How to Resist the New Totalitarianism
by Francis X. MaierHelen Alvaré's new book is an extremely helpful aid in understanding the root of today’s legal battles over the nature and limits of religious freedom. Continue Reading »
Tyranny by Numbers
by John WatersIf a society loses its intuition of the absolute necessity for certain principles and fundamental rights, it will lose the sense and memory of how its own equilibrium has been arrived at, and thereafter descend into chaos. Continue Reading »
What Orwell Learned From Chesterton
by M. D. AeschlimanEven after Orwell explicitly diverged from some of Chesterton’s views in the 1930s, under the influence of socialist ideas and hopes, Chesterton’s assumptions and political and ethical conceptions continued to shape him. Continue Reading »
From Garmisch-Partenkirchen 1936 to Beijing 2022
by George WeigelThe world media should shine a spotlight on China’s human rights abuses, its draconian methods of social monitoring, and its religious intolerance. Continue Reading »
Tolstoy's Wisdom and Folly
by Gary Saul MorsonIn his speech “The Strenuous Life,” Theodore Roosevelt identified “the American character” with “the life of toil and effort, of labor and strife.” “The man who does not shrink from danger, from hardship, or from bitter toil,” Roosevelt asserted, “wins the ultimate . . . . Continue Reading »
Standing Against Tyranny
by Russell A. BermanA year before the end of his long life (1895–1998), the German author Ernst Jünger converted to Catholicism, a late change on a tumultuous path of searching and adventures that were far from exclusively spiritual. Born into a Protestant family, he attended conventional boarding schools, but at . . . . Continue Reading »
Aurel Kolnai and the Assault on Creation
by Daniel J. MahoneyAurel Kolnai truly belongs in the pantheon of anti-totalitarian thought and a study of his writings can shed some light on the totalitarian nihilism all around us. Continue Reading »
Brave New World Revisited
by Francis X. MaierIf today’s street violence and political extremism serve any good purpose, it’s this: They remind us that humans have a chronic appetite for destruction. Continue Reading »
The Ever-Present Totalitarian Temptation
by George WeigelThe totalitarian impulse can rear its ugly head in well-established democracies like the United States. Continue Reading »
Struggle Against the Gods
by Gao ZhishengBecause of my legal work on behalf of groups persecuted by the Chinese government, I have been tortured three times since September 21, 2007. I have been subject to long periods of secret detention or formal imprisonment. At present, I can move freely within the bounds of a village in northern . . . . Continue Reading »
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