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The secret depths of male wickedness are around us in every age. Robert Louis Stevenson warned against this in the book Treasure Island. It portrays an adolescent’s initiation into the depths of manly wickedness—and his boldness in fighting against it.
The sinister forces that generally flee the daylight penetrate the peaceable life of young Jim Hawkins. A succession of seafaring ruffians, each more rotten than the previous—Billy Bones, Black Dog, Blind Pew—arrive at his father’s inn, and bring with them terror and bloodshed, as they pursue the notorious pirate Captain Flint’s buried treasure.
Pelf, loot, plunder: That is what pirates live and die for. But this fascination with riches infects the good men whom Jim knows, and with Flint’s treasure map in their possession a select group of them heads out to sea in quest of a fortune.
Algis Valiunas
"If I were fierce, and bald, and short of breath
I’d live with scarlet Majors at the Base,
And speed glum heroes up the line to death.
You’d see me with my puffy petulant face,
Guzzling and gulping in the best hotel,
Reading the Roll of Honour. “Poor young chap,”
I’d say — “I used to know his father well;
Yes, we’ve lost heavily in this last scrap.”
And when the war is done and youth stone dead,
I’d toddle safely home and die — in bed."
“Base Details” by the British World War I poet Siegfried Sassoon
People in every single one of the top US allies now think it’s better to depend on China than the US.
The global balance of power is clearly tilting away from the US and toward China.
Yes. According to The Guardian, Britain’s national security adviser Jonathan Powell attended the final US-Iran talks in Geneva and believed Tehran’s nuclear proposal was significant enough to keep diplomacy on track and avoid escalation. Sources said progress had been made and that the Iranian offer was unexpectedly substantial.
The report also highlights concerns about the US negotiating team led by Jared Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff, both closely linked to Israel. One diplomat with knowledge of the talks told The Guardian: “We regarded Witkoff and Kushner as Israeli assets that dragged a president into a war he wants to get out of.”
