The following podcast is part 3 of a series on the author’s reactions to the Fall of Kabul. If you appreciate the content, consider sharing. Last night, I had the opportunity to speak with John McCarthy, a fellow infantry officer, about the events of the last week. https://open.spotify.com/episode/3x5ttEiwBIGpGrnLdkchKW?si=ho8VKeytTguCjgOwCDdAMQ&dl_branch=1
I'm always skeptical when someone tells me about themselves. It isn't that I think they're lying. It's that one's self-appraisal is more often than not a representation of how they want to see themselves as opposed to an honest assessment.
We are not animals. We are conscious, and we live through beauty, literature and art. We are inspired by concepts bigger than ourselves and we strive for ideals.
Quit taking daily gym selfies. Quit posting shameless topless photos of yourself in your bathroom. Quit helping the girl at the gym that obviously doesn't want or need your help. Quit leering at her too. Quit training like an insecure frat boy.
I get it. Sometimes you gotta make ends meet. Sometimes you have to do what has to be done to put the Taco Bell Doritos Locos Tacos on the table. But maybe, just maybe, you've woken up from what felt like a living nightmare with a cold sweat like blood and asked yourself "How did I get here?" Maybe you had a realization, that the life you were living was suffocating you.
No person believes that if they pray enough, God will stop bullets in the air. And no person believes that thoughts and prayers will bring their loved one back from the dead or prevent evil from rearing its ugly head.
The tale of Icarus and his wings of wax is one of the more famous classical myths. It tells of a talented Athenian craftsman named Daedalus who was trapped on the island of Crete with his son Icarus. Daedalus, you see, had built an unsolvable labyrinth to contain a beast called the Minotaur for the King of Crete near the King's palace in Knossos. When the King imprisoned the great hero Theseus in the Labyrinth to be killed by the Minotaur, Daedalus helped Theseus escape by giving him a special spool of string. For this, Daedalus and his son Icarus were themselves imprisoned within the Labyrinth.
Richard Spencer, the identitarian responsible for coining the term Alt-Right and often miscategorized as a Nazi, is not stupid. He is actually anything but. His writing and speeches lay out an intellectual, yet superficial and flawed case for his worldview that has pulled the wool over the eyes of many able-bodied young males, as evidenced by Charlottesville. He does not condone violence, but rather, wants to achieve his objectives through open discourse. Punching him in the face only makes him look more reasonable. It only lends support to the idea that he cannot be challenged intellectually, thus building his following. As much as people want to conflate their Antifa water balloon street brawl with the allies storming Normandy, it just isn't accurate.
The National Anthem is one of the only songs other than the Marine Corps Hymn that gives me the chills. The story it tells of Fort McHenry reflects the deepest good of the American people. It takes a special kind of person to live for something larger than themselves. To be willing to lay down … Continue reading The American Mythos
THYMOS 