As The Cia And Kgb, Like God

There Are No Inevitabilities In History

The Study Of History Is A Powerful Antidote To Contemporary Arrogance. It Is Humbling To Discover How Many Of Our Glib Assumptions, Which Seem To Us Novel And Plausible, Have Been Tested Before, Not Once But Many Times And In Innumerable Guises; And Discovered To Be, At Great Human Cost, Wholly False.

My Grandfather Used To Say, "learn To Like Art, Music And Literature Deeply And Passionately. They Will Be Your Friends When Things Are Bad". It Is True: At This Time Of Year, When Days Are Short And Dark, And One Hardly Dares To Open The Newspapers, I Turn, Not Vainly Either, To The Great Creators Of The Past For Distraction, Solace And Help.

In The Past, The U.s. Has Shown Its Capacity To Reinvent Its Gifts For Leadership. During The 1970s, In The Aftermath Of The Nixon Abdication And The Ford And Carter Presidencies, The Whole Nation Peered Into The Abyss, Was Horrified By What It Saw And Elected Ronald Reagan As President, Which Began A National Resurgence.

The Most Evil Person I Ever Met Was A Toss-up Between Pablo Picasso And The Publisher-crook Robert Maxwell.