The less you know about something, the more you are at liberty to fantasize about it.
John Leake
March 12, 2025
John Leake
March 12, 2025
A friend just sent me a New York Post report from 2022 introducing Europe’s “tough women leaders taking on Vladimir Putin,” replete with this illustration.
Ursula von der Leyen is the EU Commission President, Annalena Baerbock is the German Foreign Minister, Sanna Marin is the former Finnish Prime Minister, now a “strategic advisor” of the Tony Blair Institute. Kaja Kallas is the former Estonian Prime Minister and now Vice President of the European Commission.
The trouble with such “tough women,” it seems to me, is that may often be lulled into thinking that they have something to prove. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, President Kennedy remarked to a confidante that the trouble with General Curtis LeMay, who wanted to commence hostilities with the Russians, was that he allowed his decision-making to be governed by his fear of seeming weak.
I sometimes wonder if John Kennedy was the last man of any real sophistication to hold high office in the West. Since he was assassinated, we have, it seems to me, witnessed a steady decline of intellect in our leaders.
It reminds me of the great opening scene of Patrick O’Brian’s novel, HMS Surprise, set during the Napoleonic Wars. Sir Joseph Blain, the head of British naval intelligence, attends a meeting of the Admiralty and assesses the men who staff it.
The trouble with such “tough women,” it seems to me, is that may often be lulled into thinking that they have something to prove. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, President Kennedy remarked to a confidante that the trouble with General Curtis LeMay, who wanted to commence hostilities with the Russians, was that he allowed his decision-making to be governed by his fear of seeming weak.
I sometimes wonder if John Kennedy was the last man of any real sophistication to hold high office in the West. Since he was assassinated, we have, it seems to me, witnessed a steady decline of intellect in our leaders.
It reminds me of the great opening scene of Patrick O’Brian’s novel, HMS Surprise, set during the Napoleonic Wars. Sir Joseph Blain, the head of British naval intelligence, attends a meeting of the Admiralty and assesses the men who staff it.
[Sir Joseph] leant back in his chair, watching the speakers, assessing their abilities. Poor, on the whole; and the new First Lord was a fool, a mere politician. Sir Joseph had served under Chatham, Spencer, St Vincent and Melville, and this man made a pitiful figure beside them: they had had their failings, particularly Chatham, but not one would so have missed the point…
I once heard a story about a man whose inner ear was ruptured while big wave surfing on Maui, which induced chronic vertigo so severe that he was violently nauseated at all times. I sometimes think about this man’s unfathomable suffering, especially when I hear relatively inexperienced surfers express the desire to go tow-surfing on Jaws—one of the biggest waves in the world.
The less you know about something dangerous, the more you are at liberty to fantasize about it. I fear the “tough women leaders of Europe who wish to take on Vladimir Putin” know little about the reality of war.
Continue reading on Substack.
The less you know about something dangerous, the more you are at liberty to fantasize about it. I fear the “tough women leaders of Europe who wish to take on Vladimir Putin” know little about the reality of war.
Continue reading on Substack.