Five Centuries of the Same War

Five Centuries of the Same War

Various, 1096 to presentI want to list some of what I have witnessed, briefly, because the list is the argument.I was not present for the First Crusade but I have spoken with scholars who documented it. I was present for the later ones, at various distances. I watched...
The Double Edge

The Double Edge

Present Day, May 2026Every technology I have watched arrive has been a double edge, and it has taken me some time to arrive at a settled view about what this means and what the appropriate response to it is.The printing press. The steam engine. The telegraph. The...
The Geometry of Violence

The Geometry of Violence

Various, consolidatedI want to say something specific about war, because I have been in enough of them to have a basis for the observation that is not theoretical.The reasons given for wars change. The configuration of the wars does not change as much as the changing...
Berlin, 1927

Berlin, 1927

Berlin, 1927I was in Berlin in the late 1920s. I want to record what it felt like from the inside, because I think the texture of it is relevant to the present moment and I have not found a way to describe it precisely in any of the forms I have used for...
Blueprints of Eternity

Blueprints of Eternity

Various, consolidatedI have a specific memory that I return to when I want to understand what architectural certainty looks like from the inside. It is not from Florence. It is from Vienna, in the 1850s, watching the planners of the Ringstrasse explain to each other...