Today we cover 622 to 692. The Dark Ages. The Carolingian Empire. Vikings. Magyars. A dark and fascinating era of history. 

Lightning Segments.

Pete Singer on Econtalk? WTH?

My theory about why public discourse has become so fragmented: We're wealthy. 

Almost this entire episode talks about the years 313 AD to 622 AD. It covers Emperor Constantine's Edict of Milan that proclaimed religious toleration, thereby ending Christian persecution, the dissolution of the Roman Empire in the west, and the reign of Justinian in the 500s.

This episode concludes with a lengthy Lightning Segments. 

Coronavirus Ramblings. Do you like the social distancing? Then maybe you're an introvert. What you can (can't) do to protect yourself. 

The years 27 BC to 313 AD. Octavius becomes emperor. Stoicism. The Roman Peace begins. . . Christianity begins. 

Part Three in our attempt to develop an historical sense: 399 BC to 27 BC. The Death of Socrates to the First Roman Emperor. Other topics touched upon: Alexander the Great and beautiful Persian women, Pyrrhic victories, Carthage.

Plus Lightning Segments: Scrivener and Hallow Apps, The Storm Before the Storm, contemporary situations that disrupt the post-modern binary-obsessed worldview. 

My family moved to a new house today. The future looks bright (cue Timbuk 3), but right now, things are a bit crazy. I muse here about moving, coffee, the "F" words, and other matters. Short episode. Regular episodes resume next week. 

Why does Gnosticism even matter? Because it provides a crucial key to understanding modern and postmodern political discourse. Gnosticism, in today's world, laces the Left, just as Christianity laces the Right. 

Lightning Segments: Murder of Playboy model, GMO v. Non-GMO.

586-400 BC: The Babylonian Captivity, the start of the Roman Republic, Cyrus the Great, the Athenian Golden Age. 

What is the primary ingredient of Gnosticism? Plato: Inability to deal with the Metaxy. 

Lightning Segments. 

The year 1300 BC to 586 BC: Moses to the Babylonian Captivity. What was happening in Greece during this time? 

1300 BC to 1492: Moses to Columbus. These ten years are designed to give you a rough grasp of western civilization from the beginning of recorded history to the dawn of the modern world. 1300 BC, 589 BC, 399 BC, 27 BC, 313 AD, 622, 1000, 1274, 1453, 1492.

Lightning Segments: Coronavirus and statistics, charity scam, John Simon.

John Simon and Yoko Ono.

What happens when society undergoes huge psychological shifts? When Europe discovered in 1492 that the world contained another entire continent, the seeds of the Reformation were planted. When Alexander the Great conquered Asia, the seeds of Christianity and its evil twin, Gnosticism, were planted.

LIghtning Segments.Secondhand things.

The virtue of prudence: choosing among competing goods. How to behave. 

Segment One: Thomas Sowell's A Conflict of Visions describes two conflicting visions: constrained and unconstrained. William Godwin and the Marquis de Condorcet fall in the unconstrained. The Catholic Church and Postmodernism fall in the constrained? 

Segment Two: Lightning Segments: Jane Austen's lost books, other.

Segment Three: St. Francis de Sales and "weave a little nosegay." Spray a lot of Axe. No matter how you do it, just keep out the smelly thoughts.