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Vortex Beowulf : evolution of a network commonwealth
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 | Project Bennett — Explorers Foundation support of the work of James C. Bennett
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 | We are supporting the writing of two books by James C. Bennett, the first to be practical with policy recommendations, the second to be on the origins, history, and anthropology of the Anglosphere, and the potential for the rapid emergence of an Anglospheric network commonwealth that would provide improved prospects for all the world's explorers of whatever race and circumstance of birth. Much of Bennett's work has had to do with developing the concept of "network commonwealth", and not only applicable to the Anglosphere, but also to the Hispanisphere, and other world affecting cultures.
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| "Explorers Foundation Support Makes A Difference: Work Supported Wholly or Partly by EF 2004-‐2010", James C. Bennett, December 9, 2010 ••• — A listing of work done partially or wholly with EF support, concluding with Jim's comments.
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| Publication of The Anglosphere Challenge, 2004
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"Rowman & Littlefield The Anglosphere Challenge: Why the English-‐Speaking Nations Will Lead the Way in the Twenty-‐First Century
"The Anglosphere Challenge’s writing and production was assisted jointly by timely and critical support by Explorers Foundation …" and by another major contributor who wished his participation to be anonymous."
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| The above report was written by Jim in December of 2010. A lot has happened since then. In August 2011 a contract was signed with an excellent publisher, Encounter Books, for the first of the two books Jim is writing, this one with co-author, Mike Lotus, attorney, Chicago, who publishes on the chicagoboyz blog as Lexington Green ••• (chicagoboyz "Lexington Green).
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| New Criterion, Conference: "Is America in Decline?" — Friday, September 23, 2011, New York •••
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The editors [New Criterion] cordially invite the Friends and the Young Friends to a yearly conference that The New Criterion co-hosts with The Social Affairs Unit, a London-based think tank. This year, the conference will address the topic, "Is America in Decline?"
Conference participants include: James Bennett, Jeremy Black, John Fonte, Michael Gleba, Simon Greene, Daniel Johnson, Roger Kimball, Andrew McCarthy, Michael Mosbacher, Charles Murray, John O’Sullivan, James Piereson, William Shawcross, and Keith Windschuttle
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| In the following partial listing of works by James C. Bennett a good place to start is: The Third Anglosphere Century ••• (pdf, free) (Heritage Foundation 2007); Amazon ••• (printed booklet)
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| Books & Articles by James C. Bennett
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| [2011] "Proposing a 'Coast Guard' for Space" ••• (published by The New Atlantis •••)
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 | [2011] "Assimilation & the persistence of culture", The New Criterion, January 2011, available online by subscription or purchase of the specific article at ••• (New Criterion)
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| "Freedom, as it has historically been understood in the English-speaking world, includes as fundamental assumptions a cultural norm of individualism and a government that does not attempt to assume the role of a parent. These characteristics are deep-seated in our culture. Cultures are persistent, although neither immutable nor unevolving. So long as we are able to maintain our culture, it will be substantially free. By global standards, the culture and social systems of the English-speaking nations are some of the most individualistic. Interactions with other cultures therefore inherently involve a challenge to those features of our culture and a challenge by our culture to the less individualistic, less free features of theirs."
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| [2010] "The Great U-Turn" ••• (National Review, Oct 4, 2010, cover story)
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| [2010] "Exceptional Down to the Bone" ••• (pdf); National Review Online ••• (as published, Jun 21, 2010)
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| [2010] "Space: Britain's New Frontier" ••• (published by the Economic Policy Centre •••)
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| [2007] The Third Anglosphere Century: The English-Speaking World in an Era of Transition, Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, The Heritage Foundation ••• (booklet as pdf), and booklet from Amazon •••
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| [2004] The Anglosphere Challenge: Why the English-Speaking Nations Will Lead the Way in the Twenty-First Century, by James C. Bennett. Roman & Littlefield, 2004 ••• (Amazon, books)
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| Coining the term network commonwealth to describe the loose political entities now emerging in the world based on a common language and heritage (of which Anglosphere is the first), Bennett believes that traits common to these entities—a particularly strong and independent civil society; openness and receptivity to the world, its people, and its ideas; and a dynamic economy—have uniquely positioned them to prosper in our time of dramatic technological and scientific change, provided they remain true to the demands of these changes.
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| Reviewed byMark Stewart on Amazon: "This is an accomplished short and succinct narrative that delves deeply and renders an insight into the broad dynamics of what makes the Anglosphere so unique. Not just as a force for Liberty or as a force for Good but as a Global Dynamic that has historically been an agent that deposed tyrants and quelled their ambitions, curtailed the worst in man and catered towards that which is his best. James has excelled here at illustrating what could easily be a lengthy volume alla Andrew Roberts into a rather compact accessible read. He does so simply and achieves much by making this important message so easily accessible to so many. I believe that for those readers who enjoyed it as much as I did and feel as strongly about the vision, this book empowers us to take that message forward and make good on it. Well done. For those who wish to delve even further I would suggest Robert Conquest's Reflections on a Ravaged Century, James's previous work & Andrew Roberts's work."
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| [2004] "The Uses of the Network Commonwealth" ••• (a seminar at "The National Interest", Washington, D.C.)
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| [2003] "Networking Nation-States: The Coming Info-National Order" ••• (article in "The National Interest")
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| [2002] "An Anglosphere Primer" (Jim's early statement of his concept of the Anglosphere)
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| An introduction to the concept of network commonwealth: An Anglosphere Primer, a paper written by Bennett for the Foreign Policy Research Institute in 2002 ••• (full article as a pdf)
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| [1999] "The End of Capitalism and the Triumph of the Market Economy" ••• (pdf)
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| Fukuyama, Francis, The Origins of Political Order. Reviewd by Adam Kirsch, "City Journal", Spring 2011 •••
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| Wood, Ian S., Britain, Ireland, and the Second World War. Reviewed by Daniel C. Williamson •••
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| Articles (by author, or by topic)
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| Jim Bennett's work is listed separately (see above) because it inspires and focuses this vortex.
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| "America's Ruling Class -- And the Perils of Revolution", from the July-August 2010 issue of "The American Spectator" •••
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| Heaney, Seamus, (on Beowulf and his verse translation)
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| Seamus Heaney, the Irish poet, on Beowulf and his verse translation ••• (link from J. Bennett)
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| Review of The Dawn of Politics, by Fukuyama
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| See glyph 180 Alan Macfarlane
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| "Global Weirding Coming At Us All" •••, July 14, 2011, "The American Interest" ••• (Via Meadia, Mead's blog)
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| Is English the Language of India's Future? •••
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| Shideler, Mary McDermott (on J. R. R. Tolkien)
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| "Inklings of Another World" ••• (about Tolkien's Lord of the Rings
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| "In every age and culture, men have believed that they were the first in history to understand just what kind of a world this is. We are no exception. We are sure that our physical and biological sciences can show us what nature really is, and that our psychological and social sciences can now define what man really is. ... But a new element is entering our careful calculations, and is threatening to change them. Into this highly secular, scientific and rational world have come the Nine Walkers who constitute the Fellowship of the Ring: ..." —Shideler
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| "Thoughts on Wizards" •••
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| Wignal, Christian (on Hong Kong)
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| See glyph 295 "The Champion of Hong Kong's Freedom: Sir John Cowperthwaite, Hong Kong, 1941 to 1971", by Christian Wignall. And see this glyph for an additional article by Wignall: "Hong Kong stumbles along the road to serfdom".
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| Beowulf (the legend and poem)
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| Seamus Heaney, the Irish poet, on Beowulf and his verse translation ••• (link from J. Bennett)
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| Beowulf and Arthur both come from the same Indo-European hero legend archetype. I like Beowulf a bit more because he is not a king -- Duchesne thinks that the fact that our heroes are often not kings is important, The Indo-Europeans were the first known culture to not attribute the highest form all virtues to their political leaders first. I.e., in Oriental legends the king is always the bravest, the smartest, etc. In Indo-European tradition the king is merely the leader of a group of companions of equal qualities.
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| 474 Oath of Fealty of the Aragonese Lords to their Monarch (15th c.)
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| Pat Wagner says this oath is well known among cats, who claim to have spoken it first. As a cat would see it, the Lords are saying simply this: "King, we are not your dogs."
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| J. R. R. Tolkien, "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics" •••
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| From "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics," Sir Israel Gollancz Memorial Lecture, Proceedings of the British Academy, 1936, pp. 245-95. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins.
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| The Law of the Anglosphere
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| Paul Craig Robert, The Tyranny of Good Intentions — an excellent introduction to legal principals fundamental to "The Rights of Englishmen".
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| Bennett, James C. (see above)
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| The Ruling Class: How They Corrupted America and What We Can Do About It, (Beaufort Books 2010)
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| The Dragons of Expectation: Reality and Delusion in the Course of History (W. W. Norton & Company 2004)
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| Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America (Oxford University Press 1989)
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| See glyph 202 Albion's Seed, by David Hackett Fischer
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| The Offshore Islanders (Weidenfeld and Nicolson 1972)
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| Prairie Republic: The Political Culture of Dakota Territory, 1879-1889 (University of Oklahoma Press 2010)
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| eBooks (free to download) •••
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| Yukichi Fukuzawa and the Making of the Modern World (Published originally in Making of the Modern World, Palgrave 2002)
F. W. Maitland and the Making of the Modern World (Published originally in Making of the Modern World, Palgrave 2002)
Baron de Montesquieu and the Making of the Modern World (Published originally in Riddle of the Modern World, Macmillan 2000)
Adam Smith and the Making of the Modern World (Published originally in Riddle of the Modern World, Macmillan 2000)
Alexis de Tocqueville and the Making of the Modern World (Published originally in Riddle of the Modern World, Macmillan 2000)
Thomas Malthus and the Making of the Modern World (ebook only)
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| See glyph 180 Alan Macfarlane
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| The President, the Pope, And the Prime Minister: Three Who Changed the World (Regnery 2006)
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| Description, from the inside flap
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| They Changed the Course of History
They were three "middle managers" no one imagined could reach the top.
Ronald Reagan was too old to be president and too conservative anyway. Margaret Thatcher was not only too conservative she was a woman, and not on anyone's short list to lead Britain's Conservative Party. And the idea of a Polish pope that was truly absurd, especially when the cardinal in question was a strong anti-Communist and defender of orthodoxy when many in the Church and throughout the world believed the future belonged to détente with the Soviets and social liberalism in the West.
Not only did Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and Karol Wojtyla (the future John Paul II) rise to the top, but all three of them also survived assassination attempts, collaborated in the miraculous peaceful liberation of Eastern Europe from Soviet Communism, and reinvigorated their respective countries and the West. They were beacons of optimism cutting through the malaise and despair that afflicted 1970s America, strike-ridden and economically moribund post-imperial Britain, and a Catholic Church rocked by social and sexual revolutions.
In The President, the Pope, and the Prime Minister, veteran journalist and former Thatcher speechwriter John O'Sullivan reveals:
● How Reagan, Thatcher, and John Paul developed as strong and individual leaders, perfectly suited to take power when liberalism failed How John Paul's papal visit to Poland in June 1979 led to the birth of the Solidarity labor union
● How the pope's moral undermining of Communism worried the Soviet Politburo more than any military threat
● Why Thatcher's handling of the Falklands crisis was a turning point in the Cold War
● How Reagan arranged for the pope to receive U.S. intelligence on developments in the Soviet bloc
● Reagan's reluctant support for the nuclear "balance of terror" and how he gratefully adopted the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) as an effective alternative
● The Soviets' attempts to lure the pope into an anti-SDI campaign and his refusal
● How Reagan's refusal to compromise with Gorbachev in Reykjavik precipitated the unraveling of Soviet power
● How Reagan, Thatcher, and John Paul II restored optimism and hope to their people
Today, as we face a new and perhaps even deadlier enemy than Soviet Communism, we need to revisit the powerful lessons taught by these three great leaders who revived the faith, prosperity, and freedom of the West.
John O'Sullivan covered the Reagan presidency as a Washington columnist, was a special adviser to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and has written regularly on Pope John Paul II and the Catholic Church's influence on international relations. A veteran journalist in Britain and the United States, he was the editor in chief of National Review, The National Interest, Policy Review, and United Press International, editorial page editor of the New York Post, op-ed and editorial page editor for the London Times, and an editor with the London Daily Telegraph. He is currently editor at large for National Review, a weekly columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, and a senior fellow with the Hudson Institute. A Commander of the British Empire and founder of the New Atlantic Initiative, he divides his time between his apartment in Washington, D.C., his home in Decatur, Alabama, and frequent trips to Britain, Europe, and Latin America.
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| Phillips, Kevin (English-American history)
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| The Cousins’ Wars: Religion, Politics and the Triumph of Anglo-America (Basic Books 1999)
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| See glyph 013 "Letters on the English", by Voltaire, 1733
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| The Anglosphere: A Geneology of a Racialized Identity in International Relations (Stanford 2011)
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| The Anglosphere refers to a community of English-speaking states, nations, and societies centered on Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States, which has profoundly influenced the direction of world history and fascinated countless observers.
This book argues that the origins of the Anglosphere are racial. Drawing on theories of collective identity-formation and framing, the book develops a new framework for analyzing foreign policy, which it then evaluates in case studies related to fin-de-siècle imperialism (1894-1903), the ill-fated Pacific Pact (1950-1), the Suez crisis (1956), the Vietnam escalation (1964-5), and the run-up to the Iraq war (2002-3). Each case study highlights the contestations over state and empire, race and nation, and liberal internationalism and anti-Americanism, taking into consideration how they shaped international conflict and cooperation. In reconstructing the history of the Anglosphere, the book engages directly with the most recent debates in international relations scholarship and American foreign policy. —Stanford University Press
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| Stanford University Press ••• (description, reviews, author info, excerpts, table of contents)
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| Rafe Champion's Philosophy Site ••• & "Revivalist" magazine •••
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| 469 The Philosophy Site of Rafe Champion - treasures and surprises for friends of Karl Popper, Ludwig von Mises, and F. A. Hayek
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| "Getting to Know Popper", by Brian Magee ••• — found on Champion's site (proof of its value!)
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| "The Rathouse ••• is a site dedicated to learning and scholarship in a playful, imaginative and sceptical mood. Leave your firearms at the door and come in for a breath of critical fresh air from the likes of Karl Popper and Jacques Barzun." … "On this site, you will find a range of essays, reviews and other items that I have written over some years. Many are inspired by the work of Karl Popper, Friedrich Hayek and Ludwig von Mises. Along with other great scholars such as Jacques Barzun, they deserve to be better known and better understood."
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| Mike blogs as Lexington Green on Chicagoboyz ••• (many Anglospherian items)
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| Victorian Art ••• (devoted to Victorian/Edwardian Paintings
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| Mead, Walter Russell ••• (Via Meadia, his blog)
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| Four items on Emmanuel Todd (& Youssef Courbage) •••
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| 474 Oath of Fealty of the Aragonese Lords to their Monarch
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| 469 The Philosophy Site of Rafe Champion - treasures and surprises for friends of Karl Popper, Ludwig von Mises, and F. A. Hayek
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| 010 "An Anglosphere Primer", by James C. Bennett - ©2001, 2002 by James C. Bennett, Presented to the Foreign Policy Research Institute
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| 176 The Anglosphere Challenge: Why the English-Speaking Nations Will Lead the Way in the Twenty-First Century, by James C. Bennett
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| 180 Alan Macfarlane - The Making of the Modern World, The Riddle of the Modern World & other contents of Alan Macfarlane's website
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| 295 "The Champion of Hong Kong's Freedom: Sir John Cowperthwaite, Hong Kong, 1941 to 1971", by Christian Wignall. See this glyph for an additional article by Wignall: "Hong Kong stumbles along the road to serfdom".
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| 202 Albion's Seed, by David Hackett Fischer - origins of complex, dynamic, stable order
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| 195 Albion's Seedlings - weblog on Anglosphere topics
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| 090 Philosophy and the Real World, by Brian Magee
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| 380 William of Ockham (1300-1349) as Understood by Claudio Véliz - various kinds of decentralized disorder & the romantic disposition
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| 387 Realist and Nominalist — Baroque Hedgehog and Gothic Fox - a Greek myth central to Claudio Véliz' The New World of the Gothic Fox
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| 378 "The Factory System of the Early Nineteenth Century", by W. H. Hutt - toward a better understanding of conditions existing early in the Industrial Revolution
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| Commentary at Mises Institute, with small image of a remarkable painting, "Coalbrookdale by Night" (1801), by Philippe Jacques de Loutherbourg: http://mises.org/daily/2443
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| 416 Bennett's Conjecture on English Speaking India - the most important fact of the 21st century?
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| 013 Letters on the English, by Voltaire, 1733
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| O'Rourke, on Cars -- found by Glenn Reynolds and posted on Instapundit for July 13, 2011
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| Cars didn’t shape our existence; cars let us escape with our lives. We’re way the heck out here in Valley Bottom Heights and Trout Antler Estates because we were at war with the cities. We fought rotten public schools, idiot municipal bureaucracies, corrupt political machines, rampant criminality and the pointy-headed busybodies. Cars gave us our dragoons and hussars, lent us speed and mobility, let us scout the terrain and probe the enemy’s lines. And thanks to our cars, when we lost the cities we weren’t forced to surrender, we were able to retreat. —Glenn comments: "That’s why the nanny-staters hate ‘em. They want you under their thumb."
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| History, Participants, Scholars
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| August 4, 2011: The name was changed to Vortex Anglosphere to more accurately reflect its intent.
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| Inspired by discussions with Jim Bennett and reading of historian Paul Johnson, this vortex was once named after Pelagius, born AD 350, because of his focus on the power of individuals to think and decide for themselves (see the note above by Paul Johnson). Theological disputes involving Pelagius and his work do not bear on the purpose of this vortex and, in that context they can be considered irrelevant. -leif smith, (Jim, do you concur? Mike?)
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| Participants in Vortex Arthur or Beowulf
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| Bill Casey, Jim Bennett, Leif Smith, Barbara Johnson, Rand Simberg, Lexington Green, Peter Saint-André, Alan Macfarlane, Michael Lotus, James McCormick, John O'Sullivan, Pat Wagner, Mark Frazier, Bob Chitester, Ed Warner, ...
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| Scholars whose work is contributory (bibliographies forthcoming (patience, please))
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| James C. Bennett, Winston Churchill, Robert Conquest, Ricardo Duchesne, David Hackett Fischer, Francis Fukuyama, Yukichi Fukuzawa, F. A. Hayek, Paul Johnson, Joel Kotkin, Alan Macfarlane, F. W. Maitland, Montesquieu, John Morley, Noël Mostert, Kevin Phillips, Murray N. Rothbard, Immanuel Todd, Claudio Véliz, Voltaire, Sjdjan Vucetic
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