Category: Essay

The Peter Pan Generation

The ideal of responsibility is based on the simple assumption that with maturity should come a certain readiness to accept the sufferings and burdens of life with dignity. This, if you like, is part of the backbone of Western Civilization.

Plasticity against Personhood, or the Philosophy of Microplastics

Humanity’s ongoing plastic saga suggests that mass production and mass disposability—the same process that replaces fabrication and craftsmanship with production—also reduces our ability to make ourselves, that is, to reproduce.

The Weak Giant

For the first time in many decades, German politicians must learn to think, rather than feel— and to assert Germany’s vital national interests.

Modern Russia and the Russian Aristocracy

Contrary to what many Western journalists and politicians persistently assume, there exists little continuity between Imperial Russia and the Soviet regime, just as there was no ideological or political identity between pre-war France and the Vichy regime.

Freedom

Whether it is the threat of being canceled or anxious concerns that we’ll lose out in the meritocratic race for success, we’re more and more enslaved and less and less free. We’ve lost sight of the true sources of freedom, which come not from permission but from commitment.

Liberty by the Law: Person, State, and Boundaries of Enforcement

Western political philosophy focuses on inherent features of man, and so Europeans were able to build a system which recognises and respects them. It is arguably the best system in the world, which is evidenced by the success of the countries that adopted it. It safeguards everything we value, and we should do everything to preserve it.

Postcards from the Frontline: Sir Roger Scruton as a Journalist

If journalism helped Scruton to synthesise ideas in a single thought, it also displayed the rich literary gifts which first brought him to the attention of the British public in the 1970s. For him, journalism was much more than conveying information, news, or opinion. It was an attempt to stir the imagination of the reader so that the ‘unfashionable opinion’ being expressed might become theirs.

The Golden Rule is Key: President von der Leyen and Western European Leaders are Undermining the EU’s Stability

The Golden Rule is Key: President von der Leyen and Western European Leaders are Undermining the EU’s Stability

The issue here is not Eastern Europe vs. Western Europe, or even traditionalist Europe versus progressive Europe. The issue is preserving real cultural diversity within a European Union.

Coming into Port: The Conversion of Michael Nazir-Ali

Coming into Port: The Conversion of Michael Nazir-Ali

The conversion of Michael Nazir-Ali, at this point in the life both of the established Church of England, the Catholic Church in England, and the wider Catholic Church, is plausibly the most significant conversion since the now St. John Henry Newman knelt at the feet of Bl. Dominic Barberi in Littlemore, Oxford, in October 1845, and asked for reception into the Catholic Church.

October 14, 2021
The Slow-Motion Genocide of Nigeria’s Christians

The Slow-Motion Genocide of Nigeria’s Christians

Christians are being driven out of their communities, particularly in Nigeria’s north and middle belt, bit by bit, and many of the villages are being abandoned. This is what has been called a “slow-motion genocide.”

October 13, 2021
Revolution and Reaction

Revolution and Reaction

There is a path forward, but it is a narrow and tricky one that winds along the knife-edge between revolution and reaction.

October 11, 2021
Europe and Dogs

Europe and Dogs

Europeans have a fascinating relationship with dogs, a relationship that does not seem to exist in any other civilisation.

October 8, 2021
Lepanto, 450 Years Later: Hope for Christendom in Crisis

Lepanto, 450 Years Later: Hope for Christendom in Crisis

The Battle of Lepanto needed strong leadership. Today, Europe is searching for similar leadership. Europe needs statesmen: men and women who think about the next generation, not the next election; people like Don Juan of Austria and Blessed Emperor Karl, animated by a deep sense of service, ready to put the interests of their peoples before their own.

The Failure of Christian Democracy

The Failure of Christian Democracy

All is not yet lost for those who believe in Christendom. Saner leadership seems to be emerging in Hungary and elsewhere in Central Europe. So, too, in Western Europe a new generation is looking for answers.

September 27, 2021
Terror in the Western Mind

Terror in the Western Mind

One of the West’s problems is that at the end of the Cold War, it has been uncertain of its purpose—which has engendered a moral and political crisis, especially in the face of the threat of Islamic terrorism.

The Consolation of Lamentation

The Consolation of Lamentation

We continue to find insights into the power of music to arouse emotions—even about armed conflicts and military triumphs like the Siege (and later Relief) of Vienna on September 12, 1683.

September 17, 2021
Saint Pius V, the Pope of Lepanto

Saint Pius V, the Pope of Lepanto

The defence of Christendom against the Turks—together with the fight against heresy—was a dominant feature of the pontificate of Pius V.

September 15, 2021
Germany, the West, and Me

Germany, the West, and Me

We are all Germans now. What started out as the uniqueness of German guilt has mushroomed into an all-encompassing Western guilt, now tied to the legacy of imperialism and the transatlantic slave trade. And apparently, we can never finish atoning for our ‘sins.’

September 3, 2021
To Restore What Has Been Lost: The Case of Sweden

To Restore What Has Been Lost: The Case of Sweden

For the development of Swedish conservatism, a return to its deep cultural roots provided by Catholicism and the vibrant civil society formed by its Protestant free churches is essential. A relativistic or secular approach will not suffice.