There is a lot of really cheap thought flying around today in academic, media, and government industries dealing with political history. One of the chief tenets is that of the intrinsically evil nature of European colonization of much of the world.
The problem, of course, is that at the end of the day presidents are not monarchs. Such figures cannot serve as “living flags,” let alone constitutional guarantors.
Engels invites us to free ourselves from the belief that the “nation state offers the answer to all our existential and identity problems” and proposed a “pan-European conservative front.”
When firmly set within the framework of liberalism, human ‘progress’ is largely understood as the ongoing process of privileging technique and technological advancement to eliminate suffering—suffering chiefly seen as pain.
The example of the 21 Coptic Martyrs of Libya, poor, simple, faithful men, can strengthen us. Let their example give us fortitude to follow Him wherever He leads, and if it costs nothing less than everything, so be it.
Virtue-signalling is not new. But it has enjoyed a special burgeoning in recent decades, not least because modern culture sooner rewards noisy displays of passion than less visible acts of virtue.
Today, the image of the cave is regarded with suspicion. It seems to call for rule by experts and social engineers, for a tyranny of technocrats: a dubious, if not diabolical, prospect.
The difference between NATO and the United Nations is pluralism. The UN Charter is explicitly predicated on the sovereign equality of states. It is an ideal, to be sure, perhaps more honoured in the breach than the observance, but NATO’s ideal is the opposite.
The revolutionary afterlife of Hegel’s political thought is proof of the power of a philosophical system, once seized by less cautious hands, to outpace its original creator.
The hunt is almost the perfect antithesis of the ‘online community.’ In the hunting community, we know little of each other’s opinions. Our bond is not established by views or factions, but by our experience of belonging.
Wendell Berry’s stories are an effective evocation of the world he loves and wishes to defend; as one friend put it to me: “His stories make me love what I should love and hate what I should hate.”
Is Hegel’s political thought conservative, progressive, perhaps even revolutionary?
