James Richard Brett
Welcome to The View from Now.
I have been interested in world politics since I was ten and delivering newpapers in suburban Washington, D.C. My interest in Russia began when I discovered that some of my ancestors had come from part of the Russian Empire. Growing up at ground zero of the Cold War three miles from the Pentagon was doubtlessly important, too. As an undergraduate I majored in History with a Concentration on Russia and the Soviet Union. After five years active duty as a Naval officer and by the time I was completing the work for the doctoral degree in Russian History at UCLA I was also studying the history of ideas, scientific and political.
It is important for me NOW that I have aged significantly to keep an historical perspective on the dramas of our day, but also to represent the perspective I have as a senior. Everyone knows what it feel like to know you may not ever see world peace. Seniors have that feeling about lots of things!
I am a student of our world's political ideologies, and I am deeply concerned about the emotional concerns conservatives have about socialism, and the underlying belief that competition is better than cooperation. I vote as a Progressive Liberal. The Brett Motto from the Middle Ages is "Velis Id Quod Possis," "Wish for the Possible," so I am both an Idealist and a Pragmatist, a Hamiltonian from Mr. Jefferson's University, and an Optimist.
I hope you enjoy my essays. I will announce them on appropriate social media. I also hope you like thoughtful, near-future science fiction, because I have published some of that at Amazon. And, #7 is in the edit stages right now.
9/3/24