Is Eurasia rising after the fall of Kabul? The latest episode of The Burning Archive Podcast is out and available on all the usual platforms, including Apple and Spotify. America's capitulation in Afghanistan has provoked an humanitarian disaster, an imperial crisis, and a change in the balance of power between great states in Eurasia. The crisis is still unfolding but … Continue reading Podcast #16 – Imperial Crisis in Afghanistan and the World Island, Part II
Dr Cogito endures Melbourne’s fifth … and sixth and seventh… lockdown
I am reposting this post from maybe May or June. In Melbourne now all the weeks bleed into one. Do not forget us, world - we were a people with soul once, and a few of us can still find the courage to resist. **** Dr Cogito, a persona I know who inhabits the ghost … Continue reading Dr Cogito endures Melbourne’s fifth … and sixth and seventh… lockdown
Report from a besieged city (Melbourne)
And again, now in September, I repost this act of refusal to submit to despair. ***** Alas three months later, another report from the besieged city of Melbourne - locked down, its people "fleeing the Qin." **** Today 12 February, Melbourne and all the citizens of Victoria have been thrown, with eleven hours notice, again … Continue reading Report from a besieged city (Melbourne)
The Looming War of the American Succession
In 1700 Charles II, King of Spain and Emperor presiding over a vast global empire, died without a child and without a clear successor. His death triggered a great war over geostrategic control of the possessions of the declining Spanish Empire by rival dynasties and rival great states. France and Spain were diminished, and the … Continue reading The Looming War of the American Succession
Podcast #15 – Imperial Crisis in Afghanistan and the World Island
The latest episode of The Burning Archive Podcast is out and available on all the usual platforms, including Apple and Spotify. America's capitulation in Afghanistan has provoked an humanitarian disaster, an imperial crisis, and a change in the balance of power between great states in Eurasia. The crisis threatens not only American prestige in the world but some of the … Continue reading Podcast #15 – Imperial Crisis in Afghanistan and the World Island
Podcast #14 – Afghanistan and the end of America’s 43 Year War
I have released a special episode of The Burning Archive podcast on the situation in Afghanistan. It is available on all the usual platforms, including Apple and Spotify. In this special episode, The Burning Archive makes some fast history, and reflects on the meaning of the capitulation of the American Empire in Afghanistan. There are eight quick takes … Continue reading Podcast #14 – Afghanistan and the end of America’s 43 Year War
Podcast #13 – Change everything but change itself
The latest episode of The Burning Archive Podcast is https://anchor.fm/jeff-rich4/embed/episodes/13-Change-everything-but-change-itself-e15tipu and available on all the usual platforms, including Apple and Spotify. In this episode of the Burning Archive, Jeff Rich completes his 12 part thematic history of our times. Historian Felipe Fernandez-Armesto writes about the impact of accelerating change on society over the last 50 years: “Under the … Continue reading Podcast #13 – Change everything but change itself
The World Island vs The Atlantic
This year, 2021, may be remembered as a pivot year in world history. Not because of the pandemic. Not only because of the protracted crisis of the American republic. But because of the changed balance of power in international relations brought about by the decrepitude of the American Atlanticist Alliance and the strengthening of the … Continue reading The World Island vs The Atlantic
The fall of the American Empire’s Potemkin Province
Thus , in a few blitzkrieg weeks, after the Americans declared they would "draw down their civilian footprint" to meet a publicity deadline of the 20th anniversary of 9/11, the Taliban have exposed American power and control in Afghanistan as a projection of illusion, a Potemkin Province of an anxious empire in decline.
Cease the endless war against the virus
Generals, Winston Churchill said, are always prepared to fight the last war. Their early experiences of combat, their intellectual training, the received wisdom interpreting the most recent conflicts - all shape how they read the battlefield. These decisions and the interests of the institutions, which were built during the last war - the war machine, … Continue reading Cease the endless war against the virus
Podcast #12 – Towards the Society of Islands
The latest episode of The Burning Archive Podcast is out and available on all the usual platforms, including Apple and Spotify. In this episode of The Burning Archive, I continue my history of our times, and the theme of increasing social fragmentation. If there is more distance between the elites and ordinary people - the 1 % vs the 99 … Continue reading Podcast #12 – Towards the Society of Islands
Podcast #11 – Social progress and social fragmentation
The latest episode of The Burning Archive Podcast is out and available on all the usual platforms, including Apple and Spotify. In this episode of The Burning Archive, Jeff Rich explores the fourth large theme of the history of our times, that is social fragmentation. Life is better in so many dramatic ways. We are richer, older, healthier, and better … Continue reading Podcast #11 – Social progress and social fragmentation
