Derek Ashford

In history's annals, decadent rulers like Sardanapalus, Nero, Heliogabalus, and Emperor Yang of Sui embody absolute power turned to personal excess, blurring majesty and madness, hastening the fall of empires. This timeless caution resonates universally: here we explore their lives and indulgences.

On the historical tendency of intellectuals to err in political matters, with a focus on their naive embrace of communism ideologies, tracing this pattern back to earlier periods. Drawing extensively on Thomas Sowell’s work and historical sources, we argue that intellectuals’ detachment from practical realities, coupled with their preference for utopian ideals, has consistently led to flawed political positions.

On how the Inquisition, despite its modern reputation, introduced key legal innovations for its time, such as standardized procedures, prisoner protections, regulated torture, and house arrest, that helped modernize and humanize judicial systems in Europe

Historical thinkers like Aristotle, Ibn Khaldun, Sepúlveda, Montesquieu, Locke, Hegel, Kant, Mill, Carlyle, Fitzhugh, and Rousseau viewed slavery as a tool to civilize savage peoples. Through enforced labor, cultural mimicry, and imposed order, they believed it transformed chaotic societies into disciplined, productive ones, integrating them into higher systems of faith, reason, and industry.

On how the Vietnam and Iraq wars are defined by distinct strategic, operational, and environmental contexts, as they differed in military approaches, technological capabilities, logistical frameworks, geographical settings, and cultural dynamics. These differences shaped the experiences of American soldiers and the public’s perception of the wars.

In the late 19th c., Irish and Italian Catholic immigrants faced opposition from native-born Protestant Americans who viewed their arrival as a threat to national identity, economic stability, and social order. Today, similar dynamics are evident in the resistance to South American immigration.

On how the poor treatment of women in contemporary Muslim-majority societies stems not primarily from Islam’s core teachings but from the persistence of pre-Islamic cultural traditions, amplified by selective scriptural interpretations, historical shifts, and modern political agendas.