Richard - I meant to commend you for this quietly thoughtful post immediately after first reading it. You do what I thought I would try to do (not quite succeeding, in my case): speak quietly about things that matter to you in an environment characterized by ambitious noise and clamoring, and see what happens. Almost impossible to thread that needle, unless you don't care about gaining more readers (aka subscribers, presumably an imperfect metric for whatever we're seeking). But in this quiet essay on Montaigne and our final destination, you pull it off nicely. I've often wondered why these tired old tyrants feel such desperate need to cling to power, given their inevitable decline, a world changing beyond their abilities to understand the changes, and the obvious talent, energy and fresh thinking that younger people can bring to our new challenges and problems. I simply don't understand it. I'm not sure I quite buy the psychological explanations (broken psyches, horrible childhoods etc.), or any other (the will to power etc.) for that matter. In one of my earlier posts before the fateful election, I tried to give the same issue a go (https://alexisludwigunbreakingnews.substack.com/p/against-gerontocracy?r=1tusc0), but for the record, your post is better. With appreciation, Alexis
Alexis, Thanks very much for your generous note. And for sharing your fascinating post, particularly on Peter Singer's take. I agree that it is hard to understand on a purely human level why they are clinging to power. But it may have to do with fear of what comes next: the investigations and worse they could face when they no longer have the power of a state to defend them. What is Bashar al-Assad's life like these days? And maybe a lesser fear of how to fill their days....and of the mortality facing them. I think there's a separate, but also puzzling, question about fabulously wealthy people like Elon Musk. He's worth more than 300 billion but has negotiated a deal with Tesla that can pay him as much as a trillion dollars if he meets all the criteria. Why does he waste time trying to get more money when he could spend one million dollars a day for 40 years and only use up about $15 billion of his current fortune? Best, Rich
Baseball wrote a brilliant book, and this was an excellent summary. She refers to Montaigne as "the first blogger" because his writing was a dramatic departure from Thucydides, Herodotus, the Roman biographer, etc. Montaigne wrote as a human, a big distinction. And he recognized his inconsistencies (in other words, honesty.) I encourage people to read Bakewell's masterpiece. You get Montagne's biography, analysis of his essays, and a look at the post reformation citystate wars as a testament to the damage from religion
This was all new to me and just fascinating. Of course it was important to see what actually killed him in the end--- you made this so very readable!!!
Rich -- Our former colleague and the great food writer, Sylvia Carter, once brought me a piece of baked salmon from the Newsday test kitchen and said, "Here, Fred, you've expressed an interest in living forever." So far, so good. Pass the word to Montaigne.
Richard - I meant to commend you for this quietly thoughtful post immediately after first reading it. You do what I thought I would try to do (not quite succeeding, in my case): speak quietly about things that matter to you in an environment characterized by ambitious noise and clamoring, and see what happens. Almost impossible to thread that needle, unless you don't care about gaining more readers (aka subscribers, presumably an imperfect metric for whatever we're seeking). But in this quiet essay on Montaigne and our final destination, you pull it off nicely. I've often wondered why these tired old tyrants feel such desperate need to cling to power, given their inevitable decline, a world changing beyond their abilities to understand the changes, and the obvious talent, energy and fresh thinking that younger people can bring to our new challenges and problems. I simply don't understand it. I'm not sure I quite buy the psychological explanations (broken psyches, horrible childhoods etc.), or any other (the will to power etc.) for that matter. In one of my earlier posts before the fateful election, I tried to give the same issue a go (https://alexisludwigunbreakingnews.substack.com/p/against-gerontocracy?r=1tusc0), but for the record, your post is better. With appreciation, Alexis
Alexis, Thanks very much for your generous note. And for sharing your fascinating post, particularly on Peter Singer's take. I agree that it is hard to understand on a purely human level why they are clinging to power. But it may have to do with fear of what comes next: the investigations and worse they could face when they no longer have the power of a state to defend them. What is Bashar al-Assad's life like these days? And maybe a lesser fear of how to fill their days....and of the mortality facing them. I think there's a separate, but also puzzling, question about fabulously wealthy people like Elon Musk. He's worth more than 300 billion but has negotiated a deal with Tesla that can pay him as much as a trillion dollars if he meets all the criteria. Why does he waste time trying to get more money when he could spend one million dollars a day for 40 years and only use up about $15 billion of his current fortune? Best, Rich
Baseball wrote a brilliant book, and this was an excellent summary. She refers to Montaigne as "the first blogger" because his writing was a dramatic departure from Thucydides, Herodotus, the Roman biographer, etc. Montaigne wrote as a human, a big distinction. And he recognized his inconsistencies (in other words, honesty.) I encourage people to read Bakewell's masterpiece. You get Montagne's biography, analysis of his essays, and a look at the post reformation citystate wars as a testament to the damage from religion
Agree, Bakewell’s book is superb.
This was all new to me and just fascinating. Of course it was important to see what actually killed him in the end--- you made this so very readable!!!
Rich -- Our former colleague and the great food writer, Sylvia Carter, once brought me a piece of baked salmon from the Newsday test kitchen and said, "Here, Fred, you've expressed an interest in living forever." So far, so good. Pass the word to Montaigne.
Glad to hear it's working, Fred. I had a great aunt who tried to live forever by eating a can of salmon every day for lunch. Not sure it's worth it…