The Most Important Thinker We Don’t Know

by Francis X. Maier

Italian intellectual Augusto Del Noce wrote some of the best analysis anywhere of technology’s impact on Western politics, economics, and culture. Continue Reading »

4 Jan 2018

Your “Wellness” or Your Freedom

by Wesley J. Smith

When does a laudable desire to reduce healthcare costs become an obsession with controlling how we live our lives? Continue Reading »

17 Mar 2017

Rogue One and the Return of Reverence

by Marc Barnes

The Star Wars prequels irreverently secularized the Force, making it a controllable entity, measurable and understandable, infinitely use-able. In Rogue One, the Force becomes spiritual once again. Continue Reading »

3 Jan 2017

After Planning

by Andrew M. Yuengert

Thirty years ago, Lucy Suchman’s Plans and Situated Actions reminded us of the limits of our ability to control outcomes by careful, thoughtful planning. She analyzed the utter failure of early “smart” photocopiers to help people make copies. The designers and programmers of these “smart” . . . . Continue Reading »

1 Jan 2017

Letters

by Various

No Authority As a practicing general pediatrician, I appreciated Dr. Leonard Sax’s article “Don’t Ask the Kids” in the October issue of First Things. Sax makes some very helpful suggestions for parents struggling to raise respectful children, but his emphasis is misplaced in advocating . . . . Continue Reading »

1 Dec 2016

After the Fall

by Michael Hanby

If there is hope to be found in this painful political year, it is in the fact that the spell which liberal modernity has long cast over the Christian imagination might finally be starting to dissolve even as technocracy tightens its grip on our everyday lives. Continue Reading »

20 Oct 2016

A More Perfect Absolutism

by Michael Hanby

It is part of the absurdity of American life that we decide questions of truth under the guise of settling contests of rights. Which means that we decide questions of truth without thinking deeply or even very honestly about them. Thus, while it is obvious to many that we are living through a . . . . Continue Reading »

1 Oct 2016

Britain Votes on Brexit Today. Here’s What’s at Stake

by R. R. Reno

Today is the most important day in European politics since the collapse of the Soviet Empire. Continue Reading »

23 Jun 2016

Letters

by Various

MFA OR NOT?When I met Randy Boyagoda, I told him that I was pursuing an MFA in fiction and he genially disapproved: “No! Why?” I forget what I answered. But most MFAs, when surveyed, will say, “I want time to write.” Any MFA program worth getting into will give you a reasonable stipend for . . . . Continue Reading »

1 Nov 2015

Technocracy Now

by James Kalb

The recently revised New York City Health Department form for parents requesting birth certificates asks the “woman giving birth” whether she is female or male. The question is obviously absurd. But why do absurdities of this sort keep popping up? And why do most people fall in line, . . . . Continue Reading »

1 Aug 2015