On May 11, 2024, an NFL placekicker, who happens to be a traditional Catholic, gave a commencement address to a tradition-friendly Catholic college on traditional Catholic themes and received a standing ovation. Nothing surprising happened that day, and yet the …
Julius Evola: the far-Right’s favourite philosopher
On 25 November 1970, the great Japanese novelist and playwright Yukio Mishima arrived for an appointment with the commandant of the Tokyo barracks of the Japan Self-Defence Forces, Eastern Command. With the help of four others who joined him on …
Nihilism Strikes with a Vengeance
We live in what is probably the most nihilistic era in the history of humankind. Most English-speaking people have probably heard the term, ‘nihilism,’ but I’m willing to bet that not many know its precise meaning. The term comes from …
The narcissism of liberal gods
By now it’s a cliché that liberalism in the Anglosphere has become a religion, whether or not its adherents know it. But less often remarked is a fact somewhat in tension with this claim: namely, that its worshippers get to …
Atlas Shrugs Twice
One fateful day in March 2020, the incompetent men shut down the world with lockdowns. It was the opposite of the premise in Atlas Shrugged. Who is John Galt? Who cares? The incompetent people could stop the motor of the …
Pain is the Prompt
It’s been a long time, I know.
It pains me that I haven’t written, that I haven’t been able to muster the energy, focus, or heart to put pen to paper and express anything, but I do so now precisely …
Philosophy of Law for the Modern World
The French philosopher, Jean-Francois Lyotard, who contributed important philosophical insights in a variety of philosophical sub-disciplines, regarded his book, The Differend (originally published in 1983), as his most important work, and with good reason. It is a tightly argued text …
Sing Us a Song, Piano Man
The last orchestral performance I went to was shortly after our local orchestra resumed limited, socially distanced performances after the initial shutdown. That was in November 2020, nearly two full months after Governor DeSantis had removed any official statewide restrictions. …
A View of Kant from the East
My wife and I are in Kaliningrad, Russia – in what the Russians call ‘Little Russia’ as opposed to ‘Big Russia’ – where the ‘Kant 300’ conference (commemorating the 300th birthday of this great thinker) has just ended. As philosophers would know, Enlightenment …
The Latent Fascism of Today’s Anti-Fascists
Nothing can have as its destination anything other than its origin. The contrary idea, the idea of progress, is poison.
Simone WeilThe terms “fascist” and “fascism” are continuously bandied about today. But those who use these words most seem …
The delusion of having a meaningful job
I suspect Montaigne was being coy when he complained of the “wild and useless weeds” that would encroach on his mind in idleness. It is to those wild shoots that Montaigne owed his genre-defining essais, and thus his lasting influence. …
Ancient Political Advice for Today’s Rulers
It is probably the case that politicians who are encouraged to read the works of the ancient Greek thinker, Plato – particularly The Republic – to learn something there about the prerequisites for being able to govern appropriately and wisely, …
False Knowledge is Our Fool’s Gold
At the end of 2023, I was talking with a man who has a PhD in one of the hard sciences and happened to mention deaths from the experimental Covid injections. In surprise he responded, “Wait, people died from the …
The Four Sins of ‘Thawteffery’
The neologism thawteffery is for “thought F-ery.” F-ery connotes a short-run horizon, such as the election cycle. I pronounce it “thaw-tef-fery.”
Thawteffery is the wicked management of thought, election-to-election, by wicked people for wicked purposes. I speak of the wicked …
The lunacy of Child Liberation
Lionel Shriver’s latest novel, Mania, starts from the wild and wacky premise of a world in which “the last civil rights battle” is being fought against discrimination on the grounds of intelligence, and the “s-word” is as taboo there as …
