In the "Oresteia," Aeschylus examines whether a city exists for proper worship of gods or whether it exists for proper cultivation of “that which is most divine in us.” Today’s offering in our Timeless Essay series affords our readers the opportunity to join John Alvis, as he considers Aeschylus' views of the polity as embodied by [...]
In her postscript, Midge Decter acknowledged that the questions of the modern world are not simple.How should we combine the good things of the new world with the parts of our nature that were acknowledged in the old but now left behind? The recent death of Midge Decter at the age of 95 had me [...]
Glenn Ellmers has written an enlightening biography of the late Harry Jaffa, a political theorist whose views on the American Founding have become conventional wisdom in certain conservative circles. But I find Willmoore Kendall’s views more persuasive, and his warning about the danger of the Jaffa thesis more prescient. The Soul of Politics: Harry V. [...]
Complex and perceptive, Willmoore Kendall's ideas remain relevant as the most important intellectual defense of the American people’s right to rule itself rather than to submit to the tyranny of experts. He is the man who engineered the foundation, structure, and superstructure of a bridge to democracy with his own formidable intellect and tremendous erudition. [...]
Citizens are free when they see and respect their dependence on each other. They can best continue to do what they know to be the right thing if they are committed to political self-rule. Ukraine’s spirited defense of itself is a shining example of this kind of freedom. Ukrainian defiance has shaken many people across [...]
Many so-called conservatives are buying into the progressive presumption that things are progressing inexorably in one direction, which the progressives think is a liberated future and which conservatives think is a libertine hell. Such conservatives agree with the progressive perspective; they just don’t like it! It is odd that those who consider themselves “progressives” assign [...]
Evil has not changed its nature, just its face. When the dead of Ukraine are counted and we are asked where they are, will America, will we, reply “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Dr. Brad Birzer's recent essay, The Ukraine Crisis: Is It Time to Debate War?, asks many pertinent questions. He encourages Americans to engage [...]
Our interest is to avoid being a pawn sacrificed in someone else’s war. In this war we have nothing to gain and everything to lose. We must stay out of this war! Not a single Hungarian must be caught between the Ukrainian anvil and the Russian sledgehammer. This is an excerpt of a speech given [...]
In the light or shadow of the current conflict in the Ukraine, it would seem appropriate to remind ourselves of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s relationship with Vladimir Putin. This will enable a deeper understanding of the background to the conflict, especially if the following is read in conjunction with Solzhenitsyn’s prophetic understanding of the underlying reasons for [...]
We need to restore moral value to leadership. In whom do we now recognize and salute leaderly qualities? Who are representative of great leadership? What accounts for the growing diminution of standards of leadership? “In the long run democracy will be judged,” writes Irving Babbitt in Democracy and Leadership (1924), “no less than other forms [...]
With the Ukraine crisis, Americans have a moment to reflect on our obligations to the rest of the world. Just how far are we willing to go to protest Russia’s invasion? Are we content with extremely tight economic sanctions, or are we willing to flex the muscles a bit more? “War. What is it good [...]
Shche ne vmerla Ukrainy i slava, i volia" ('Glory and Freedom of Ukraine has not yet Perished'), also known by its official title of "State Anthem of Ukraine" or by its shortened form "Shche ne vmerla Ukrainy," is the national anthem of Ukraine. It is one of the state symbols of the country. The lyrics [...]
When Ronald Reagan referred to the Soviet regime as the “evil empire,” he was echoing Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who said the USSR was “the concentration of world evil.” From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitols of the ancient states [...]
As we have greatly miscalculated Russia’s sense of betrayal and alienation, Russia has greatly miscalculated Ukrainian tenacity and patriotism. But we have all already fallen into a no-win situation. It doesn’t matter how this ends, whether with the collapse or humiliation of Russia, or the incorporation of Ukraine into a larger federation of Slavic states—or [...]