About John Horvat

John Horvat II is a scholar, researcher, educator, international speaker, and author of the book Return to Order, as well as the author of hundreds of published essays. He lives in Spring Grove, Pennsylvania, where he is the vice president of the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property.

To the Overwhelmed Class of 2023: Don’t Be Underwhelming

By |2023-05-24T23:17:22-05:00May 24th, 2023|Categories: Christianity, Education, Graduation, John Horvat|

The Class of 2023 can overcome its overwhelming challenges by admiring those eternal and permanent Christian ideals that have always enthralled generations. Those who generously give themselves to what they admire and love find meaning and purpose. Indeed, the overwhelmed class of 2023 can become overwhelming by becoming a shining beacon of faith and hope [...]

The Left vs. Natural Law

By |2023-05-15T19:12:04-05:00May 15th, 2023|Categories: John Horvat, Liberalism, Natural Law|

Natural law terrifies the left, which assumed it had long ago died. Leftists cannot admit that there might be those who welcome ordered liberty and restraint. They cannot see that nihilism awaits on the other side of a flawed legal positivist system that will lead to every mode of emptiness and despair. The left is [...]

Impressions of a Soulless New Airport

By |2023-04-25T07:59:10-05:00April 24th, 2023|Categories: Architecture, Beauty, Culture, John Horvat|

Architecture, even in the case of airports, should uplift and inspire the soul to consider higher and wider panoramas. By their logic and beauty, buildings should speak to us of God, the source of all beauty. I lament that so many new buildings seem designed to limit horizons to the purely material, functional, and superficial. [...]

The Prayer of André Zirnheld, Teacher-Turned-Paratrooper

By |2023-03-31T16:45:42-05:00March 30th, 2023|Categories: Audio/Video, Christianity, John Horvat, World War II|

In André Zirnheld's touching plea, we sense the fiery charity of one that does not want to displease or even inconvenience God. We learn to be satisfied with what others do not want, with what is left over. In times like ours, everyone is so self-centered that few think of giving themselves to a higher [...]

Three Reasons Why a “National Divorce” Would Shatter America

By |2023-03-05T23:36:31-06:00March 5th, 2023|Categories: American Republic, John Horvat|

Secession solves none of America's problems. It will only accelerate the processes of moral decadence and national destruction. Only the arduous fight for a return to God and a moral order will provide the way out of the present crisis for all Americans. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is calling for a “national divorce” between red [...]

How a Fairy Tale Prince Became an Anti-Hero

By |2023-01-18T18:18:48-06:00January 18th, 2023|Categories: England, John Horvat, Modernity, Monarchy, Morality|

There is nothing unique in Prince Harry’s story. The same plot applies to all who have walked down the selfish, disastrous road of postmodernity, where every tradition and social structure must be questioned, and every narrative denied. If there is a figure that is not a role model, it is Prince Harry, son of Charles [...]

The Phone Lady vs. Smartphone Culture

By |2023-01-10T12:31:37-06:00January 10th, 2023|Categories: Civil Society, Community, John Horvat, Technology|

One enterprising lady has noticed the social void caused by texting and instant messaging and has started a company that teaches phone skills to young people. But can she help resolve the moral problems of an age of superficial and self-centered relationships? Smartphones supposedly made possible an age of unprecedented communication. Everyone, especially young people, [...]

A Christmas Gift to Provoke Young People to Marvel Again

By |2022-12-04T16:27:45-06:00December 4th, 2022|Categories: Christmas, Civilization, Gifts for Imaginative Conservatives, John Horvat|

My simple suggestion for a Christmas gift to a young person is a fountain pen with beautiful ink. Perhaps it is wishful thinking to believe that those who receive so much instant gratification on their devices would embrace this soulful yet slow instrument of beauty. But who knows? They might be struck by the wonder [...]

Greta Thunberg Turns Left… and Red

By |2022-11-14T16:58:23-06:00November 14th, 2022|Categories: Conservation, Environmentalism, John Horvat, Politics|

As she grows up in her bitterness, Greta Thunberg—the poster child of the eco-movement—comes out of the red closet. Her embracing of the left proves that climate activism taken to its final consequences will always lead to anti-Western communist ideology. When climate activist Greta Thunberg appeared on the scene some years ago, the media celebrated [...]

An Undeserved Nobel Prize in Literature

By |2022-10-24T18:05:19-05:00October 24th, 2022|Categories: Beauty, John Horvat, Literature, Truth|

The world needs works of literature with a moral message that will inspire readers to virtue and bring people closer to God. But today's literature reflects only a debased wasteland. Let there be no Noble Prize for literature until writers can present a moral order that will return to the long-forgotten quest for the good, [...]

When Is There Too Much Whisky?

By |2022-10-05T14:46:02-05:00October 5th, 2022|Categories: Community, Culture, Economics, John Horvat|

Whisky is not a product of savvy entrepreneurs. It is a product of Scottish culture that, like the drink, should be savored and appreciated. The primary consumers should be the local populations that imagined whisky. When operations go big to satisfy cosmopolitan demand, they lose something of that human touch and local flavor that give [...]

We Mourn the Queen

By |2022-09-11T11:13:41-05:00September 11th, 2022|Categories: Audio/Video, England, John Horvat, Monarchy|

We live in a postmodern, egalitarian world that detests everything Elizabeth II represented. It was not only the United Kingdom’s Queen who died on September 8, but also the Queen of all who saw her as a symbol of order in a world in chaos and disarray. We mourn because a great pillar of devotion [...]

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