now but we would seem shockingly feeble and neurotic to our forebears. I'm grateful for order and technology and such, but not completely...
We can't let courage die, no matter what. That's what I believe.
Thankyou again for everything JC. It's been a journey.
🤝
He writes very well. It is my favourite style; Short declarative sentences. He says it directly; Irony free. I am so sick of irony.
Aleksandar is nothing if not direct.
💥
Thankyou sir
And what there is to conquer
By strength and submission, has already been discovered
Once or twice, or several times, by men whom one cannot hope
To emulate—but there is no competition—
There is only the fight to recover what has been lost
And found and lost again and again: and now, under conditions
That seem unpropitious.
But perhaps neither gain nor loss.
For us, there is only the trying.
The rest is not our business.
—T.S. Eliot, “East Coker” (V), Four Quartets
————
Excellent series of essays—thank you. Godspeed, and continued success to you both in your important endeavors.
Douglas Dye
co-founder | ceo
manalive media group
manalivemediagroup.com
Thank you both for the taste test!! Literally can not wait to read this book in all its glory
🙏🏼🙏🏼😉
Liking this - a lot. Will order the book, I only hope I can apply some of it to my admittedly old and feminine non-warrior life...
Haha. Thankyou Jo!
The video is great.
Thankyou sir !
There are a few of them, and they’re all amazing.
Herr Carter
Great book
I appreciate your advice and got the Kindle edition
Reading the thoughtful journey A. Svetski has put to paper to share.
Wow!
Brightens my day
My eschaton is more hopeful and his missives make more sense of our current generational changes (a natural progression through life)
Tusen Takk Igen
Jon
Thankyou Jonboy!
Really glad you're enjoying it!
I cherish the late Jerry Pournelle's quotation from Machiavelli:
"Among other evils, to be unarmed is to be despised."
This resonates with the ongoing attempts by governments to disarm the citizenry, another appreciation of our worth. But do we see the criminal gang warfare homicides as heroic acts?
The levelling towards mediocrity with government-imposed Prussian system education does have a small exception however. I see the International Baccalaureate programmes as a globalist training system for selecting useful recruits, just as minor league sports feed the premier leagues.
As a historian, I love this quote "History and its stories are incredible teachers - and if you decide to be a receptive pupil, there is much to learn." 🥰
🙏🏼🙏🏼
You cannot learn from the lessons of history bc they do not repeat themselves, they only rhyme. We have not progressed as a society or a species in the last ten thousand years. People are not happier now than they were ten years ago or a hundred years ago or a thousand years ago or all through history or prehistory besides.
I didn't read past the video. You asked us to watch thar first. So I did. Now I want to read the book without pre reading a portion before it's release. Where can I pre-order it? You had me at "Honour".
Otherwise it will be on Amazon in about 3wks
Thankyou Jorn 🤝
There is two options for pre-order. You can find both here: bushidoOfBitcoin.com
Yeah, I'll have to read that newly edited version because I already read the first release a while back.
Great work and congratulations.
Oof. The new version is almost a new book. Can’t wait to get it in yours and everyone’s hands!
Discussion here has been interesting enough that I will buy book when available. I am much more interested in bushido than bitcoin. Hopefully John Carter will give you a follow-up post with reviews.
Thank you Richard!
Stay tuned.
I've been enjoying Plutarch's "Lives" for months now. The number of battles fought by all the great men he documents is astounding. The stories are compelling, full of virtue and vice and twists of fate, with many valuable lessons for those who want to go into politics or to predict the course of history.
One thing I don't quite understand is how so many of the ancient Greeks survived serious battle wounds over and over. One would think infection would do them in, but it doesn't seem to have usually happened that way. Plutarch mentions that honey was used to treat wounds. Maybe the ancient Greeks had effective medical treatments that we have lost.
The Lives are really fantastic. Took me months to get through them too … crazy how long it is.
Honey has antibiotic properties; presumably they had other herbs that could be added to poultices. Also possible they were also just healthier and stronger, with tougher immune systems better able to resist infection.
George Washington's favorite Roman philosopher was Seneca. Imaging having a President who has a favorite Roman philosopher.
Seneca's letters were great.
Re-reading the comment section of this Stack (and several others) is always a treat - like a sturdy and filling dessert after an already fully sufficient supper.
As John notes, honey is antibiotic (or is it aseptic?) and has been a part of folk-medicine since forever, before written records most probably. It covers the wound and protects it from infectious particles and such, while being free of same. Also, I do believe that most pre-Christian cultures practiced "sanctifying" the implements used in dressing and closing wound: dipping the implements into boiling water while a prayer was chanted and herbs were added.
[With Christianity and its totalitarian power-structure and Truth Ex Cathedra rather than through empirical observation, many good practices our ancestors knew worked (even if they didn't know exactly why or how) were erased. Just look at how long the rigid adherence to Galen held back medical science;instead of building on what Galen discovered through empiricism, his works came to be intertwined with religious dogma and thus could not be challenged or tested.]
Also consider that the men of the warriors-castes or classes were the most well-nourished of their time, used to physical labours outdoors, and being the ones who had survived childhood infectious diseases without being marred by those.
I think Herodotos noted that a lot of the Persian line infantry was made up out of press-ganged poor and beggars from the metropolises of the empire, giving shields of woven grass and a spears with wooden tips, and hurled forwards towards the Greeks at Thermopylae to wear them down before sending in the real soldiery.
Such things also contributes to survival rates: a landowning freeman Greek of a city-state with a family behind him who can feed and care for him as he recuperates vs a beggar from some distant province, treated as little more than an annoyance and tossed aside the second he's a burden.
Honey has been part of my family's medical lore for ages. My grandmother loved to tell about how doctors used to poopoo her when she said it had antibacterial qualities … until doctors finally got around to studying and, and found that, indeed, it did.
The first time she told me the story, I'd banged up my knee, scraping it on a piece of jagged metal when I was at summer camp; being a 14-year-old boy, I ignored it, and it got infected. She sat me down with a bowl of boiling water and made be clean it myself - she explained it would hurt less if I did it - and then told me the story, chuckling to herself about how silly doctors are, as she applied the honey poultice.
My knee healed up just fine.
Yep. Honey is pure magic. My grandma was the same. When I had acne in my early teens, she treated it with honey and it ended up being the only thing that worked.
I'm also pretty sure that the Ancient Macedonians would basically fill themselves on honey and wine before battle, so they were both a little drunk and buzzing on energy.
Honey wine as battle elixer makes a lot of sense.
Thank you both for the taste test!!! Literally can not wait to read it in all its glory.
I actually just bought a book of Galen passages called "How to be healthy" but was horrified to find that the woman who did the translation deliberately excluded all passages that a modern Western physician would disagree with. Those are exactly the parts I wanted to read!
Unfortunately I bought it from a bookstore which is an hour away, making it difficult to return.
That's outrageous.
I can very much relate to the feeling of being born in the wrong era (part of me always longs for the grid to go down) and I have also been re-examining my notions of cumulative and linear 'progress.' There's obviously a much bigger range of human activities available to us now but we would seem shockingly feeble and neurotic to our forebears. I'm grateful for order and technology and such, but not completely...
We can't let courage die, no matter what. That's what I believe.
https://jmpolemic.substack.com/p/the-joys-of-a-working-society
Beautifully put
Thought provoking and uplifting. An excellent essay that puts everything in a new light I hadn't considered before.
Thankyou Annette!