George Washington followed the Greek example of retiring his horses who had served him well, allowing at least two majestic steeds that he had ridden during the war to simply graze and do whatever they wanted.
Also following the Greek example, there is no evidence that Washington treated his elderly slaves with such magnanimity. He always felt trapped by his financial plight.
George Washington had several rivals jockeying for his position as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army. Horatio Gates and Charles Lee, in particular, were two generals that worked to undermine Washington’s reputation and authority throughout the war.
Continue reading George Washington and the Failure of Success
After World War One, Kaiser Wilhelm II, the deposed German Emperor, lived in exile in the Netherlands. He died in 1941, so he lived just long enough to witness the rise of Hitler and the outbreak of World War Two. In 1938 he gave an interview to an American correspondent and was asked what he thought of Hitler. His answer was interesting:
“There is a man alone, without family, without children, without God… He builds legions but he doesn’t build a nation. A nation is created by families, a religion, tradition: it is made up out of the hearts of mothers, the wisdom of fathers, the joy and the exuberance of children. [Hitler’s Germany would be]… an all-swallowing State, disdainful of human dignities and the ancient structure of our race, setting itself up in place of everything else. And the man who, alone, incorporates in himself this whole State, has neither a God to honour nor a dynasty to conserve, nor a past to consult.
For a few months I was inclined to believe in National Socialism. I thought of it as a necessary fever. And I was gratified to see that there were, associated with it for a time, some of the wisest and most outstanding Germans. But these, one by one, he has got rid of or even killed… This man could bring home victories to our people each year without bringing them glory… But of our Germany, which was a nation of poets and musicians and artists and soldiers, he has made a nation of hysterics and hermits, engulfed in a mob and led by a thousand liars or fanatics…”
HT: Daniel Hoffman via Mike Bull
John Lennon’s Imagine: a song whose lyrics are picked straight from the ruins of the Tower of Babel, mangled into a corpse held together by a saccharine melody.
It is amazing to me how the sin of Babel is always relevant. C.S. Lewis was indeed insightful and prophetic when he wrote That Hideous Strength, in which the villains are foiled by Merlin bringing down the curse of Babel once again.
This is a compressed, summarized timeline to provide some context for the book of Daniel. This is based on some of the information provided in Jordan’s Handwriting on the Wall.
This assumes the Biblical dates are accurate and takes them seriously. It also makes the assumption that ancient kings had many names for themselves for different times and contexts, and many of them more like titles, such as Ahasuerus. A Biblical example is 1 Chronicles 5:26. There are also more modern cognates, like James I of England was first James VI of Scotland.