Why This Journal: Cognitive Security Through Classical Method

This journal documents an inquiry: Can classical rhetoric and Stoic practice protect minds and institutions in an age of algorithmic manipulation?

The question isn't academic. For thirty years I've worked in security and communications — violent extremism, media warfare, information operations. The tools have changed (social media, AI, micro-targeting) but the mechanisms haven't. Propaganda still works the same way Jacques Ellul described. Power still operates as Machiavelli observed. And the disciplines that protected thought then still work now.

I'm exploring this through three lenses:

• Mechanism: How manipulation works — the techniques, triggers, and structural conditions that enable it

• Method: How to counter it — standards, guardrails, correction protocols that create resilience

• Formation: How to maintain clarity while doing this work — the private practices that prevent cynicism and burnout

Currently I'm applying this to various communications projects in the national security domain. But the principles extend to any domain where information is weaponised: journalism, policy, corporate communications, civil society.

I'll publish essays, plus occasional shorter pieces. This isn't optimised for engagement or growth. I’m not aiming to be an influencer or public intellectual. It's a working journal — an experiment even in the Dark Forest Theory of the Internet — documenting what I'm learning as I apply classical method to modern information warfare.

If you're a practitioner navigating similar terrain, or a serious reader interested in these questions, welcome. I'll be drawing on Cicero, Aurelius, Seneca, Machiavelli, Ellul, and others — not as theory but as practical tools for cognitive security.

The formation happens in the practice. This journal documents that process.