For many progressives, the issue is clear: Americans hold conflicting views about what it means to be American; something must change lest the nation be torn asunder; inaction can trigger a massive civil war. Of course, history is neither as deterministic nor as simplistic as the left makes it out to be. The influential left-leaning [...]
The afflictive thing about living in our polarized society is the terrifying thought that there is something permanent in our incompatibility with each other. No one desires the present unpleasantness. We sincerely wish that we could get along. However, most people want a quick fix. They want magic buttons to push that will make the [...]
Given the overwhelming rule of liberal fashion, modesty would seem a lost cause. Nonetheless, major fashion designers are returning to what was once considered a modern taboo: clothing that leaves more to the imagination, keeps hemlines down and little skin exposed. When you hear the term “modest fashion,” you think of clothing linked to religious [...]
There is an order of the universe. How refreshing are these words! They cause a certain joy, especially in our days of chaos. If an order exists, then God exists who is its Creator and source. We might then exclaim with the Psalmist how all creation gives glory to God and elevates our souls towards [...]
If you ask those who attended the debate between Sohrab Ahmari and David French at Catholic University who won the encounter, you will get different answers. However, most would agree that the packed event moderated by New York Times writer Ross Douthat did not get to the core of the matter. If you ask those [...]
They say a rising tide lifts all boats. The same might be said for many things in life. When standards are raised high, everyone benefits. The contrary is also true: Lower standards pull everyone down. […]
If America is polarized and directionless today, it is partly due to the cultural revolution that emanated from Woodstock. The solution is not to recreate Woodstock fifty years later, but to reject it as the cultural and moral disaster that it was. Woodstock represented what America would eventually become—a broken and dysfunctional society. It shows [...]
For most of our history, the American liberal consensus held that the nation’s God was Christian. However, modernists undermined this consensus by welcoming in secular idols through the back door. They turned the temple into a pantheon. A great debate is raging among conservatives about the future of the movement. At stake is the classical [...]
Those who address graduates usually speak about the struggle to obtain success in life. Graduates are told that they must now face the difficult challenges that await them. They should accept no limits in their quest to change the world. Armed with their new skills, they can now face whatever life can throw at them. [...]
Some American places have excellent local cuisines. However, the cultures that sustain them are dying, as they are in Italy with its pasta cuisine. We are losing our connection with the roots of cuisine because our culture is shattered, fragmented, and undermined by globalization. Paging through the food section of The Wall Street Journal, I [...]
Emptiness is defined negatively as the absence of something. It can involve structures which are not occupied or filled, as in empty bottles. Emptiness can refer to situations lacking reality, substance or meaning, as in empty pleasures. Actions can be empty when they have no consequences, as in empty gestures or threats. […]
There was a time, decades ago when the world was divided between those who were online and offline. Rich people could afford the shiny new gadgets that connected them with everyone. Poor people were left in an analog wasteland on the other side of the digital divide. Social justice warriors of the time demanded internet [...]
Studies confirm that traditional families result in less delinquency, criminality, illness, drug use, sexual promiscuity and stress. The best family policy is carried out by the family itself. Those who need the “family” aid offered by liberal policymakers are not truly “families.” As the next national elections loom on the horizon, many liberal candidates are [...]
At some point this past month, America crossed a Rubicon that dramatically threw our society into a disorder manifested by the denial of reality and truth. However, the unmasking of disorder in all its hideousness has produced more intense longings for a return of a moral order by those who grieve for the nation and [...]