In a discussion with another famous conservative, Richard Weaver objected to the view that the solution of our problems lies in following in the footsteps of “our ancestors.” This was not enough, he argued, for we must ask “Which ancestors?” After all, some were wise while others were foolish. In a similar manner we may [...]
In addition to a desperate need for a revival of the Great Books to bring back some life in the barren world of modern education, the United States of America has been in trouble regarding political and a general civic ignorance. Historian Thomas Cahill once quipped that Rome fell when its people forgot what it [...]
(Visitor: “What should be our national mission?”) A mission for Amurika! That’s surely what we need! A moral cause to save the world, a banner and a screed, So thousands of Amurikans, in every foreign land, Exacerbate the problems that we never understand. […]
At the beginning of each academic year, we talk of a desire to learn. We think we have developed institutions that facilitate this learning. True, we question the cost of a university education. Many students end with significant debts; jobs are often scarce. Many do not actually learn much in college, especially about the important [...]
The “higher education system” in the United States has metastasized to the point that the body politic will soon be unable to sustain it. Tuition and fees have grown at more than three times the cost of living in the last two decades, outstripping even the rise in the cost of medical care. These enormous [...]
George Orwell Before the swallow, before the daffodil, and not much later than the snowdrop, the common toad salutes the coming of spring after his own fashion, which is to emerge from a hole in the ground, where he has lain buried since the previous autumn, and crawl as rapidly as possible towards [...]
From the The Matrix Hope, it is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength, and your greatest weakness.–The Architect (The Matrix Reloaded) For more on the Matrix Trilogy visit The Imaginative Conservative Bookstore. […]
While historians in the first half of the twentieth century often simply accepted that slavery was a part of the Founding, only relatively recently has the issue so divided scholars of the period that some have gone so far as to argue that the Founders meant to abolish slavery from the beginning. No Union with [...]
Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. (Eph. 4:1-3) The Cave! [...]
At the famous Federal Reserve confab at Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Chairman Ben Bernanke laid the groundwork for Quantitative Easing III. He couldn’t contain himself about how well the first two versions of the big Fed asset-purchase program had turned out over the last few years—unemployment is down from the peak and all that. Bernanke even [...]
Conservatives active in the business of influencing public policy have been giving increasing attention in recent years to the idea that politics is ultimately an epiphenomenon of culture. What these activists have recognized is that political mobilization and efficiently produced position papers by themselves will not effect lasting change in the way we are governed. [...]
One contemplates the power, depth, and breadth of the finest 18th-century minds only with some trepidation and humility. Or at least, one should. The favorite study of the great men of that day, famed editor of The Nation E.L. Godkin explained in 1900, was the glorification of the person against political power. In “opposition to [...]
For Americans of the Greatest Generation that fought World War II and of the Silent Generation that came of age in the 1950s, the great moral and ideological cause was the Cold War. It gave purpose and clarity to our politics and foreign policy, and our lives. From the fall of Berlin in 1945 to [...]
Redeeming the Time by Russell Kirk This posthumously published collection of Russell Kirk’s essays once again reminds us of the extent of our loss. For in addition to an enviable erudition and a penchant for identifying essential issues, theoretical and practical, he was a great teacher. Never talking down to his readers, he displayed a [...]