A R C H I V E

All founding moments begin with uncertainty.

A corporation requires bylaws. A currency requires valuation. A nation requires a constitution. Before structure comes thought—and before thought, philosophers.

The American experiment did not begin on the battlefield, but in conversation. In 1743, Benjamin Franklin founded the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia to create an environment where ideas could take shape before institutions gave them form.

In 2020, when we set out to build the Highland Institute, we faced a similar question: Who are we, and what do we stand for? We did not begin with programming or capital. We began with inquiry—and called in the philosophers…

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We have seen this movie before.

Since 1979, when revolutionary students stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days, the conflict between Iran and the United States has unfolded not as a declared war, but as a series of violent episodes punctuated by uneasy pauses.

Operation Eagle Claw, the failed 1980 rescue mission, left eight American servicemen dead in the desert. In 1983, a Hezbollah-linked bombing in Beirut killed 241 U.S. service members. In 1988, the U.S. Navy crippled much of Iran’s fleet in Operation Praying Mantis, signaling a willingness to escalate, but not to finish.

And so the pattern emerged: strike, absorb, pause. Repeat…

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“Know thyself,” Socrates insisted. The Enneagram offers a map, Joseph Campbell the narrative, and life itself the proving ground as I strive to evolve from male to man to, hopefully, something finer still.

Since we cannot see our own shadow, we need a guide.

The mentor appears across time and myth. Obi-Wan and Yoda shape Luke Skywalker through instruction and confrontation, teaching him to face his fears, find his purpose, and trust the invisible forces he resists, until he finally embraces them. Then there are Bilbo and Gandalf. Aristotle offered Alexander not just knowledge, but a worldview that helped him fuse discipline with ambition to bend history before the age of thirty-two.

What unites these figures is not teaching, but ignition. A true mentor sees the unrealized self and calls it forward. This often feels uncomfortable. It disrupts, unsettles, and dismantles what we think we know in order to reveal what we might become…

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Simple ain’t easy. Even a partial fulfillment of Socrates’ command, “Know Thyself”, demands a lifetime of hard work.

The Bible tells us that Moses wandered the desert for forty years in search of the promised land. Beowulf’s journey from fearless warrior to a wise king who faced death alone reveals that true strength is coming to terms with one’s limits and legacy.

Arjuna, the conflicted warrior of the Bhagavad Gita, turned to Lord Krishna not to escape battle, but to understand it, and in doing so, to understand himself.

Rostam, the great hero of Ferdowsi's Shahnameh, stood as Persia’s answer to Hercules, guided by his wise father Zal—and sustained by his faithful horse Rakhsh—yet even he could not outrun the tragic consequences of fate and self-unawareness.

Each hero fights an outer battle that mirrors an inner one…

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There is no handbook for launching an institute. While City Club exists to serve its members, Highland Institute strives to channel our members’ collective resources to serve others and, in our own small way, advance human evolution.

Since its founding in May 2020, the Institute has made steady progress. We have established a legal structure, secured nonprofit status, built a team, and attracted generous financial support to sustain our work for years to come. Now, we have begun shaping our identity through our brand, creating a more sophisticated digital presence, and carefully planting ideas we hope will take root over time.

These efforts include launching the Boulder Police Foundation, Highland Institute’s Security Forum, a successful Ukrainian sister-city initiative, positioning Boulder as a hub for quantum computing, and strengthening our culture through partnerships with numerous art and festival organizations. At the same time, we are planning to build a school—Paideia—to educate our teens in virtue…

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We survived another winter. Spring has returned—along with Passover, Ramadan, the Persian New Year, and City Club’s twenty-first anniversary. I am still alive, and for that alone I am grateful. This season invites reflection: to renew old traditions, strengthen friendships, and remember why community matters.

They say loneliness is the #1 epidemic in America. Nearly thirty percent of households contain just one person. Half of marriages end in divorce, and more than seventy percent of Black babies are born to unmarried mothers. Whatever the cause, the social fabric is fraying, and the quiet ache of disconnection touches us all.

As a young immigrant, I knew that ache well as a stranger in a strange land. I dreamed of belonging to a community not defined by race, religion, or blood, but by friendship, curiosity, and shared meals…

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“In the beginning was the word.” In a recent column, I wrote that in Aramaic—the pre-Hebrew language in which Jesus likely communicated—Ab’ra means “I create,” and KeDab’ra means “as I speak.” Some call it magic.

The power of the spoken word reminds us that we participate in creating our reality. We live in a matrix where everything is connected. We are a drop in the ocean and, as Rumi reminds us, an ocean in a drop.

Founded as a modest gold-mining base camp, Boulder has long aspired to become the Athens of the West and the Florence of arts and culture. Over time, it attracted the University of Colorado, Chautauqua, more than thirty national laboratories, and now the Sundance Film Festival.

Sundance arrives at a pivotal moment. The festival faces the loss of its founder and the rapid economic impact of artificial intelligence on filmmaking. Meanwhile, Boulder faces pressures of its own, including a 38% downtown office vacancy rate and declining sales and property tax revenues…

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The philosophical roots of America’s Declaration of Independence stretch back to ancient Israel and Greece—and further still, to King Cyrus the Great of Persia. More than 2,500 years ago, Cyrus built one of the largest empires of the ancient world. Unlike many conquerors of his time, he allowed subjugated peoples to maintain their customs and religions. The Cyrus Cylinder, dating to the 6th century BC, is often described as an early charter of human rights because it records his policy of tolerance and liberation.

Long before Islam, Persians largely followed Zoroastrianism, one of the world’s oldest monotheistic religions. In the 7th century, Arab Muslim armies conquered Persia. Over time, Islam became the dominant religion. Yet Persian identity endured. Unlike some other conquered societies that assimilated more fully into Arab culture, Persians preserved their language, literature, and historical memory.

A thousand years ago, the great Persian poet Ferdowsi composed the Shahnameh (Book of Kings), a monumental epic that preserved Iran’s pre-Islamic history and mythology. Through poetry, he safeguarded a civilizational identity that might otherwise have been lost…

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In engineering school, they teach you, “The definition of the problem is half the solution.” I have found that to be true in writing as well. Sometimes it takes months to discover not only what I want to write about, but why. Other times, a topic continues to echo long after publication, asking for deeper examination.

My recent column, The Making of a Superior Man, sparked meaningful conversations. Most readers agreed with the premise and conclusions. A few, however, paused at the adjective Superior. They asked, “Why superior? Doesn’t that imply others are inferior? Why not use the term ‘evolved’ or ‘consummate’ instead?”

Others posed a broader question: “Why not write about Superior Women? Or better yet, Superior Humans?”

These provocations struck a chord. Words matter. They shape not only how we communicate ideas, but how those ideas are received. What if I had written The Way of the Evolved Woman instead? Would that have softened the reaction, or sharpened the focus?..

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Bretton Woods and the Marshall Plan closed the chapter on World War II. The fall of the Soviet Union marked the end of the Cold War. For a brief, heady moment, history itself seemed to pause.

Davos became the temple of that illusion. Global elites flew in on private jets to praise cooperation, carbon credits, and frictionless markets. Why build in America if China could do it cheaper? Why harden borders if globalization promised perpetual peace?

That premise is now shattered.

Europe underfunded its defense and outsourced its energy to Russia. NATO became a shield taken for granted. Then came Crimea. Then Ukraine. Sanctions replaced symposiums. Supply chains became weapons. Markets bent to geopolitics.

Last week in Munich, Western heads of state, generals, intelligence chiefs, and defense ministers gathered not to optimize trade but to confront force with force. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s speech made clear: the post–Cold War holiday is over. America must build a new arsenal of democracy for an AI-enabled battlefield…

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Happy Valentine’s Day. May you love deeply and often, in good health.

In past years, I have written about Twin Flames, the Valley of Love, and my ongoing efforts to understand love in its many forms: romantic, familial, platonic, love of country, and love of the divine.

As I grow older and experience love at a deeper level, I have come to understand that romantic love carries a sticky residue—neediness, co-dependency, jealousy, or the fear of loss.

Two thousand years ago, Rabbi Hillel posed a timeless question: “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I am only for myself, what am I?” Applied to love, the question becomes sharper still: “If I cannot love myself, how can I truly love others?”…

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Russia’s war in Ukraine is now in its fourth year. America and Israel appear poised to redraw the map of the Middle East through a kinetic war with Iran. In China, Xi Jinping has dismissed his top general, reportedly to clear the path for an attack on Taiwan. In the U.S., power has consolidated under a strongman whose militia of armed, masked agents suppresses public dissent.

Gold and silver are rising. The dollar and Bitcoin are falling. America and Europe face internal unrest over immigration. Global debt has reached unsustainable levels. Technology is reshaping how we live and work.

Chaos reigns…

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Roughly half the world’s population is male, most of whom are focused on securing food, shelter, sex, and safety. They exist more than they live.

A smaller number evolve into men—individuals capable of commitment, often devoted to a cause greater than themselves; sometimes, a cause they’re willing to die for. A male wants to make love to a thousand women. A man wants to make love to the same woman a thousand times.

Fewer still become superior men. Willing to give more than they take, these men have traveled the forty-year journey from the head to the heart—and found the Promised Land within…

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When a culture fractures, it doesn’t just divide parties; it divides homes. During the American Civil War, brothers took up arms against brothers. Fathers and sons found themselves on opposite sides of a battlefield. The official cause was slavery, but the rupture ran deeper.

So what is it about Donald Trump that cuts so sharply through the American psyche? What war within us is he revealing? If, as the saying goes, we get the leaders we deserve, then perhaps Trump is not an anomaly but an agent of disruption who mirrors Kali, the Hindu god of death and destruction, fertility and rebirth, cloaked in red, white, and blue.

This week in Davos, the CEO of Anthropic warned that few truly grasp what artificial intelligence is about to unleash: “I don’t think there is an awareness of what is coming, and the magnitude of it. I am both excited and worried.”..

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My recent column on the potential for a Boulder Renaissance elicited some hesitation: What if that future brings more development, more density, more tourists? And who decides what a post-Renaissance Boulder should look like? 

Henry Ford famously quipped, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” Steve Jobs didn’t rely on a focus group to invent the iPhone. Elon Musk didn’t commission a study to build a self-driving electric car.

So what does Boulder want? Do we long for the “good old days” of mining and farming, or are we ready to become a regional hub for knowledge and culture? Do we prefer sprawl or density? Caution or vision?..

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A good holiday season should slow things down, allowing us to reflect on the past and imagine the future. I spent mine quietly—thinking, resting, and counting my blessings.

Before Christmas, Chef Tim Cook ordered a case of plump pomegranates for our winter menu. When power outages forced us to close early, I noticed them sitting untouched in the walk-in cooler. I took a few home.

Peeling one slowly, I was transported back to childhood evenings in Iran—long, cold nights warmed by the hum of an ancient cast-iron oil heater, my mother or grandmother sitting across from me, telling stories while skillfully seeding a pomegranate. The house was vast and frigid, but that room was a warm temple.

They never ate the fruit themselves. They just peeled and spooned the seeds into my mouth as if feeding royalty. Between bites, I’d hear the lullaby of blessings: “May your good deeds outnumber these seeds. May your children and grandchildren multiply like them. May your blood run red with vitality and love.”…

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Founded amid the gold rush of 1859 and officially incorporated in 1871, Boulder has always punched above its weight by attracting the University of Colorado, the Chautauqua Movement, IBM, federal labs, spiritual seekers, world-class athletes, and pioneering entrepreneurs.

Rather than chasing size, Boulder pursued substance. Early founders hired Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. to craft a plan rooted in beauty and restraint. Growth was capped at 1% per year. A greenbelt and a blue line were drawn to prevent urban sprawl. Pearl Street Mall was born—and with it, a reputation as “The Athens of the West.”

Yet Boulder’s arc of progress has never followed a straight line. Like all cities, it has bent to the headwinds of history: recessions, wars, and waves of technological and economic disruption. Today, Boulder finds itself in a down cycle. Sales and property tax revenues are falling. The City faces budget deficits and political discord. Office vacancies approach 38%—including subleases and so-called ghost space. Federal labs are shuttering. Homelessness shadows the creek that gave Boulder its name…

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As we gather with family over the holidays, we share more than just time and space; we share memories, strengthen our bonds, acknowledge our differences, and observe sacred traditions.

It is no accident that nearly every religion celebrates light during the darkest time of the year. Short days, long nights, and winter’s cold are physically and psychologically taxing, urging us to retreat, sleep, and conserve. Instead, we resist. We light candles, decorate trees, exchange gifts, and gather around crowded tables—small acts of defiance against humanity’s oldest struggle: surviving another winter.

Beyond the eccentric uncle with off‑color jokes or the politically obsessed grandmother, the clearest source of family tension is parenting. Few things expose our differences more quickly—or more painfully —than this…

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The Zoroastrians were keepers of fire. The Jews were chosen to carry the light. Light exists to confront darkness, and darkness, in turn, strives to extinguish the light.

On Sunday evening—the first night of Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of light celebrated in the darkest week of the year—a jihadist father and son brought unspeakable darkness to a Jewish congregation in Sydney, killing 15 and injuring 40.

That same week, an ISIS militant killed three Americans in Syria. In Germany, five Islamists plotted to attack a Christmas market. In Los Angeles, a man shouting antisemitic slurs fired 20 rounds into a Jewish home. Meanwhile, the FBI foiled a coordinated bombing campaign by a pro-Palestinian cell targeting five locations across Southern California…

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Just 250 years ago, America was a colony ruled by European powers. Since then, it has grown into the world’s dominant superpower—thanks to its natural bounty, Constitution, and industrial might. Over the past century, America fought two bloody world wars and an expensive Cold War to save Europe from itself and from the Russian bear next door.

In return for our efforts, we’ve watched it drift left, slashing defense budgets, importing jihad over integration, and elevating bureaucracy over liberty. England prosecutes speech. France riots over a two-year increase in retirement age. Germany dithers as Russian tanks roll into Ukraine. The EU, once a beacon of unity, has become a labyrinth of regulation that stifles innovation and undermines national sovereignty.

And yet, many Europeans dismiss us as crude capitalists who are heartless, loud, and environmentally unaware. The EU continues to harass American companies like Apple and Google. Greenpeace, recently fined $667 million for sabotaging the Dakota Access Pipeline, now seeks to nullify that U.S. verdict through a Dutch court. This is not just a legal maneuver, but a contempt for our rule of law…

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