Socialism always and everywhere decays into outright abuse of the human person. Has there ever been a socialism that didn’t result in the establishment of a gulag, a holocaust camp, or a killing field? At age 58, I can state with utter earnestness that one of the most devastating things of our present age is [...]
Anthony Fauci’s alleged malfeasance is an inevitable consequence of the bureaucratic regime, metastasized into our broader culture, especially in progressive cities. In the late 1980s, while I was finishing my PhD at Claremont Graduate School, President Ronald Reagan appointed my thesis advisor, Dr. William Barclay Allen, to the United States Commission on Civil Rights. A [...]
Whether in her present numerous agonies of disorder, America can transcend despair and rebuild her national character is doubtful—impossible in the minds of some. But one thing is certain: It can happen only by fidelity to the American experience of a transcending Christian authority, and fidelity to the finest of her social values, customs, and [...]
History rarely announces its turning points. But sometimes it leaves unmistakable traces. It is premature to say that the era of unilateral Western financial and economic power is at end. That the West faces serious challenges and will likely never recover its previous authority is beyond dispute. Amid the debates (and the uncertainties) about tariffs [...]
Many of Flannery O'Connor's stories portray the ineptness of men to uphold traditional ideals of manhood. The men show no leadership, they do not protect or care for their family members, they lack all manner of chivalry, and they lose a sense of priority as they commit to careers and professions or social and political [...]
Eric Voegelin stressed that progress falsely demands the sacrifice both of man and God. With history and progress as false gods, the man who would attempt to derail or thwart history is the sinner and may thus, justifiably, be removed, even if by bloody force. In my previous essay, I considered the ways in which [...]
Put simply and starkly, Michael Anton sees little reason for optimism about America. How is a multi-ethnic society to be governed? The most common method is some form of one-man rule, whether “monarchist, Caesarist or tyrannical.” But America is different. Or is it? Michael Anton, Dispatches From the Late Republic: The Culture, Politics and Prophets [...]
What important works of fiction worked a healthy reaction against the French Revolution in Britain and America, a reaction little diminished today? The bicentenary of the French Revolution occurs in this year of 1989*; and still the world is tormented by ghastly political upheavals and acts of terror that are inspired by what was said [...]
For Calvin Coolidge, the Declaration of Independence is “a great spiritual document," which possesses a “finality” that “is exceedingly restful": “If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their powers from the consent of the governed, that is final.” This week, [...]
In the last resort, according to Friedrich Hayek, the conservative position rests on the belief that in any society there are recognizably superior persons whose inherited standards and values and position ought to be protected, and who thus should have a greater influence on public affairs than others. The chief evil is unlimited government.... Nobody [...]
Politics and even the goods of society do not complete us; even the wonders of a harmonious community do not define us. Deep down, we are called to something greater and more sublime for we have here no abiding city. Mark 12: 13-17 contains two stories in one: the story of how Jesus’ enemies tried [...]
Because it is based on natural laws and timeless truths, the republic can be ignored, it can be mocked, and it can be forgotten, but it can never be fully undone. All it takes is an anamnesis, something to rouse us from our slumbers and reassert its many truths and goodnesses and beauties. Long live [...]
This morning I had one of those startling moments when time folds back on itself, as I remembered a convergence of events that all took place in this sunny week of June, albeit in different years. Think of it as snapshots next to each other, D-Day, juxtaposed with the wedding of a French count at [...]
Is there hope for the American Republic? Of course, there is always hope, because America is built on timeless truths. Those truths can be mocked, ignored, distorted, or forgotten, but they remain true nonetheless. Every spring semester, I have the excellent privilege of teaching “American Heritage” to college sophomores. In that course, we go from [...]