Civilization

On War: Homer’s Advice to Us

Author's Introduction: Imagine if Homer, Virgil, Dante, Chaucer, and the other great poets of ancient Greece, Rome, and the Middle Ages had been given the gift, not only to peer into the twenty-first century, but to correspond with we who live in that most confusing and rudderless...

America’s Ship of Fools

Although somewhat overshadowed by the allegory of the Cave, the myth of the ring of Gyges, and other powerful images found in Plato’s Republic, the account of the ship of fools is still memorable and compelling....

A Backwards Civilization: Unthinking Leaders, Frenzied Citizens

In America today, we are living in a toxic political climate that is the product of a very dangerous combination: Our rulers lack the learning necessary to ask the kinds of deep and fundamental questions that leaders and lawgivers ought to make a habit of pondering, while our people...

Warfare in Epic Poetry

A culture that fails to represent, or that misrepresents its wars in all their glory, gravity, and tragedy, is a weaker polity. Epic poetry, with its stark recording of the facts and feelings of war, can give cultures and communities access to the reality of warfare and...

How Do We Restore the American Order?

This is America’s tragic situation: The unifying framework of the American creed is now broken. The result is an America that is coming apart... On every American coin, there is the Latin expression, e pluribus unum, meaning...

Standing Athwart History: Can We Stop the Decline of the West?

Today’s offering in our Timeless Essay series affords our readers the opportunity to join Michael De Sapio as he considers the reasons for the decline of the West. —W. Winston Elliott III, Publisher That Western culture is...

Four Sides of a Cube: The Way of Great Books

We turn to the Great Books so that the encounter with them might do for us what they did for past generations. We turn to them as world makers, that they might aide us in understanding the world they were instrumental in bringing about, our world...

Eating Alone: Aristotle and the Culture of the Meal

Aristotle identified man’s eating habits as one of the cornerstones of civilization—one of two activities that highlighted the nature of man’s exquisiteness (and barbarousness). The importance of eating to the human condition should be self-evident to everyone. But what is...

Three Dangerous Philosophical Novels

In a culture in which algorithms control the content we consume—what movies to watch, what goods to buy, what news to listen to—the choice to read a book whose philosophy opposes our own and questions our sacred assumptions is nothing short of revolutionary...

Nature, Science, and Civilization

At its finest, the new conception of nature enabled people to appreciate, and wish to safeguard, the natural environment on which life depends. At its worst, this reverence for the natural world gave rise to a mindless sentimentality that regarded all human activity as harmful and exploitive...

Can Shakespeare Save Civilization?

Perhaps an apology might be necessary for the sheer audacity of beginning any essay with such a question and with such a seemingly absurd claim. Of course, Shakespeare cannot save civilization, at least not on his own. Perhaps we...

Civilization and Its Enemies

The attack against Western civilization is, in some way, an attack against the Body of Christ. And Christians need to understand that... What is civilization and why is it important? Civilization is many things, but at its heart,...

Decadence and Its Critics

If conservatives can pin down the idea of decadence while avoiding shrill tones, they may go far in explaining what it means for a civilization to decline... Today’s offering in our Timeless Essay series affords our readers the opportunity to join Gleaves Whitney as he explores...

G.K. Chesterton’s “What’s Wrong With the World”

The next time someone tells you that reactionaries and other assorted defenders of the family and private property do not care about the poor, invite them to read G.K. Chesterton’s final words in What’s Wrong with the World... A...