zenpundit.com

[ by Charles Cameron — ISIS advertizes! — and riding on Berger & Stern’s coattails at that — sad ]
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The artificial intelligence behind Amazon‘s selection of books he might be interested in surprised JM Berger — co-author with Jessica Stern of the excellent ISIS: The State of Terror — today, by recommending Be Happy Like ISIS: The secret to success that will change your world view (The Code Breakers Book 1) as something that might interest readers of his book.

Unbelievable. I checked my own Amazon account, and found this:

That’s from the “Sponsored Products Related To This Item” section of the Amazon page on JM’s book. Right at the bottom of that screenshot, I found this:

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See also:

Of Anwar al-Awlaki and Bold Christian Clothing

The intelligence of algorithms

On the foolishness of some current algorithms

As I said recently in Japanese joinery: DoubleQuoting with wooden blocks:

One of my own aims has been to generate — or begin the generation of — a similar anthology of “DoubleQuotes” (conceptual twinnings) illustrating the methods of associative connection available in the realms of language and the aural and visual arts.

So here’s another example, belonging in another category — a commercially-sponsored algorithm linking two books it “believes” might of of interest to a common audience. One is a rigorous examination of ISIS history, use of online propaganda, and apocalyptic rhetoric. The other is an example of that propaganda, skilfully contrived with keywords like “happy”, “secret to success” — and even “code-breakers” — in its title, to propagate itself on Amazon despite its pro-terror slant. Puerile.

Feh!

[ by Charles Cameron — ISIS and Dabiq, with Stephen O’Leary on the Millerites in parallel ]
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I have a longish post in the works about the battle for Dabiq which will soon be upon us, in which I’ll give some preliminary indications about the ways in which groups spin things when prophecies on which they’ve depended don’t occur as prophesied and planned. It’s a wonderfully complex business, and one with direct bearing on the current situation.

Meanwhile, Colw Bunzel fills us in on the ISIS strategy this time around, in a tweet today which I’m posting while still working on my longer ZP piece:

Islamic State assures readers in al-Naba' that current struggle for Dabiq is not prophesied "greater battle of Dabiq." That will come later pic.twitter.com/eR0GCXzkTV

— Cole Bunzel (@colebunzel) October 14, 2016

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Postponement.

This is reminiscent of the Millerites, whose prophet William Miller predicted , “I am fully convinced that sometime between March 21st, 1843, and March 21st, 1844, according to the Jewish mode of computation of time, Christ will come.” Stephen O’Leary, in his magisterial Arguing the Apocalypse: A Theory of Millennial Rhetoric, comments:

When the End failed to materialize by March 22, the movement’s first crisis of confidence occurred. Various attempts to recalculate the chronology were made. The puzzling failure of the Lord to return was interpreted as the “tarrying time” of the biblical parable of the wise and foolish virgins (Mt. 25:1—12), a key text for the Millerites. Attempts were also made to justify the failure of prophecy on the grounds that the Lord was testing the believers’ faith.

O’Leary’s chapters 4, Millerism as a Rhetorical Movement, and 5, Millerite Argumentation, are definitive, and Festinger‘s When Prophecy Fails is the classic psychological exploration of prophetic failures, and subsequent work by scholars of apocalyptic and new religious movements have refined and expanded our understanding of such processes. But more of all that in my pending post here, My latest for Lapido: on the fall of Dabiq & failure of prophecy.

[ by Charles Cameron — delighted at his Nobel — with a quick note on antinomianism ]
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So Bob Dylan has at last won the Nobel Prize, which has been — forgive me — a slow train coming.

David Remnick of the New Yorker suggests we “Celebrate Bob Dylan’s Nobel Prize in Literature the obvious way: by listening” — and among his suggested selections I found this apocalyptic jewel:

It contains quite a bit of low-key Daniel and Revelation. Dylan recalls being booed for suggesting that Russia would intervene in the Middle East just a few months before Russia invaded Afghanistan.

I read the Bible a lot, you know, it just happens I do, and .. so it says certain things in the Bible that I wasn’t really aware of until just recently.. anyway, in the Bible it tells you specific things. In the books iof Daniel and in the Book of Revelation which just might apply to these times here, and is says there are certain wars that are soon, about to happen, I can’t say exactly when, you know, but.. pretty soon anyway..

He goes on to mention two countries, which he identifies as Russia and China, and with regard to Russia, says:

So anyway, I was telling this story to these people. I shouldn’t have been telling it to them, I just got carried away. I mentioned to them “well you know, watch now, because Russia is going to come down and attack the Middle East. It says this in the Bible. .. These things in the Bible, they seem to uplift me and tell me the truth. I said “Russia’s gpoing to attack the Middle East” and they just booed. They couldn’t hear that, they didn’t believe it. And a month later, Russia moved their troops into Afghanistan it was, and that whole situation changed, you know. And I’m not saying this to tell you they were wrong and I was right or anything like that, but these things that it mentions in the Bible I pay mighty close attention to.

This is pretty much straightforward from a Hal Lindsey era Dispensationalist point of view, though the bit about Russia interfering in the Middle East fits Russia’s campaign in Syria today, thirty-seven years later, better than its 1979 invasion of Afghanistan did back then.

Dylan then follows up with a discussion of the Antichrist, mentions Jim Jones and Hitler along the way.. and closes with a rendition of his gospel song, Slow Train Coming.

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So just one technical note here on that apocalyptic aspect.

Antinomianism is the name given to a common feature of apocalyptic rhetoric — the doctrine that the law (to include the moral law) no longer applies — so that both theft from the rich and sexual anarchism are permitted to “the pure”. Norman Cohn documents this doctrine extensively in The Pursuit of the Millennium, see particularly his chapters VII and VIII on “An Élite of Amoral Supermen” — ie the 12th century “heresy of the Free Spirit“.

Listening to Dylan’s Slow Train with that in mind, these lyrics take on a new significance:

Man’s ego is inflated, his laws are outdated, they don’t apply no more
You can’t rely no more to be standin’ around waitin’

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To end on a lighter note..

Some critics of the Nobel award seem to feel that “song” is not a category that sits easily within the scope of “literature”. To put it bluntly:

If only he’d thrown away that damn guitar, written his stuff down, and read it out loud as poetry, we might have given Orpheus the prize sooner..

[ by Charles Cameron ]
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Michael Yon on Facebook, and (illustrated) on his journal page under the heading Rivers of tears flow tonight:

On one level, there is not much to say other than that one of the greatest leaders in history graced us for so long. He is the Father of Thailand. He was a champion of peace, freedom, and prosperity, and a good friend to America and to American people. His Majesty is loved by many Americans.

Americans normally do not like Kings, but King Bhumibol is a great exception. Those who studied him grew to respect him, then to like him, and finally to share in the love for the King of Kings. The love for His Majesty is so immense that it could fill the Gulf of Thailand.

Thais are among freest people on earth, thanks to His Majesty. He brought his millions of sons and daughters very far, and he taught lessons and brought inspiration to foreigners such as me.

He was a musician, and good, and his photography was excellent. Highly educated, he visited every corner of this great country, into the deepest jungles to help villagers, into the mountains, out to the islands, down the rivers. He went everywhere. His Majesty was a man of the people. He wanted to see with his own eyes, and he did.

Finally his body has worn out. We wish his body had lived to 110 but his body wore out. He spent it working for Thailand. But this is not the end. Only his body is gone. His Majesty is more alive now than ever before.

Strangely perhaps, since I only knew of him from a smattering of press accounts, I too am moved to tears by the death of this man and monarch. May he rest in peace.

Genesis:

1. Announcement, by T. Greer
2. Marching Orders, by Mark Safranski
   
3. Panel of Contributors, by Mark Safranski

Book I:

1. An introduction, by T. Greer
2. Fear, honor, and Ophelia, by Lynn C. Rees
3. The Broken Reed, by Jim Lacey
4. How Group Dynamics Brought Sparta and Athens to War, by Joe Byerly
5. It Would Be A Great War, by Cheryl Rofer
6. Knowing Thyself and Knowing the Enemy, by Marc Opper
7. Political Rhetoric in Book I: Truth or Action?, by Pauline Kaurin
8. Failed Visions of Strategic Restraint, by Mark Safranski
9. Reflections in a Beginner’s Mind, by Charles Cameron
10. Reflections from a Clausewizian Strategic Theory Perspective, by Joseph Guerra
11. Honour or reputation?, by Natalie Sambhi

Book II:

1. Beware Greeks Bearing Faulty Assumptions, by Pauline Kaurin
2. Tactical Patterns in the Siege of Plataea, by A.E. Clark
3. When Bacteria Beats Bayonets, by Joe Byerly
4. Everybody Wants a Thucydides Trap, by T. Greer
5. On Pericles, Strategy and his Regime, Part I, by Mark Safranski
6. Treason makes the historian, by Lynn C. Rees

Book III:

1. Treatment of the Enemy in War: Cruel to be Kind?, by Pauline Kaurin
2. The Most Violent Man at Athens, by Mark Safranski
3. The Medium of Heralds, by Cheryl Rofer
4. A Layered Text, by Joseph Guerra
5. Understanding Stasis, by A. E. Clark

Book IV:

1. “What a Man Can Do”, by Pauline Kaurin
   
2. General Demosthenes, by A. E. Clark
3. History is Written by the Losers, by T. Greer
4. Hoplite Perspective, by Mark Safranski
5. Devastation, by A. E. Clark

Book V:

1. What Would the Melians Do? Power and Perception in a Time of Deep Connectivity, by Steven Metz
2. The Melian Dialogue: Athens’ Finest Hour, by A. E. Clark
3. Men of Honor, Men of Interest, by T. Greer
4. Debating the Dialogue, by A. E. Clark

Book VI:

1. The Diva and the General: Who Wins?, by Pauline Kaurin
2. Spot the Alcibiades Points, by T. Greer
3. The State with the Golden Arm, by A. E. Clark

Book VII:

1. Syracuse Through the Eyes of a Samurai, by A. E. Clark

Book VIII

1. What Do You Mean by “We”?, by A. E. Clark

Concluding Analysis

1. What have we learned?, by A. E. Clark

Addenda:

1. Cleon Revisited, by Mark Safranski
2. Fellow Thucydideans, by Mark Safranski
3. Hoffman on Reading Thucydides, by Mark Safranski
4. Wyne on Revisiting Thucydides’ Explanation, by Mark Safranski
5. Thucydides Roundtable, Addendum: Steve Bannon’s interest in the Peloponnesian War by Charles Cameron
6. Thucydides Roundtable: Daniel Bassill’s comment by Charles Cameron

Vitals:

A survival kit for all time

• The Landmark Thucydides, the official edition
• History of the Peloponnesian War, the book
• Thucydides, the author
• Richard Crawley, the translator
• Robert B. Strassler, the editor
• Victor Davis Hanson, the introducer
• Peloponnesian War, the event
• History of the Peloponnesian War, the HTML
• History of the Peloponnesian War, the plain text
• History of the Peloponnesian War, in Greek and English with notes, spacial coordinates, dictionaries, and glossaries

Other Sources:

A survival kit for some time

• Herodotus, the predecessor:
  • Histories, the prequel
• Aristophanes, the comedic relief:
  • Acharnians
  • Birds
  • Clouds
  • Ecclesiazusae
  • Frogs
  • Knights
  • Lysistrata
  • Peace
  • Plutus
  • Thesmophoriazusae
  • Wasps
• Xenophon, the successor:
  • Anabasis: the scenic route
  • Hellenica: the sequel
• Aristotle or friends, the expounders:
  • Athenian Constitution, the treatise
• Diodorus, the scribler:
  • Bibliotheca historica, Book 12: the exhaustive compilation
  • Bibliotheca historica, Book 13: the exhaustive compilation
• Cornelius Nepos, the biographer:
  • Alciabides, the scoundrel
  • Cimon, the friend of Sparta
  • Conon, the admiral
  • Pausanias, the fallen hero
  • Themistocles, the quisling Churchill
  • Thrasybulus, the comeback kid
• Plutarch, the moralist:
  • Alcibiades, still a scoundrel
  • Cimon, still a friend of Sparta
  • Nicias, still a stiff
  • Pericles, still a visionary leader
  • Themistocles, still a quisling Churchill