Lloyd George Suggests Piracy

May 1930:

Lloyd George exchanged a few words with my father and then turning to me said: “What are you going to do, my boy, when you grow up?” “I’m going into the Navy, sir,” I replied, giving what was then my stock answer. He frowned, shook his long mane of white hair and said, “There are much greater storms in politics. If it’s piracy you want, with broadsides, boarding parties, walking the plank and blood on the deck, this is the place.” He continued for a couple of minutes comparing modern politics with the naval battles of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and then went on his way.

— Julian Amery, Approach March: A Venture in Autobiography

Dear Reader,

Can I be direct with you?

War abroad. Socialists on the rise. AI upending human life. Endless uproar online. The modern attention economy doesn’t want readers — it wants users enslaved to the tyranny of the present.

First Things is the antidote: literary excellence, timeless truths, and a fixed point of reference in a culture that has lost its bearings.

But we can’t do it without readers like you.

Our goal: Raise $150,000 by November 1 to sustain First Things in the year ahead.


Your gift anchors readers in the permanent things.

Make your Fall Campaign gift now using the button below.

GIVE NOW

If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Giovanni Del Piero, Director of the Editor’s Circle, at gdelpiero@firstthings.com or 212-627-1985.

Next
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE

The Church in the Age of Therapy

Matthew Loftus

In 1966, Philip Rieff wrote in The Triumph of the Therapeutic that “Religious man was born to…

Canada’s Deadliest Blind Spot

Anna Farrow

On September 20, the Daily Mail ran a story with the provocative headline, “Our 83-year-old Christian grandmother…

The Faithful Joy of Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen

Mike Aquilina

Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen seem to have had little in common. She favored rhinestones; he wore…