Cultural decadence is all around us, and there is a siren call to submission. But such submission is not worthy of a free people, and we must respond with wonder and beauty, truth and goodness, philosophy and rhetoric. For those of us convinced that ours is a moment of profound decadence, it quite naturally occurs [...]
If colleges are rapidly increasing the amount of social justice-based material that they feed their students, is it any wonder that they are experiencing a surge in protests…? It seems one can’t open an internet browser these days without seeing some new story on the unrest and chaos prevailing throughout college campuses. One of the [...]
“A people may prefer a free government but if, from indolence, or carelessness, or cowardice, or want of public spirit, they are unequal to the exertions necessary for preserving it; if they will not fight for it when it is directly attacked; if they can be deluded by the artifices used to cheat them out [...]
Those who don’t want to miss out on an “urgent” text message or email must reorient their desires toward those spiritual goods found in the good, true, and beautiful… Everyone has seen it happen. Suddenly, in the middle of a conversation at an event, a person feels compelled to answer an “urgent” message, frequently without [...]
Wars, it is said, are the death of republics. And we now seem to be caught up in an endless war... Saturday, three Islamic terrorists committed "suicide-by-cop," using a van to run down pedestrians on London Bridge, and then slashing and stabbing patrons of pubs and diners in the nearby Borough Market. By all accounts, [...]
Conservatives must turn to the Western Tradition in order to abandon their cynicism and regain a proper sense of pessimism, which they can then use to challenge the optimism of the liberal worldview… Why have modern American conservatives gained the reputation of being anti-intellectual? The answer to this question is surely multi-faceted and complex, but [...]
U.S. foreign policy needs to be put back into a constitutional framework, even at a time of grave threats to national security and to American lives and property… Today’s offering in our Timeless Essay series affords readers the opportunity to join Richard Gamble as he examines President Woodrow Wilson’s approach to foreign affairs compared with that of [...]
The Myth of Liberalism offers a concise argument of the adequacy of modern liberalism and a re-presention of how classical/medieval understanding of family and virtue really is a superior understanding of the human good… “Contemporary liberalism is less a political philosophy than a façade for undermining extant social and legal mores.” —John Safranek, The Myth [...]
We can hope that Robert Hugh Benson, an author so long neglected, will once more be seen among the stars of the literary firmament, his own star once more in the ascendant. Robert Hugh Benson was one of the brightest lights in the Catholic literary firmament in the early years of the twentieth century, his [...]
Capitalism offers us outstanding new ways to be good. As a civilization, we should concentrate on taking advantage of these remarkable opportunities rather than entertaining idle suggestions, born of intellectual confusion if not sloth and envy, that the great boon of capitalistic plenty is undesirable or an illusion… Around the year 1885, the American economy [...]
The books of the Great Conversation have endured because men in every era have been lifted beyond themselves by the inspiration of their example… The tradition of the West is embodied in the Great Conversation that began in the dawn of history and that continues to the present day. Whatever the merits of other civilizations [...]
There is an abiding fondness for America among most Filipinos. And yet, at the same time, there is always also a seething resentment among many because they were betrayed from the very beginning, and they believe that still are not treated as true equals, as are our European allies… If you read the newspapers too [...]
G.K. Chesterton had a profound impact on the visions of both J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, so much so that he could be said to have baptized their imaginations… Editor’s Note: Joseph Pearce recently granted the following interview to The Whetstone, a student newspaper of Montreal College, North Carolina. What do you see as your role, your calling, and [...]
Every artist copes with reality by means of his fantasy. Fantasy, better known as imagination, is his greatest treasure, his basic equipment for life. And since his work is his life, his fantasy is constantly in play. He dreams life. Psychologists tell us that a child's imagination reaches its peak at the age of six [...]