John Lennon, sly dog that he was, got one thing right: the power of imagination, especially young people’s imagination, is one of the most influential political agents in the world. Young people will slide flowers into the barrel of a National Guardsman’s rifle. Young people will stare down tanks in Tiananmen Square. Their elders will [...]
The bedrock principle of all Liberalism, whether of the Right or the Left, is Locke’s assertion that “every man has a Property in his own Person.” It is from this principle that Murray Rothbard can assert, “The right to self-ownership asserts the absolute right of each man, by virtue of his (or her) being a [...]
Imaginative conservatives flee from the mass mind, so you should expect their Christmas gifts to come from parts unknown. They haven’t run just to be different—heaven forbid. Being obsessed with being unprecedented is itself a symptom of the mass mind. Instead imaginative conservatives are always on the lookout for things that are true, good, and [...]
Earlier this year, Yuval Levin spoke eloquently on the centrality of gratitude in conservatism. “Conservatives,” he said, “tend to begin from gratitude for what is good … and then strive to build on it.” Surely he is on to something, and his vision of a warm conservatism is heartening. And yet if we plumb the [...]
Wonder what to give loved ones for Christmas, especially our fellow Imaginative Conservatives? The Imaginative Conservative's Chief Elf (and respected Assistant Editor), Shelby Tankersley, recommends to contributors, “Book suggestions, leisure activities, and fine cigars would all be of interest to our readers.” So I won’t suggest those because my colleagues might. I’ll try something more subversive, [...]
The Imaginative Conservative contains an embarrassment of riches in many ways. One of them is the offerings each year, from persons more sophisticated and morally rooted than I, of suggestions for appropriate Christmas gifts. But what of those of us who have friends who are not yet true, fully formed imaginative conservatives? Certainly, a gift [...]
Is it possible for a text to be conservative if it dwells upon the pleasures of drug use, celebrates (and deplores) hooligan violence, and shows us the deaths of a neglected baby, the extra-judicial execution of a rapist, and (among others) a twenty something’s squalid death following a stroke brought on by toxoplasmosis? Irvine Welsh’s [...]
Alexis de Tocqueville Alexis de Tocqueville came to America in 1831. Though the French aristocrat came for only nine and a half months, his understanding of America and democratic peoples more broadly has never been matched. Most imaginative conservatives have probably read Tocqueville (and may well be some of the nation’s great experts) [...]
The doctor’s words were incisive. “Jim… are you afraid of blood?” Dr. Livesey’s question is as prophetic as the gallows tattooed with spirit on Billy Bones’ arm. Readers of Treasure Island must, with Jim, prepare themselves for blood. Blood runs in glorious, gory rivers over the pages of this story, leaping from veins that pulse [...]
Russell Kirk and C.S. Lewis are two literary giants of the 20th century who share that quintessential ‘giant’ quality: They help us to better see. Now that Thanksgiving is over and Advent is upon us, the last of the leaves are falling from the trees here in Scotland and the hours of daylight are dwindling. [...]
While I don’t know much about the techniques of painting, landscapes, and portraiture, I know what I like. And, I very much like—well, love is much more accurate—the art of Anna Rose Bain. Anna left quite an impression on almost everyone after spending four years at Hillsdale. As talented as she is kind and beautiful, [...]
Against Inclusiveness by James Kalb Diversity. Inclusiveness. Equality.—ubiquitous words in 21st-century American political and social life. But how do those who police the limits of acceptable discourse employ these as verbal weapons to browbeat their often hapless fellows into having a “real conversation”? How do these terms function as mere doublespeak for the expectation of full-scale [...]
Being a professor in my mid-forties, I have become increasingly aware of the generational differences between the current generation of college students and those of my generation. Of course, as I get older, they naturally seem younger and younger (though, let me be clear, I love my Hillsdale students). And, as the age of my [...]
Gifts for imaginative conservatives are bound to be gifts for readers. Keeping that in mind, permit me to suggest some reading tools and accessories as holiday gift ideas. It is no secret that I love Filson. Their American-made bags and coats are among the best, and toughest, you will ever find. Consider Filson’s wool and [...]