True Fourth

By |2023-07-03T16:17:35-05:00July 3rd, 2023|Categories: American Founding, Freedom, Glenn Arbery, Independence Day, Liberty, Patriotism, Timeless Essays, Wyoming Catholic College|

Why is the true Fourth such a powerful image of liberty? Because the things that most deepen us and rouse us are dangerous. An appetite for the real good means being willing to face danger, and the whole point of the liberty we celebrate is that we learn to handle danger, to face it responsibly, [...]

Veterans Day

By |2022-11-10T18:50:27-06:00November 10th, 2022|Categories: American Republic, Glenn Arbery, Patriotism, Senior Contributors, Timeless Essays, Veterans Day, Wyoming Catholic College|

For most of our veterans, it should go without saying that military discipline and experience give them a moral authority. It is a recognition—once universal—that is too often forgotten in an age when patriotism itself seems suspect to many. On this day when we honor our veterans, it’s good to recollect both the debt of [...]

Good and Bad Nationalism

By |2022-08-25T14:02:01-05:00August 25th, 2022|Categories: Foreign Affairs, History, Joseph Pearce, Nationalism, Patriotism, Senior Contributors|

The spirit of good nationalism is inseparable from the spirit of humility. It loves its neighbours. A good nationalist loves the good nationalists in other nations because they love their country as he loves his. A good nationalist knows that bad nationalism is merely imperialism wearing a patriotic mask. Nationalism has a bad name and [...]

The Patriotism of a Conservative

By |2022-06-13T15:38:55-05:00June 13th, 2022|Categories: Bruce Frohnen, Conservatism, Patriotism, Politics, Timeless Essays|Tags: |

Particularly in dangerous times, the true patriot has a duty to resist the call to blind nationalist obedience so that he may serve his nation’s true interests, and help it to live up to its duty to obey a law higher than itself. Perhaps the most famous quotation from the great Tory lexicographer Samuel Johnson [...]

The Virtues of Patriotism, the Vices of Nationalism

By |2022-04-24T17:26:31-05:00April 24th, 2022|Categories: American Founding, American Republic, Featured, George Stanciu, Nationalism, Patriotism, St. John's College, Timeless Essays|

Patriotism—the love of place, countrymen, and local traditions—lasted for millennia, until replaced by nationalism, which we believe is a natural outgrowth of tribal life, instead of an invention of Western Europe. I sat through elementary school not knowing that to guarantee new generations of virtuous and patriotic citizens, the French Revolution established the first comprehensive [...]

The Challenge of American Patriotism in the 21st Century

By |2021-07-02T09:02:24-05:00July 2nd, 2021|Categories: American Republic, Patriotism|

Thanks to feverish cosmopolitanism and globalism, many Americans have grown up rootless and hyper-mobile, so they have little in the way of local "patria" with which to connect. The American patriot increasingly looks like the Atlantean or Trojan patriot, forced to carry within himself whatever residual sense of home and connection to place and people [...]

George Orwell On Populism, Patriotism, & Veiled Censorship

By |2021-01-26T13:58:06-06:00January 31st, 2021|Categories: George Orwell, Patriotism, Politics, Populism|

Christians can respect George Orwell even if we cannot fully claim him. But “woke” progressives have no logical choice but to repudiate the secular liberal icon altogether for his skepticism toward egalitarianism, globalism, and political correctness. However he may feel about it, no honest and perceptive person will deny that the Overton window of acceptable [...]

Is Patriotic Education a Good Idea?

By |2020-11-26T18:59:28-06:00November 26th, 2020|Categories: American Republic, History, Patriotism|

We are not only failing to educate our young people, but we are also teaching them to despise their country. But the left immediately attacked President Trump's solution to this problem, comparing his commission on patriotic education to the indoctrination of Hitler Youth organizations in Nazi Germany. Last week my friend John was chatting with [...]

Is it Time for “Nationalist” Education?

By |2020-11-09T00:11:38-06:00November 8th, 2020|Categories: American Republic, Education, History, Liberal Learning, Nationalism, Patriotism|

Advocates of patriotic education would do well to embrace the nationalist elements of such an approach to learning. Doing so is fraught with challenges given the negative connotations of the word, but Yoram Hazony’s book, “The Virtue of Nationalism,” may be a useful resource for educators, policymakers, and historians. In response to historical revisionism and [...]

“The Glory of Being an American”

By |2020-10-25T14:11:20-05:00October 25th, 2020|Categories: American Republic, Audio/Video, Catholicism, Patriotism|

Piety and patriotism go together. In the profundity of our vocation, we've chosen as our national symbol an eagle, flying upwards and onwards to the source of all our rights and liberties, unto God! "The Glory of Being an American" originally aired on Bishop Sheen's popular television show, "Life Is Worth Living." Please enjoy this [...]

What Is Patriotic Education?

By |2020-10-12T09:07:17-05:00October 11th, 2020|Categories: American Founding, American Republic, Education, History, Liberal Learning, Patriotism|

Patriotic education is less about the specific curricular concepts that are featured in American history classes, and more about a philosophical stance that informs our approach, one full of explicit values and assumptions. It involves an audacious faith in America and tells the whole story of our past, which includes the bad with the good. [...]

Roman Death Masks and the Role of Memory

By |2020-07-31T17:06:50-05:00July 31st, 2020|Categories: Art, Culture, Death, History, Patriotism, Rome|

Roman death masks—called “imagines”—were actually wax models impressed directly on the face during life, and they bore a remarkable likeness to the person. Displayed during the funerals of the elite, they served as a link between the present and the past and were meant to inspire attendees to patriotic virtue. The recent defacement of statues [...]

Arguing With George Orwell

By |2020-08-17T00:43:49-05:00June 4th, 2020|Categories: George Orwell, Joseph Pearce, Literature, Nationalism, Patriotism, Politics, Senior Contributors|

A nationalist, as defined by George Orwell, seeks to acquire more power and prestige for any “other unit,” apart from the nation, in which he has chosen to sink his identity. According to this definition of nationalism, almost every politician of whatever ideological ilk, is a “nationalist,” even those who despise their own nation. As [...]

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