Without the Idea of the Good, Lloyd P. Gerson argues, a person cannot argue coherently against materialism, relativism, skepticism, mechanism, and nominalism.

The distribution of votes among the various right-wing candidates resembles a game of communicating vessels. Marine Le Pen is ploughing her own furrow. Eric Zemmour puts ‘des mots sur des maux’ (words on evils): it is what he does best. He can participate in the reconfiguration of the French right. Will he go much further?

Today, we might find Dune’s imagery allegorical. The world, or the public sphere, has in many respects been rendered inhospitable. The once baroque diversity of cultural forms has been drastically reduced. A desertscape has replaced the lush filigree characteristic of more traditional societies.

While committed to a diplomatic solution, Western officials’ projections were grim. To reporters, U.S. Ambassador Michael Carpenter said that escalation is not impossible, and that “the drumbeat of war is sounding loud, and the rhetoric has gotten rather shrill.”

The nature of these acts of vandalism differs in each case. They may be purely thefts to recover valuables, but they testify to a general climate of hostility towards Catholic faith in France.

In an editorial piece titled “We Failed,” Ekstra Bladet, a traditionally center-left Danish tabloid newspaper, confessed that the publication—along with the wider mainstream liberal press—hadn’t been “vigilant enough” in questioning narratives put forward by government authorities.