By Mark Wendell

James B. Stockdale stated in a speech in 1981 that from his horrific eight-year experience as a prisoner of war — extreme conditions of internment, torture, and endless, intense interrogations he and his fellow prisoners endured — he distilled one all-purpose, unoriginal idea. “It’s a simple idea, an idea as old as the scriptures, an idea that is the epitome of high-mindedness, an idea that naturally and spontaneously comes to men under pressure. If the pressure is intense enough or of long enough duration, this idea spreads without even the need for its enunciation…That idea is You are your brother’s keeper.” He added one of his favorite quotes by Francis Bacon: “Adversity doth best induce virtue, while luxury doth best induce vice.”