Mr. Poulos, in reference to my recently posted “Draft Manifesto 2.0,” set me to reconsidering the last pages of Leo Strauss’s Thoughts on Machiavelli. Whether he suspected how many hours this invitation would cost me, I do not know, but, now that the ordeal is (temporarily) over, I . . . . Continue Reading »
So lovers of freedom are all over the president for three reasons. First, his enormous expansion of the reach of the national government will produce the schoolmarmish soft despotism of apathetic dependents feared by Tocqueville. To some extent that’s undeniably the intention of . . . . Continue Reading »
Here is a short excerpt of an aticle I just finished writing and that is relevant to Ralph’s Manifesto 1.3.1: The differences between Bush’s “Executive Order Expanding Approved Stem Cell Lines” (June 20, 2007) and Obama’s Executive Order overturning it are striking . . . . Continue Reading »
A nice thing about spending several days away from computers is relief from chronic headaches (I knew they couldn’t all be hangovers). Another is that one returns to find plenty of content worth reading—which cannot, contrary to present fashion, be whipped up in thirty seconds and posted . . . . Continue Reading »
Mr. Poulos has nicely framed the point of “Postmodern Conservatism” in a capacious and open-ended fashion, and Prof. Lawler has filled in some essential content in such a way as to compel my complete assent, as usual. Of course there is something a little ironic at the outset in the . . . . Continue Reading »
My mind wandered, the eyes teared up, and one escaped, fortunately unnoticed, as I sat in the pew. I was thinking of my friend, the Rev. Dr. Bill McSwegin, who died and was buried last week, as the congregation sang a hymn that contained the lyrics, “he spoke the ancient . . . . Continue Reading »
So I thought I’d share with you an excerpt of a talk I recently gave on dignity and higher education: Today’s “postmodern” professor of the humanities doesn’t even claim to have a “wholistic” view of the art of human life, although he or she often still . . . . Continue Reading »
So I spent a few days this week attending a conference at Berry College in Rome, Georgia hosted by Peter Lawler and Eric Sands. It was a terrific and well organized series of events capped off by a thought provoking presentation by our own Jim Ceasar on Tocqueville, his consideration of the . . . . Continue Reading »
I’ve gotten a few random emails about POSTMODERN CONSERVATISM either being an oxymoron or some bad joke. Well, it can be that, I guess. No doubt some believe that postmodern conservatism is conservatism gone stylish, contemporary, young, beautiful, metrosexual, pop cultural, and . . . . Continue Reading »
The way you hold your head, cursin’ God with every move Ooh, I can’t stand it, I can’t stand it What are you tryin’ to prove Bob Dylan, Dead Man, Dead Man , 1981. Over at Front Porch Republic , Augustinian scholar James Matthew Wilson provides an important exegesis on . . . . Continue Reading »
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