The Feast That Is Never Satisfied

The Feast That Is Never Satisfied

Florence, 1474, and presentRinaldo was not an evil man in any simple sense. He was a man who had learned, within the institution that raised him, that certain things were his by right of his position: the deference of everyone below him in the hierarchy, the right to...
Banks, Not Armies

Banks, Not Armies

Florence, 1490sThe thing about the Medici that is most relevant to the present moment is not the art patronage, which is what they are remembered for, but the banking. Lorenzo understood something that most political leaders of his era did not fully grasp: that...
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 Black Sun: What Authority Becomes

The Black Sun: What Authority Becomes

Various, consolidatedEvery century I have moved through has produced its particular version of the same configuration: a system of authority that begins with a claim to legitimacy, accumulates power on the basis of that claim, and eventually uses the accumulated power...