Oscar Wilde the would-be saint and Oscar Wilde the woeful sinner were in deadly conflict, one with the other... Oscar Wilde’s life is more scandalous today than it was during the Decadence of the 1890s. In fact, it is so scandalous that a current exhibition of his life and legacy at the Petit Palais Musée [...]
A sea change in thought is taking place in the West. Liberalism appears to be a dying faith. And President-elect Trump has shown himself to be an unapologetic apostate to liberal orthodoxy… The wailing and keening over the choice of Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to head the EPA appears to be a lead indicator [...]
Without a major autodidactic push to learn the classic works that formed our civilization, the West’s storehouse of knowledge is in serious danger of becoming nothing more than an artifact... In one of my favorite scenes from the movie Seven, Morgan Freeman’s character gets a guard to let him into a library late at night [...]
The current generation may always consider itself to be the wisest of all, but High Tory politics strives to avoid the perennial folly of this prejudice... “The next wave of American ‘conservatism’ is not likely to base its appeal on such unsuccessful slogans as the Constitution and free enterprise. Its leader will not be a [...]
Whatever you think about the choice of General James Mattis for secretary of defense, you have to admire this about him: He takes his personal library of more than 6,000 books with him to every post. An e-mail the general wrote in 2003 has gone viral. In it he swiftly demonstrates why it’s so foolish [...]
That we remember the Articles of Confederation poorly has far more to do with the ultimate success of American nationalists than it does with actual failure or success of the Articles themselves. The Articles of Confederation have been denounced for so long that no one bothers to denounce them anymore. Almost every American and almost [...]
The past makes sense of the present. It frees us from the fetters of fashion and liberates us from the little prejudiced and provincial cosmos that the zeitgeist presents to us… Good literature takes us out of ourselves and into other worlds. It liberates us from the little provincial cosmos that we have made for [...]
Attacks on the Electoral College itself are not new. What is new is the demand being made by many progressives, including prominent constitutional scholars, that Electors themselves abandon their constitutional duties in the name of “fairness”… As most readers probably are aware, Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein launched a campaign to “recount” electoral results [...]
There fared a mother driven forth Out of an inn to roam; In the place where she was homeless All men are at home. The crazy stable close at hand, With shaking timber and shifting sand, Grew a stronger thing to abide and stand Than the square stones of Rome. For men are homesick in [...]
The awakened man does not gaze into the pool of his spirituality, like a more ethereal Narcissus. He sees Christ in his neighbor, and his is a life of longing, hope, gratitude, solemn emotion, and openness to the mysteries of being… Many of us no doubt have heard the common excuse for breaking the third [...]
The language of beauty is universal. It transcends all cultures, socio-economic divisions, and educational divides. By being appreciated by everyone, the language of beauty unites everyone… It has been my privilege to lead our parish in building a beautiful new Catholic church in Greenville, South Carolina. Designed in the Romanesque style, it features salvaged stained [...]
The lack of schooling in the formation of one of every four U.S. presidents underscores the paradox that even the most humble among them were often great champions of education in general and of the liberal arts in particular… Can the liberal arts prepare citizens for leadership? Most of us in higher education want the [...]
Now that the British have voted to secede from the European Union and America has chosen a president who has never before held public office, the French appear to be following suit. In Sunday’s runoff to choose a candidate to face Marine Le Pen of the National Front in next spring’s presidential election, the center-right [...]
Philosophy is many things to many people, but to me it is the art of questioning. If we can learn to ask the right questions in the right spirit, then the answers for which our hearts yearn will be given to us… “What are you majoring in?” “Philosophy.” “Oh…” Translation: “You’re one of those weird [...]