Category: Essay

Speaking Skin: Reflections on Alexandre Lacassagne and Tattoos

Alexandre Lacassagne, the French forensic pathologist who published a book on tattoos in 1881, would have been astonished at, and puzzled by, the explosion of elaborate and professional tattoos in the general population in the last three decades.

An Essay in Uglification

People often go to considerable trouble to make themselves ugly, or as ugly as possible. Nor is this simply a trait of rebellious youth that is trying to assert its independence and that will take the easiest route available to shock its elders. Now, perhaps for the first time, the ugliness of youthful rebellion has become inscribed deeply into society, virtually as the norm.

The West is Dwelling in Olavo’s World

Jorge González-Gallarza explores the legacy of the intellectual godfather of Latin America’s new Right, Olavo de Carvalho. While his online popularity was dismissed by those who would refuse to engage with him, he reached millions more than were possible from within the ivory tower and he drew a blueprint of how new institutions can be built when the old can’t be reconquered.

The Altar of Multiculturalism

A tactical choice has been made as to who pays the price for multiculturalism. One would hardly offer up one’s own daughter, but a vulnerable working class girl? Perhaps one might just look the other way.

A Nation Adrift: 51 Years after Portugal’s Carnation Revolution

Portugal’s post-revolutionary malaise is a warning to the West. The Carnation Revolution promised freedom but, through left-wing cultural hegemony and the destruction of national capacity, delivered dependence, parochialism, and poverty.

Afrikaners: A Link Between Africa and the West

Afrikaner culture is a unique nexus between the West and Africa. If Afrikaners have no future in Africa, then our culture does not have any future at all. However, a similar existential threat awaits us should we stay in Africa but neglect or reject our Western roots. It is precisely the preservation of this combination of two heritages which has made Afrikaners who we are.

The Schuman Plan: Toward a European Federation

2025 marks the 75th year since the inception of the Schuman Plan. It was said that Schuman “didn’t really understand the treaty which bore his name.” Indeed, this is the intended strategy of architects of Euro-federalism: make the structural process so byzantine that few, especially the population at large, can understand what is happening. Technocracy, rather than democracy, is the project’s driving force.

The New Iconoclasm

Today’s iconoclasts seek little more than a photograph in the newspaper, if not a prison sentence—think of the media-ready antics of Just Stop Oil, throwing soup on Van Gogh or spraying Stonehenge with orange paint. Any attention they might lend to their cause is smothered in a self-serving narcissistic love of the image of themselves performing destruction.

Thomas Molnar: The Hungarian Tocqueville

Molnar recognizes that the fundamental questions of political philosophy have remained the same since Plato: Whence does power come? Who holds it? And on what basis?

Franco-American Dilemma

We are a strange people, we descendants of the 17th and 18th century French pioneers in North America.

Speaking Skin: Reflections on Alexandre Lacassagne and Tattoos

Speaking Skin: Reflections on Alexandre Lacassagne and Tattoos

Alexandre Lacassagne, the French forensic pathologist who published a book on tattoos in 1881, would have been astonished at, and puzzled by, the explosion of elaborate and professional tattoos in the general population in the last three decades.

December 1, 2025
An Essay in Uglification

An Essay in Uglification

People often go to considerable trouble to make themselves ugly, or as ugly as possible. Nor is this simply a trait of rebellious youth that is trying to assert its independence and that will take the easiest route available to shock its elders. Now, perhaps for the first time, the ugliness of youthful rebellion has become inscribed deeply into society, virtually as the norm.

October 3, 2025
The West is Dwelling in Olavo’s World

The West is Dwelling in Olavo’s World

Jorge González-Gallarza explores the legacy of the intellectual godfather of Latin America’s new Right, Olavo de Carvalho. While his online popularity was dismissed by those who would refuse to engage with him, he reached millions more than were possible from within the ivory tower and he drew a blueprint of how new institutions can be built when the old can’t be reconquered.

September 24, 2025
The Altar of Multiculturalism

The Altar of Multiculturalism

A tactical choice has been made as to who pays the price for multiculturalism. One would hardly offer up one’s own daughter, but a vulnerable working class girl? Perhaps one might just look the other way.

A Nation Adrift: 51 Years after Portugal’s Carnation Revolution

A Nation Adrift: 51 Years after Portugal’s Carnation Revolution

Portugal’s post-revolutionary malaise is a warning to the West. The Carnation Revolution promised freedom but, through left-wing cultural hegemony and the destruction of national capacity, delivered dependence, parochialism, and poverty.

April 25, 2025
Afrikaners: A Link Between Africa and the West

Afrikaners: A Link Between Africa and the West

Afrikaner culture is a unique nexus between the West and Africa. If Afrikaners have no future in Africa, then our culture does not have any future at all. However, a similar existential threat awaits us should we stay in Africa but neglect or reject our Western roots. It is precisely the preservation of this combination of two heritages which has made Afrikaners who we are.

April 11, 2025
The Schuman Plan: Toward a European Federation

The Schuman Plan: Toward a European Federation

2025 marks the 75th year since the inception of the Schuman Plan. It was said that Schuman “didn’t really understand the treaty which bore his name.” Indeed, this is the intended strategy of architects of Euro-federalism: make the structural process so byzantine that few, especially the population at large, can understand what is happening. Technocracy, rather than democracy, is the project’s driving force.

April 3, 2025
The New Iconoclasm

The New Iconoclasm

Today’s iconoclasts seek little more than a photograph in the newspaper, if not a prison sentence—think of the media-ready antics of Just Stop Oil, throwing soup on Van Gogh or spraying Stonehenge with orange paint. Any attention they might lend to their cause is smothered in a self-serving narcissistic love of the image of themselves performing destruction.

January 16, 2025
Thomas Molnar: The Hungarian Tocqueville

Thomas Molnar: The Hungarian Tocqueville

Molnar recognizes that the fundamental questions of political philosophy have remained the same since Plato: Whence does power come? Who holds it? And on what basis?

Franco-American Dilemma

Franco-American Dilemma

We are a strange people, we descendants of the 17th and 18th century French pioneers in North America.

December 30, 2024
Conservatism Lurking in Modernity: Flemish Expressionism 

Conservatism Lurking in Modernity: Flemish Expressionism 

The Flemish expressionists provide an example of reconciling tradition and experiment.

A Case for Seasonal Awareness 

A Case for Seasonal Awareness 

Seasonal festivals have disappeared because modern man’s experience of food is tied to the supermarket.

December 29, 2024