A sliding mechanical door opens before me. The metal that constitutes the door would have me think it heavy, that its size and broadness would mean that it would yield slowly yet it was quick to snap open at my request. But I did not request it, I cannot recall it well enough exactly. Beyond…
Author: Cyrus O'neill
The King (2019) and me
There are many different ways one can interpret or analyze the new Netflix film “King” (2019) with its cornucopia of themes: coming of age, Kingship, duty, honor in combat, court intrigue. This cinematic representation of Shakespeare’s play “Henry V” up to and a bit after the Battle of Agincourt has many coursing streams. The one…
“State within a State”, Reflections on “The Politics of the Prussian Army 1640-1945”
My recent readings of the book, “The Politics of the Prussian Army 1640-1945” by Gordon A. Craig has led me to dwell on the topics of modernity, changes in authority, and the State, among other things. Here I will discuss some of the thoughts that occurred while reading and reflecting on Craig’s book. When Frederick…
Right Wing Foucault
“By this I mean a number of phenomena that seem to me to be quite significant, namely, the set of mechanisms through which the basic biological features of the human species became the object of a political strategy, of a general strategy of power, or, in other words, how, starting from the 18th century, modern…
Against Freedom
Freedom. Freedom is always discussed. Freedom from things. Freedom from oppression, freedom from tyrannical government. Freedom from an abusive spouse, negligent parents, jealous siblings. Freedom from things that bind and constrict one, physically, emotionally, intellectually, as if they were overgrown vines and they were trapped in their ivy. What about freedom To? Occasionally this expression…
Rhetorical Caesarism
“By the term “Caesarism” I mean that kind of government which, irrespective of any constitutional formulation that it may have, is in its inward self a return to thorough formlessness.” -Spengler, Decline of the West What we are experiencing is a sort of Rhetorical Caesarism, in the Spenglerian use of the term, on a civilizational…
The American Sun 