We must know how to trust great literature, which invites the deployment of intense and demanding feelings. The elevation of the soul of the youth suffers in the absence of great literary works; they remain constricted in an elementary vision of the world, of feelings, of relationships between people.
The numbers of Nigeria’s dead and displaced on account of recent violence vary widely, but in October of last year, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN International) was reporting anywhere between 3,000 and 36,000 people had been murdered.
What strikes one is Karl von Habsburg’s willingness to say things which—while entirely true—would not be said by any current politician. Moreover, it hints at a vision entirely in keeping with that of his Habsburg predecessors, yet once again altered to fit the vastly changed circumstances in which we now find ourselves.
Malcolm Muggeridge’s late discovery of Christianity is an example for today’s conservative intellectuals.
My ‘microaggression’ was met with what might be deemed a ‘macroaggression.’ Whereas I was seeking no confrontation and sought not to make her or anyone else feel uncomfortable, she confronted me directly, specifically to make me feel uncomfortable—and she succeeded.
Another use of the imperial past is possible: one that does not collapse empire into nationality, one that assumes overlapping rather than contradicting spheres.
In my country of Great Britain, I am worried by those Muslims who use the country’s liberties and laws to undermine our civilisation and heritage. I went on a journey across the country to understand modern British Muslim culture, but I kept one eye on the history of Islamic civilisation, too.
Trans activists wield an enormous amount of cultural power, and their ideology is far from discredited in the eyes of progressive politicians, delusional academics, and their media microphones. Yet, from the British Isles to the Continent to the Nordic nations, people are beginning to wake up.
In our own time, we have seen the rise of calls for Burkean ideals on the Left. Think only of the Social Democrats in the UK, a party that had some influence in the 1980s but are almost entirely unknown today, who are against the wokeism dominating the current political debate, and who seek to preserve local customs, and use the very conservative sounding slogan “family, community, nation” as their header on their website.
The Eid Charity’s spending across the West reveals a clear pattern of Qatari monies being handed out almost exclusively to radical organizations. Despite its extremist links, it has been able to operate internationally with near impunity.
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.
Once we have firmly established truth and beauty as the foundations of our educational efforts, we can start with undertaking the first and most difficult task in the educational adventure of making visible the hidden seed: character formation.
