Cycles of Change

The protest line forms outside city hall. Grey hair dominates the crowd. Signs demand immediate action on issues that have existed for decades. The participants have time, resources, and conviction. They also have something less visible. They carry a track record of absence during the years when [...]

John L. Balderston understood the mechanics of fear. The Philadelphia journalist-turned-playwright had previously shaped the nightmares of a generation, scripting the creeping aristocratic dread of Dracula (1931) and the ancient curses of The Mummy (1932). Horror, in the estimation of Balderston, [...]

The palaces of Mycenaean Greece burned for days in 1200 BC. For four centuries afterward, the Greek world descended into a dark age so profound that the art of writing itself was lost. The sophisticated bureaucracy of the warrior-kings crumbled into memory. Villages forgot how to build with stone. [...]

The storm did not care about the reputation of the navigator. It did not care about the leather-bound book on the table or the traditions of the British Royal Navy. On the dark ocean, the only thing that mattered was the truth. Nathaniel Bowditch (1773-1838) stood on the heaving deck of a merchant [...]

In August 1959, a sealed envelope sat on the desk of Pope John XXIII at the papal summer residence of Castel Gandolfo. The world waited for its contents. The writer, Sister Lucia dos Santos, the last surviving seer of Fatima, had explicitly stated that the message inside could be opened in 1960, [...]

The intensity of modern political conflict feels different from ordinary disagreement. Neighbors who once discussed policy now avoid each other entirely. Family dinners end in silence or shouting. Online spaces become tribal battlegrounds where nuance disappears and every issue becomes existential. [...]

We are watching the end of a long cycle. For decades, we lived in a world where trust was abstract. We trusted banks because of their marble lobbies. We trusted universities because of their ivy walls. We trusted currency because of the government seal on the paper. This was a time of high social [...]

In an era of fragmented media and polarized discourse, the preservation of authentic human connection has become a distinct discipline. This practice is often embodied in the concept of the "BridgeKeeper," a term popularized by National Geographic writer Harvey Arden to describe those who dedicate [...]

The 2024 presidential election cycle witnessed two assassination attempts against a major party candidate within two months of the election. This historical fact raises questions about the relationship between political rhetoric and violence. The concept of stochastic terrorism provides a framework [...]

Significant transformations in the global financial landscape have altered the methods by which people preserve their earnings. For thousands of years, precious metals such as gold and silver served as the primary measures of stored value. These assets provided a tangible link between physical [...]

The concept of human rights represents the historical unfolding of a specific philosophical and legal consensus regarding the inherent value of the individual. This progression is not linear or inevitable, but reflects a series of cognitive and social revolutions that expanded the definition of who [...]

The stability of a pluralistic society depends upon the maintenance of a "sacred canopy," which is a shared system of meaning that provides a sense of cosmic order and social security. A primary threat to this canopy is the institutional encouragement of religious mockery. This converts satire from [...]