Ancient American politics

ROGER KENNEDY, the former head of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History and former Director of the US National Park Service, is so eloquent that Walt Kelly based a “Pogo” character on him (the bear P.T. Bridgeport, whose speech balloons are circus posters).

Roger Kennedy’s most driving current interest is the long-term effects of long-term abuse of natural systems, and he means seriously long term.

Kennedy knows politics. For decades a major player himself in Washington DC, he has written redefining biographies of Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and Aaron Burr. Kennedy knows history…

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Finite and infinite games

Countless readers have been hooked by the opening line of James P. Carse’s FINITE AND INFINITE GAMES— “There are at least two kinds of games. One could be called finite, the other, infinite. A finite game is played for the purpose of winning, an infinite game for the purpose of continuing the play.” Readers become rereaders; the tiny book rewards close study. I used Carse’s ideas for the concluding chapter of my own book on long-term thinking.

Meanwhile we seem to be flirting these days with the prospect of a global religious war.

“War is the ultimate finite game. Religion is the ultimate infinite game,” said Jim Carse last night…

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