Category: Essay

Russia, Ukraine, and the Fogs of Culture War

The fundamental tragedy of progressive and media malfeasance is that the very real plight of millions of Ukrainians is being lost in the social media roar.

Notes on the Goblin Takeover:
From Trolling to Goblining

The term ‘goblin mode’ has recently entered Internet-parlance, describing an apparently quarantine-inspired attitude of slovenliness and near-abject embrace of circadian-pattern irregularity, novelty-addicted internet scrolling, and abnegation of hygiene, countering Instagram-curated photography with a defeated, devil-may-care nihilism.

Pro-Life victory in Serbia: President had to cancel ‘Europride’ after massive backlash from Christian and pro-family groups

Serbia’s pro-life groups recently celebrated a landmark victory with the cancellation of the ‘Europride March,’ scheduled for September 17th. Following organized protests, in which throngs of people gathered several times on the streets of Belgrade, Serbian president, Aleksandar Vučić, was forced to cancel the notoriously sensualist parade. However, exhibitions, film screenings, and a four-day international […]

The Tragedy of Our Commons

There are other domains of human life that I believe are best viewed as commons, as emergent, critical societal assets prone to careless destruction by unsustainable use, less tangible than pasture land, but in many ways, much more important in our daily lives.

Certainty in an Age of Stupidity

One way to limit how much insanity one absorbs is to simply limit our exposure. But this is merely a stopgap. One needs interior fortification to navigate the maze of madness, and this fortification can and should range from the silly to the sublime.

Hunt Saboteurs and Nazis

The connection between anti-hunting attitudes and fascism may, in fact, be a deep one.

Ireland’s Recent Elections in Historical Context

In the current climate, Sinn Fein’s brand of neo-Marxist secularism, abetted by deceitful propaganda of the kind at which Communists excel, has been able to hoodwink a great many Irish voters into supporting their neo-Marxist policies.

Scruton and Heidegger on Dwelling

Scruton and Heidegger on Dwelling

The concept of ‘dwelling’ serves as a source for our pre-political loyalties and these loyalties allow a sense of the

The Rus and the Rescue of Nations, Part I

The Rus and the Rescue of Nations, Part I

Organic association and the principle of subsidiarity are the rescue of nations. They allow for the political articulation of common roots without alienating local cultural differentiation. They also permit overarching identities to be honored along with overlapping ones. Keeping this principle in mind, we may trace the history of relations between Moscow and Kyiv with an eye to how it could have been, and may yet, be applied.

Rehabilitating Death

Rehabilitating Death

Terminal care no longer encourages us to balance the pursuit of treatment with emotional and spiritual support. Rather, the conversation turns continually back to, “What do we do next?” as though the body were a computer with a glitch in the programming. No heed is paid to the reality–that the time will come when we do nothing. 

April 24, 2022
Suppression of Free Speech—“Human Rights” in the 21st Century

Suppression of Free Speech—“Human Rights” in the 21st Century

The first generation of human rights promulgation after World War II sought to guarantee freedoms to the individual against the state. Now, we are in a situation where we are suppressing other rights, such as the right to freedom of expression, in the name of the “right to a safe environment.” 

April 23, 2022
Between the Deer and the Idea: On Woodland Philosophy

Between the Deer and the Idea: On Woodland Philosophy

The life of the mind is fundamentally dangerous when divorced from the world. Indeed, intellectuals have a moral duty to seek out ways of encountering reality—the thing out there—if they are to avoid becoming a tremendous nuisance to others, a trait so common among their kind.

April 23, 2022
The Centennial That Wasn’t—Yet!

The Centennial That Wasn’t—Yet!

While Charles’ Centennial did not feature ritual obeisances by the successors of those who so cruelly wronged him and all whom he loved, one may hope for something different from the quasqui- or sesquicentennials. It may be that young people living today, by taking to heart the lessons he taught by his life and sacrifice, shall live in a world where this injustice is at last put to rest.

April 22, 2022
Habsburg Happy Hour

Habsburg Happy Hour

Pilgrims came because Blessed Karl of Austria lived those virtues and qualities contemporary society longs to see in its leaders, in Church and State. He was a man of integrity, a ‘whole’ man; his inner and private life was the same as his public life. He believed in the virtue of duty: to be dutiful, even to the point of losing his country, his Empire, his worldly goods and ultimately his life, makes him a man worthy of admiration and imitation.

April 22, 2022
Mammals in Revolt: The Metaphysics of Femininity against Gender Politics

Mammals in Revolt: The Metaphysics of Femininity against Gender Politics

One of Christian theology’s most radical moments came early in its history. It happened through the person of St. Gregory

Rootedness & Refugees

Rootedness & Refugees

What many globalist idealists cannot accept is that it is in man’s nature to love more strongly according to proximity. There are bonds that run deeply within the human heart and mind and are the center of community and cultures.

April 20, 2022
Cervantes and Empire

Cervantes and Empire

Miguel de Cervantes presents us with the mirrored vices of savagery and civilization. Like Tacitus, he celebrates indigenous prerogative to resist foreign excess, even as he asserts the imperial principle.

Rediscovering Awe: Antoine Brumel’s “Earthquake Mass”

Rediscovering Awe: Antoine Brumel’s “Earthquake Mass”

More than 500 years ago Antoine Brumel wrote a 12-part Mass that allows us to experience the uninhibited spirituality of the pre-Reformation world of the early 16th century. Its construction from a tiny motif of Gregorian chant from the Easter Lauds is nothing less than awe-inspiring.

April 17, 2022
The Nine Worthies and the Present Age

The Nine Worthies and the Present Age

What the nine worthies provided was a thematically unified account, a sweeping narrative, from Homer through the Bible and into Christendom, which western Europeans could use to understand and in some wise enshrine the canon of their history. The question we may venture to ask, in whose answer we might come to understand our era and its place, is whether it is possible to discern modernity’s worthies.