Russell Kirk Having spent the last eighteen years working with educators I am often surprised that there is little awareness of the Progressive roots of modern public education. In this essay Dr. Kirk makes the point that educationists, drawing from progressive theories and the psychology of Freud, created a system which they felt [...]
Dr. Kirk uses strong words to oppose a conservative alliance with libertarians. In light of the recent discussion of this issue on this online journal I think it may prove fruitful to let Dr. Kirk join the conversation by way of excerpts from his essay “Chirping Sectaries.” The entire essay is well worth reading. Is [...]
Russell Kirk Some of you may have read this before but we republish it because it deserves to be re-read. Pay special attention to the last two paragraphs. Are any of today’s conservative media personalities capable of making the point that “A conservatism of instinct must be reinforced by a conservatism of thought and imagination.”? [...]
Being neither a religion nor an ideology, the body of opinion termed conservatism possesses no Holy Writ and no Das Kapital to provide dogmata. So far as it is possible to determine what conservatives believe, the first principles of the conservative persuasion are derived from what leading conservative writers and public men have professed during the past two centuries. [...]
The twentieth century conservative is concerned, first of all, for the regeneration of spirit and character—with the perennial problem of the inner order of the soul, the restoration of the ethical understanding, and the religious sanction upon which any life worth living is founded. This is conservatism at its highest. —Russell Kirk Friends, may we [...]