Aristotle, and (translated by P H Wickstead and F M Cornford), Physics books I-IV, Harvard University Press, William Heinemann 1980 Introduction: 'The title "Physics" is misleading. .. "Lectures on Nature" the alternative title found in editions of the Greek text, is more enlightening. ... The realm of Nature, for Aristotle, includes all things that move and change ... . Thus the ultimate "matter" which, according to Aristotle, underlies all the elementary substances must be studied, in its changes at least, by the Natural Philosopher. And so must the eternal heavenly spheres of the Aristotelean philosophy, insofar as they themselves move of are the cause of motion in the sublunary world.' 
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Auyang (1995), Sunny Y., How is Quantum Field Theory Possible?, Oxford University Press 1995 Jacket: 'Quantum field theory (QFT) combines quantum mechanics with Einstein's special theory of relativity and underlies elementary particle physics. This book presents a philosophical analysis of QFT. It is the first treatise in which the philosophies of space-time, quantum phenomena and particle interactions are encompassed in a unified framework.' 
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Everett III (1973), Hugh, and Bryce S Dewitt, Neill Graham (editors), The Many Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics, Princeton University Press 1973 Jacket: 'A novel interpretation of quantum mechanics, first proposed in brief form by Hugh Everett in 1957, forms the nucleus around which this book has developed. The volume contains Dr Everett's short paper from 1957, "'Relative State' formulation of quantum mechanics" and a far longer exposition of his interpretation entitled "The Theory of the Universal Wave Function" never before published. In addition other papers by Wheeler, DeWitt, Graham, Cooper and van Vechten provide further discussion of the same theme. Together they constitute virtually the entire world output of scholarly commentary on the Everett interpretation.' 
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Goddard (1998), Peter , and Stephen Hawking, Abraham Pais, Maurice Jacob, David Olive, and Michael Atiyah, Paul Dirac, The Man and His Work, Cambridge University Press 1998 Jacket: Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac was one of the founders of quantum theory and the aithor of many of its most important subsequent developments. He is numbered alongside Newton, Maxwell, Einstein and Rutherford as one of the greatest physicists of all time. This volume contains four lectures celebrating Dirac's life and work and the text of an address given by Stephen Hawking, which were given on 13 November 1995 on the occasion of the dedication of a plaque to him in Westminster Abbey. In the first lecture, Abraham Pais describes from personal knowledge Dirac's character and his approach to his work. In the second lecture, Maurice Jacob explains not only how and why Dirac was led to introduce the concept of antimatter, but also its central role in modern particle physics and cosmology. In the third lecture, David Olive gives an account of Dirac's work on magnetic monopoles and shows how it has had a profound influence in the development of fundamental physics down to the present day. In the fourth lecture, Sir Michael Atiyah explains the widespread significance of the Dirac equation in mathematics, its roots in algebra and its implications for geometry and topology.' 
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Petroski (2006), Henry, Success Through Failure: The Paradox of Design, Princeton University Press 2006 ' Success through Failure shows us that making something better—by carefully anticipating and thus averting failure—is what invention and design are all about. Petroski explores the nature of invention and the character of the inventor through an unprecedented range of both everyday and extraordinary examples—illustrated lectures, child-resistant packaging for drugs, national constitutions, medical devices, the world’s tallest skyscrapers, long-span bridges, and more. Stressing throughout that there is no surer road to eventual failure than modeling designs solely on past successes, he sheds new light on spectacular failures, from the destruction of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in 1940 and the space shuttle disasters of recent decades, to the collapse of the World Trade Center in 2001.' 
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Albert Einstein (1915), The Field Equations of Gravitation, ' In two recently published papers I have shown how to obtain field equations of gravitation that comply with the postulate of general relativity, i.e., which in their general formulation are covariant under arbitrary substitutions of space-time variables. [. . .] With this, we have finally completed the general theory of relativity as a logical structure. The postulate of relativity in its most general formulation (which makes space-time coordinates into physically meaningless parameters) leads with compelling necessity to a very specific theory of gravitation that also explains the movement of the perihelion of Mercury. However, the postulate of general relativity cannot reveal to us anything new and different about the essence of the various processes in nature than what the special theory of relativity taught us already. The opinions I recently voiced here in this regard have been in error. Every physical theory that complies with the special theory of relativity can, by means of the absolute differential calculus, be integrated into the system of general relativity theory — without the latter providing any criteria about the admissibility of such physical theory' back

Albert Einstein (1933), On the Method of Theoretical Physics: Herbert Spencer Lecture 1933, ' It can scarcely be denied that the supreme goal of all theory is to make the irreducible basic elements as simple and as few as possible without having to surrender the adequate representation of a single datum of experience. back

Alex Lo (2025_06_22), My Take | Why ancient Rome is haunting contemporary America’s far right, ' The Roman empire looms large in the imagination of American men, and the world should worry. In 2023, TikTok’s algorithm uncovered a hitherto unsuspected trend emerging among Americans, mostly men, who seem to spend a lot of time thinking about ancient Rome. A more detailed analysis of TikTok data reveals they tend to favour the Roman empire over the republic, mostly because of its expanse, power and gladiators. [. . .] But perhaps the most interesting Roman admirer is Curtis Yarvin, a self-styled political philosopher online. I doubt Trump personally follows him, but Yarvin is the eminence grise to practically every hard-right figure working in the White House, as well as many others outside. He is to the intellectual segment of the far right what Alexander Dugin – sometimes dubbed Putin’s brain – is to the Russian strongman and what Wang Huning has been to successive Chinese presidents, including Xi Jinping. While Vice-President J.D. Vance has hinted darkly that the US is “in a late republican period”, Yarvin thinks it’s not a bad thing to follow Rome by transitioning from republic to empire. He once said America needs to get over its “dictator-phobia”. How? As summarised by The New York Times in a recent profile, mainstream academia and media should be dissolved, government bureaucracy dismantled, and democracy turned into a corporate version of monarchy, headed by a CEO. And that’s exactly what Trump has been doing since January.' back

Aquinas, Summa I, 28, 1, Are there real relations in God?, 'Reply to Objection 4. Relations which result from the mental operation alone in the objects understood are logical relations only, inasmuch as reason observes them as existing between two objects perceived by the mind. Those relations, however, which follow the operation of the intellect, and which exist between the word intellectually proceeding and the source whence it proceeds, are not logical relations only, but are real relations; inasmuch as the intellect and the reason are real things, and are really related to that which proceeds from them intelligibly; as a corporeal thing is related to that which proceeds from it corporeally. Thus paternity and filiation are real relations in God.' back

Commentarii de Bello Gallico - Wikipedia, Commentarii de Bello Gallico - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' Commentarii de Bello Gallico English: Commentaries on the Gallic War), is Julius Caesar's first-hand account of the Gallic Wars, written as a third-person narrative. In it, Caesar describes the battles and intrigues that took place in the nine years he spent fighting the Celtic and Germanic peoples in Gaul who opposed Roman conquest. [. . .] Although most contemporaries and subsequent historians considered the account truthful, 20th-century historians have questioned the outlandish claims made in the work. Of particular note are Caesar's claims that the Romans fought Gallic forces of up to 430,000 (a size believed to be impossible for an army at that time), and that the Romans suffered no deaths against this incredibly large force.' back

De Bello Gallico, Julius Caesar, 'De Bello Gallico' and other Commentaries by Julius Caesar translated by W A MacDevitt. back

Emily Clark (2025_06_22), Iran's powers have long battled for supremacy, but they have the same 'red lines' on nuclear, ' In the early 1950s, Iran had a liberal prime minister who was nurturing a delicate and imperfect democracy, and who believed the nation should stop shipping the country's resource riches offshore. Mohammad Mossadegh wanted to take the wealth buried in Iran's oil fields and invest it into the country and its people. The parliament that elected him had also passed his flagship legislation, but locking United States and British interests out of the Iranian oil industry was not going to work for the West. When Mossadegh nationalised Iran's oil industry, he achieved one of his greatest ambitions, but he also set in motion his eventual downfall. [. . .] In a now-declassified CIA document, the agency said Mossadegh was "one of the most mercurial, maddening, adroit, and provocative leaders" American and British officials had ever encountered. His agenda put a target on his back, and he soon became the focus of a covert intelligence operation said to have been hatched in the bowels of the US embassy in Tehran. The Western powers were orchestrating an uprising against him and planned to install a replacement who would be much more friendly to their oil interests. In that same declassified document, the CIA admits to Operation Ajax and that it "had a hand" in the demonstrations that spilled onto the streets of Tehran. ' back

Form of the Good - Wikipedia, Form of the Good - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' "Form of the Good", or more literally "the idea of the good" (ἡ τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ ἰδέα) is a concept in the philosophy of Plato. It is described in Plato's dialogue the Republic (508e2–3), speaking through the character of Socrates. This form is the one that allows a philosopher-in-training to advance to a philosopher-king. It cannot be clearly seen or explained, but it is the form that allows one to realize all the other forms. The definition of the Good is a perfect, eternal, and changeless Form, existing outside space and time, in which particular good things share.' back

Gabriela Bernal (2025_06_26), Opinion | How Trump’s Iran strikes doomed his North Korea strategy, ' Barely five months into his second term, US President Donald Trump’s “spectacular military success” in striking Iranian nuclear facilities reveals a stark contradiction at the heart of his foreign policy approach. While the US leader campaigned on ending wars through negotiation, his swift pivot from diplomacy to destruction in Iran carries profound implications for the decades-long nuclear stand-off with North Korea. The weekend strikes against three Iranian nuclear facilities, which Trump threatened would be followed by attacks on more targets if Tehran did not comply, are not just another military intervention in the Middle East. They constitute a dangerous precedent that fundamentally undermines any prospect of meaningful diplomacy with adversaries, including Pyongyang. North Korea was quick to condemn the US attack against its diplomatic ally. It said the strikes violated the UN Charter “and violently trampled down the territorial integrity and security interests of a sovereign state”. Trump announced on Monday night that a ceasefire was brokered with Iran after the latter launched missiles at the Al Udeid US military base in Qatar. However, it is unclear whether Iran and Israel will adhere to a prolonged cessation of hostilities. Despite Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un holding summits in Singapore and Vietnam, the strikes in Iran are likely to confirm one of Pyongyang’s greatest fears: diplomatic engagement with the United States can quickly turn into military devastation. Even if a US president expresses interest in diplomacy, this doesn’t mean they will remain committed to the process.' back

Hanbury Brown and Twiss effect - Wikipedia, Hanbury Brown and Twiss effect - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'In physics, the Hanbury Brown and Twiss (HBT) effect[a] is any of a variety of correlation and anti-correlation effects in the intensities received by two detectors from a beam of particles. HBT effects can generally be attributed to the wave–particle duality of the beam, and the results of a given experiment depend on whether the beam is composed of fermions or bosons. Devices which use the effect are commonly called intensity interferometers and were originally used in astronomy, although they are also heavily used in the field of quantum optics.' back

Ian Duck and E.C.G. Sudarshan (1998), Toward an understanding of the spin-statistics theorem, 'We respond to a request from Neuenschwander for an elementary proof of the Spin-Statistics Theorem. First . . . Then we discuss an argument suggested by Sudarshan, which proves the theorem with a minimal set of requirements. . . . Motivated by our particular use of Lorentz invariance, if we are permitted to elevate the conclusion of flavour symmetry (which we explain in the text) to the status of a postulate, one could recast the proof without any relativistic assumptions, and this make it applicable even in the nonrelativistic context. . . . Finally, an argument starting with ordinary number-valued (nonmmuting), and with Grassman valued (anticommuting) operators, shows in a natural way that these relativitcally embed into Klein-Gordon spin-0 and Dirac spin-½ fields, respectively. In this way the Spin Statistics theorem is understood at the expense of admitting the existence of the simplest Grassman-valued field.' back

Iraq war - Wikipedia, Iraq war - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'The Iraq War (Arabic: حرب العراق, romanized: ḥarb al-ʿirāq), also referred to as the Second Gulf War, was a prolonged conflict in Iraq from 2003 to 2011. It began with the invasion by a United States-led coalition, which resulted in the overthrow of the Ba'athist government of Saddam Hussein. The conflict persisted as an insurgency arose against coalition forces and the newly established Iraqi government. US forces were officially withdrawn in 2011. In 2014, the US became re-engaged in Iraq, leading a new coalition under Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve, as the conflict evolved into the ongoing Islamic State insurgency. [. . .] The war led to an estimated 150,000 to over a million deaths, including over 100,000 civilians, with most occurring during the post-invasion insurgency and civil war.' back

Jeffrey Nicholls (1987), A theory of Peace, ' The argument: I began to think about peace in a very practical way during the Viet Nam war. I was the right age to be called up. I was exempted because I was a clergyman, but despite the terrors that war held for me, I think I might have gone. It was my first whiff of the force of patriotism. To my amazement, it was strong enough to make even me face death.
In the Church, I became embroiled in a deeper war. Not a war between goodies and baddies, but the war between good and evil that lies at the heart of all human consciousness. Existence is a struggle. We need all the help we can get. Religion is part of that help and theology is the scientific foundation of religion.' back

Jon Cohen (2025_06_20), Always ‘one atom away’: The long, rocky journey to an HIV prevention breakthrough, ' To many, it is the next best thing to an HIV vaccine. On Wednesday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a new way to prevent HIV infection: the antiretroviral drug lenacapavir, which provides almost complete protection for 6 months with a single injection in the abdomen. Global health officials think the drug might help quell the tide of new HIV infections, still more than 1 million around the world each year. The approval caps a tortuous, 2-decade-long scientific journey for Gilead Sciences, a pharma company specializing in HIV drugs. Lenacapavir blocks an HIV protein that scientists initially thought was not a suitable drug target, and finding a molecule that was both potent and stable enough took many years and more resources than Gilead had ever invested in a drug development program. “The project almost died multiple times,” says Stephen Yant, a virologist on Gilead’s development team. But management had difficulty killing the project, says one director of development who did not want to be named, because the team was always “one atom away” from success. [. . . ] Sundquist says many other companies would have shut down the long-flailing effort to develop the world’s first capsid drug. “The Gilead people deserve enormous credit for sticking to a problem and solving it with amazing science,” he says. The question now is whether the people who need it most can benefit from that perseverance.ds AVAC, an advocacy group for PrEP and HIV vaccines.' back

Kate Bush, Running Up That Hill (extended remix), ' Bon boulot. La continuité musicale est subtile; J'apprécie beaucoup cette version extra longue, mais sans excès. Quelle talentueuse chanteuse cette Kate! Je la suis de plus ou moins loin depuis que je suis ado et elle est si créative et unique. J'ai aujourd'hui 60 piges et j'aime toujours autant ses chansons. Mon album préféré restera quand même never for ever; une véritable balade féérique et exotique de laquelle elle aura su composer une rêverie intemporelle... back

Love and Mercy (film) - Wikipedia, Love and Mercy (film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' Love & Mercy is a 2014 American biographical drama film directed by Bill Pohlad about the Beach Boys' co-founder and leader Brian Wilson and his struggles with mental illness during the 1960s and 1980s. It stars Paul Dano and John Cusack as the young and older Wilson, respectively, with Elizabeth Banks as his second wife Melinda Ledbetter and Paul Giamatti as his psychologist Dr. Eugene Landy. The title comes from Wilson's 1988 song of the same name.' back

Nicholas Spiro (2025_06_26), Macroscope | How unique US advantages are fuelling Trump’s reckless behaviour, ' If there is one theme that has dominated financial markets since US President Donald Trump began his second term, it is the future of “American exceptionalism”. This is the notion that US assets deserve to be valued more highly because of the US dollar’s role as the world’s pre-eminent reserve currency, America’s huge natural and human resources, deep and transparent capital markets and the dominance of US technology companies in global stock market indices. [. . . ] While multiple factors are at work – not all of them positive – the jury is still out on whether US exceptionalism is coming to an end. This is mainly because of the dominance of the US dollar and Treasury bonds, the keystones of global trade and finance that have allowed successive US administrations to run large current account and fiscal deficits. [. . .] Yet here again, Trump has gone too far. The safe-haven appeal of US assets has suffered significantly in the past several months. That the independence of the US Federal Reserve is now in question shows the extent to which the credibility of US policymaking has eroded. The total lack of restraint in fiscal policy has emerged as a bigger threat to US markets than tariffs. Trump’s tax-and-spend legislation currently working its way through Congress would add trillions of dollars to an already-ballooning fiscal deficit, increasing the risk that foreign investors will demand a higher risk premium to hold US assets. The prospect of a “revenge tax” on companies and individuals from countries whose tax policies the US deems discriminatory heightens the risks further. Trump is convinced the US economy and markets are strong enough to cope with the disruption and uncertainty his policies engender. He might be right. What is clear, however, is that America’s unique advantages are contributing to Trump’s recklessness.' back

Nuclear Fission - Wikipedia, Nuclear Fission - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' Nuclear fission is a reaction in which the nucleus of an atom splits into two or more smaller nuclei. The fission process often produces gamma photons, and releases a very large amount of energy even by the energetic standards of radioactive decay. Nuclear fission was discovered on 19 December 1938 in Berlin by German chemists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann. Physicists Lise Meitner and her nephew Otto Robert Frisch explained it theoretically in January 1939. Frisch named the process "fission" by analogy with biological fission of living cells. In their second publication on nuclear fission in February of 1939, Hahn and Strassmann predicted the existence and liberation of additional neutrons during the fission process, opening up the possibility of a nuclear chain reaction.. back

Plate trick - Wikipedia, Plate trick - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' In mathematics and physics, the plate trick, also known as Dirac's string trick (after Paul Dirac, who introduced and popularized it), the belt trick, or the Balinese cup trick, is any of several demonstrations of the idea that rotating an object with strings attached to it by 360 degrees does not return the system to its original state, while a second rotation of 360 degrees, a total rotation of 720 degrees, does. Mathematically, it is a demonstration of the theorem that SU(2) (which double-covers SO(3)) is simply connected. To say that SU(2) double-covers SO(3) essentially means that the unit quaternions represent the group of rotations twice over. A detailed, intuitive, yet semi-formal articulation can be found in the article on tangloids. back

Qiu-Hong Hu (2005_12_29), The nature of the electron, ' Through investigating history, evolution of the concept, and development in the theories of electrons, I am convinced that what was missing in our understanding of the electron is a structure, into which all attributes of the electron could be incorporated in a self-consistent way. It is hereby postulated that the topological structure of the electron is a closed two-turn Helix (a so-called Hubius Helix) that is generated by circulatory motion of a mass-less particle at the speed of light. A formulation is presented to describe an isolated electron at rest and at high speed. It is shown that the formulation is capable of incorporating most (if not all) attributes of the electron, including spin, magnetic moment, fine structure constant, anomalous magnetic moment, and charge quantization into one concrete description of the Hubius Helix. The equations for the description emerge accordingly. Implications elicited by the postulate are elaborated. Inadequacy of the formulation is discussed.' back

RationalWiki - Wikipedia, RationalWiki - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' RationalWiki is an online wiki which is written from a scientific skeptic, secular, and progressive perspective. Its stated goals are to "analyze and refute pseudoscience and the anti-science movement, document crank ideas, explore conspiracy theories, authoritarianism, and fundamentalism, and analyze how these subjects are handled in the media."[8] It was created in 2007 as a counterpoint to Conservapedia, a Christian fundamentalist website, after an incident in which some editors of Conservapedia were banned.[6][9] RationalWiki has been described as liberal in contrast to Conservapedia. back

Relativistic Lagrangian mechanics - Wikipedia, Relativistic Lagrangian mechanics - Wikipedia, the free encycopedia, ' In theoretical physics, relativistic Lagrangian mechanics is Lagrangian mechanics applied in the context of special relativity and general relativity. [. . .] Although, unlike non-relativistic mechanics, the relativistic Lagrangian is not expressed as difference of kinetic energy with potential energy, the relativistic Hamiltonian corresponds to total energy in a similar manner but without including rest energy. The form of the Lagrangian also makes the relativistic action functional proportional to the proper time of the path in spacetime. back

Richard Behiel (a), The Mystery of Spinors, 'In this video, we explore the mystery of spinors! What are these strange, surreal mathematical things? And what role do they play in physical reality? We'll talk about the algebra of SO(3) and SU(2), and the profound physical implications of spinors, particularly as it relates to spin-statistics and the stability of matter! back

Richard Behiel (b), Deriving the Dirac Equation, ' In this video, we'll derive the Dirac equation, and see where it comes from!' back

Richard Behiel (c), Relativistic Quantum Waves (Klein-Gordon Equation), In this video, we'll unify special relativity and quantum mechanics, to derive the beautiful Klein-Gordon equation! Then we'll explore some of its properties, to see what it can (and can't) tell us about the nature of things. This is part of a video series that's building toward an exploration of the Dirac equation, and then a triumphant return to the hydrogen atom. back

Richard Behiel (d), Electromagnetism as a Gauge Theory, ' "Why is electromagnetism a thing?" That's the question. In this video, we explore the answer given by gauge theory. In a nutshell, electromagnetism arises from local phase symmetry. But what does that mean, and how exactly does that work? That's what this video is all about! [. . .] This video is quite long and technical. Think of it as a video textbook, so you can skip around to different parts if you’d like. But I wanted to err on the side of rigor and thoroughness, to show comprehensively how local U(1) symmetry blossoms into electromagnetism. So the ideas are all there for you, but you don’t have to watch this in one sitting! back

Richard Behiel (e), Superconductivity and the Higgs Field, 'In this video, we explore the Higgs field, which has a nonzero expectation value throughout our universe, even in "empty" space. The Higgs field is very much like a superconducting condensate, and so we will use superconductivity as a way of exploring the Higgs field. The video begins with a crash course on superconductivity, then segues into an in-depth exploration of the Anderson-Higgs mechanism (in which gauge bosons acquire mass, by the consumption of Nambu-Goldstone modes), and finally we'll then explore the Higgs field in the context of the electroweak model.' back

Richard Bthiel (c), Deriving the Klein Gordon Equation, ' 0:00 Intro 0:38 Three Principles for the Dirac Equation 3:12 Square Root of the Mass Shell 7:30 Anticommutation Relations 9:50 The Dirac Matrices 10:58 The Dirac Equation 13:58 Spinors' back

Richard Feynman & Steven Weinberg (1986), Elementary Particles and the Laws of Physics The1986 Dirac Memorial Lectures, Foreword: John C Taylor: 'Dirac Died in 1984, and St John's College, Cambridge (Dirac's College), very generously endowed an annual lecture to be held at Cambridge University in Dirac's memory. The First two lectures, printed here, are contrasting variations of Dirac's theme of the union of quantum theory and relativity.' back

Steven Sherwood, Benoit Meyssignac & Thorsten Mauritsen (2025_06_27), Earth is trapping much more heat than climate models forecast – and the rate has doubled in 20 years, ' How do you measure climate change? One way is by recording temperatures in different places over a long period of time. While this works well, natural variation can make it harder to see longer-term trends. But another approach can give us a very clear sense of what’s going on: track how much heat enters Earth’s atmosphere and how much heat leaves. This is Earth’s energy budget, and it’s now well and truly out of balance. Our recent research found this imbalance has more than doubled over the last 20 years. Other researchers have come to the same conclusions. This imbalance is now substantially more than climate models have suggested. In the mid-2000s, the energy imbalance was about 0.6 watts per square metre (W/m2) on average. In recent years, the average was about 1.3 W/m2. This means the rate at which energy is accumulating near the planet’s surface has doubled. These findings suggest climate change might well accelerate in the coming years. Worse still, this worrying imbalance is emerging even as funding uncertainty in the United States threatens our ability to track the flows of heat. [. . .] The doubling of the energy imbalance has come as a shock, because the sophisticated climate models we use largely didn’t predict such a large and rapid change. Typically, the models forecast less than half of the change we’re seeing in the real world. [. . .] We’ve known the solution for a long time: stop the routine burning of fossil fuels and phase out human activities causing emissions such as deforestation. Keeping accurate records over long periods of time is essential if we are to spot unexpected changes. Satellites, in particular, are our advance warning system, telling us about heat storage changes roughly a decade before other methods. But funding cuts and drastic priority shifts in the United States may threaten essential satellite climate monitoring.; back

Yair Rosenberg (2025_06_25), What America Can Learn From Iran’s Failure, ' It would be easy to dismiss Iran’s wartime failures as unique to the country’s dysfunctional authoritarian system. But that would be a mistake. Jalali and other top Iranian officials were unable to defeat Israel not just because their own intelligence capabilities didn’t match up, but because their adherence to regime-sanctioned fantasies made grasping Israel’s actual abilities impossible for them. As a result, once Israel decided, after October 7, that it could no longer tolerate the risks of constant aggression from Iran and its proxies, the regime’s defenses quickly folded. In this way, Iran’s predicament is a cautionary tale about what happens when loyalty to a ruling ideology—rather than capability—determines who runs a society, and when conspiracies, rather than reality, shape decision making. Although the Iranian theocracy presents an acute case of this phenomenon, the early symptoms are beginning to manifest in democratic societies, including our own. Consider: Today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is run by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a man who has cast doubt on decades of scientific research on the effectiveness of vaccines. He recently fired the entire membership of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and appointed several vaccine skeptics to the panel, which is now planning to review childhood vaccination standards. Kennedy attained his position as a reward for endorsing Donald Trump during the 2024 campaign. Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, has suggested that the former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad did not use chemical weapons against his own people in 2017 and 2018, despite extensive documentation of the attacks, including by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the previous Trump administration. A former Democrat, she also attained her position after endorsing Trump. Thomas Fugate, a 22-year-old recent college graduate who worked on Trump’s 2024 campaign, is now the interim director of the Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships at the Department of Homeland Security, despite having no apparent experience in counterterrorism. And that’s to say nothing of Congress, where people such as Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, a conspiracy theorist who once speculated that the Rothschild banking dynasty was setting wildfires with a space laser, now sit on the powerful House Oversight Committee. Politicians have long rewarded their allies with plum positions. But when allegiance replaces proficiency as the primary qualification for advancement, and conspiracism replaces competency, disaster looms. Flunkies guided by regime ideology lack the capacity to understand and solve national crises. Just look at Iran.' back