The Value in Reading Byung-Chul Han![]()
The Right - “Han occupies a somewhat unique position in today’s world that defies typical Right-Left categorization. This is partly because of Han’s bridging of multiple worlds: East and West; art and philosophy; theology and politics.” 1/22/2023
The Right - “Han occupies a somewhat unique position in today’s world that defies typical Right-Left categorization. This is partly because of Han’s bridging of multiple worlds: East and West; art and philosophy; theology and politics.” 1/22/2023The Case for Retiring “Confederate Heroes Day”![]()
The Left - “As we come to know more about the morally repulsive aspects of our national history—and, more importantly, face those realities—removing symbols of our collective failure in the past is not an attempt to deny our history. Rather, it is a sign of growth, a willingness to face our history.” 1/19/2023
The Left - “As we come to know more about the morally repulsive aspects of our national history—and, more importantly, face those realities—removing symbols of our collective failure in the past is not an attempt to deny our history. Rather, it is a sign of growth, a willingness to face our history.” 1/19/2023Multiculturalism Is Madness![]()
The Right - “The fact is that, historically, Great Britain has had a remarkably stable demographic makeup for at least a thousand years, if not much longer. The idea that what we have experienced since 1997…is in any way comparable or equivalent to the past is nonsense, at best, and disingenuous, at worst.” 1/19/2023
The Right - “The fact is that, historically, Great Britain has had a remarkably stable demographic makeup for at least a thousand years, if not much longer. The idea that what we have experienced since 1997…is in any way comparable or equivalent to the past is nonsense, at best, and disingenuous, at worst.” 1/19/2023Free Speech: An Eternal Struggle![]()
The Center - “While Americans and other Westerners may be living in a golden age of free speech, there are still billions of people in the world who have yet to enjoy its blessings.” 1/16/2023
The Center - “While Americans and other Westerners may be living in a golden age of free speech, there are still billions of people in the world who have yet to enjoy its blessings.” 1/16/2023Philadelphia Schools Have Replaced Critical Thinking with “Criticality”![]()
The Center - “Like so many school districts in a post-George Floyd America, Philadelphia’s is rushing to embrace anti-racism.” 1/11/2023
The Center - “Like so many school districts in a post-George Floyd America, Philadelphia’s is rushing to embrace anti-racism.” 1/11/2023We Are All Socialists![]()
The Right - “Echoing this notion from on high, in 2016 the [World Economic Forum] announced the imminence of a post-historical future in the Marxist sense: ‘Welcome to 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better.'” 12/21/2022
The Right - “Echoing this notion from on high, in 2016 the [World Economic Forum] announced the imminence of a post-historical future in the Marxist sense: ‘Welcome to 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better.'” 12/21/2022What Is a Human?![]()
The Center - “In fact, heterosexuality and the male-female binary can be observed across countless species. The onus of proof, therefore, is on those who claim that we are an exception.” 12/21/2022
The Center - “In fact, heterosexuality and the male-female binary can be observed across countless species. The onus of proof, therefore, is on those who claim that we are an exception.” 12/21/2022The Boredom of War![]()
The Right - “Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s biggest enemy is not the West’s reticence to sending more drones, more weapons, and more fighter jets. President Zelenskyy’s biggest enemy is boredom.” 12/12/2022
The Right - “Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s biggest enemy is not the West’s reticence to sending more drones, more weapons, and more fighter jets. President Zelenskyy’s biggest enemy is boredom.” 12/12/2022Review: Maurice Glasman’s “Blue Labour: The Politics of the Common Good”![]()
The Right - “For Labour forgot that life involves loss and tragedy. It forgot that ‘human beings are not commodities, but creative and social beings longing for connection and meaning.'” 11/30/2022
The Right - “For Labour forgot that life involves loss and tragedy. It forgot that ‘human beings are not commodities, but creative and social beings longing for connection and meaning.'” 11/30/2022No, Let’s Not: Perpetrators of Pandemic Authoritarianism Cannot Be Forgiven![]()
The Center - “It must become embarrassing to admit one ever supported uninformed and nonconsensual participation in a medical experiment or mass house arrest and coerced isolation.” 11/7/2022
The Center - “It must become embarrassing to admit one ever supported uninformed and nonconsensual participation in a medical experiment or mass house arrest and coerced isolation.” 11/7/2022No Easy Answers: Facing Ecological Crises Honestly![]()
The Left - “But we need to replace fanciful dreams of endless energy from renewables with full-cost accounting, which an increasing number of experts are taking seriously. There are destructive environmental and social consequences to constructing the infrastructure for that energy production.” 10/8/2022
The Left - “But we need to replace fanciful dreams of endless energy from renewables with full-cost accounting, which an increasing number of experts are taking seriously. There are destructive environmental and social consequences to constructing the infrastructure for that energy production.” 10/8/2022The NatCons v. Ukraine![]()
The Center - “At least Hazony recognizes that the democratic world should defend Ukraine. Other nationalists do not agree.” 10/6/2022
The Center - “At least Hazony recognizes that the democratic world should defend Ukraine. Other nationalists do not agree.” 10/6/2022Jordan Peterson’s “A Conservative Manifesto” Is Not Conservative![]()
The Right - “It is instead Hayekian liberalism delivered with a Calvinist grimness.” 10/4/2022
The Right - “It is instead Hayekian liberalism delivered with a Calvinist grimness.” 10/4/2022Review: Slavoj Žižek’s “Surplus-Enjoyment: A Guide for the Non-Perplexed”![]()
The Right - “Combining inanity with compelling anecdote, idiocy with sensible instruction, Žižek addresses himself to the ‘mess we’re in.'” 10/3/2022
The Right - “Combining inanity with compelling anecdote, idiocy with sensible instruction, Žižek addresses himself to the ‘mess we’re in.'” 10/3/2022The Joy of the Knife: On Autoimmune Responses in Politics![]()
The Right - “If we look at culture as a superorganism with its own immunological mechanisms, we can recognize modern societies as being profoundly dysregulated, and this gets worse the more modern they get.” 9/24/2022
The Right - “If we look at culture as a superorganism with its own immunological mechanisms, we can recognize modern societies as being profoundly dysregulated, and this gets worse the more modern they get.” 9/24/2022The Second Elizabeth, a Life Appreciated![]()
The Center - “From that distant day when I saw her ride down Poonamallee High Road in Madras, the epitome of regality and restraint, Elizabeth II did her best in balancing the demands of tradition, the weight of history, the requirements of society and culture both at home and abroad, and also attended to her family.” 9/22/2022
The Center - “From that distant day when I saw her ride down Poonamallee High Road in Madras, the epitome of regality and restraint, Elizabeth II did her best in balancing the demands of tradition, the weight of history, the requirements of society and culture both at home and abroad, and also attended to her family.” 9/22/2022Canada and the Many Problems with Euthanasia![]()
The Right - “The story goes on to detail another Canadian citizen who was repeatedly and continuously offered euthanasia, to such an extent that he began recording these occasions.” 9/19/2022
The Right - “The story goes on to detail another Canadian citizen who was repeatedly and continuously offered euthanasia, to such an extent that he began recording these occasions.” 9/19/2022The Queen: 1926-2022![]()
The Right - “It is too much to say that the world will not see her like again; there is within all of us the potential to aim for the higher moral life that the Queen embodied, if we engage in the striving that she did that is necessary to attain this.” 9/11/2022
The Right - “It is too much to say that the world will not see her like again; there is within all of us the potential to aim for the higher moral life that the Queen embodied, if we engage in the striving that she did that is necessary to attain this.” 9/11/2022Review: “People Love Dead Jews” by Dara Horn![]()
The Right - “All of this is captured in twelve essays in novelist Dara Horn’s powerful and coruscating book on why people still love dead Jews over living Jews. It is a book that shreds modern piety and sophistry in equal measure.” 9/7/2022
The Right - “All of this is captured in twelve essays in novelist Dara Horn’s powerful and coruscating book on why people still love dead Jews over living Jews. It is a book that shreds modern piety and sophistry in equal measure.” 9/7/2022British Conservatism Is Doomed![]()
The Right - “To put it simply, if one cannot accumulate capital, he will not support capitalism; and if one has no solid basis for conserving one’s family and community, which property provides, then he will not become a conservative.” 8/7/2022
The Right - “To put it simply, if one cannot accumulate capital, he will not support capitalism; and if one has no solid basis for conserving one’s family and community, which property provides, then he will not become a conservative.” 8/7/2022Review: Matthew Continetti’s “The Right: The Hundred-Year War for American Conservatism”![]()
The Right - “It is to Continetti’s credit that he develops his narrative after this with fair-minded even-handedness for the most part, even if he lets his own views bleed through in the chapters concerning President Trump’s rise and fall, as well as the mix of grift and genuine intellectual ferment that he dragged in his orange wake.” 7/27/2022
The Right - “It is to Continetti’s credit that he develops his narrative after this with fair-minded even-handedness for the most part, even if he lets his own views bleed through in the chapters concerning President Trump’s rise and fall, as well as the mix of grift and genuine intellectual ferment that he dragged in his orange wake.” 7/27/2022Excerpt: Jason Pack’s “Libya and the Global Enduring Disorder”![]()
The Center - “And hell, if General Haftar was going to win, President Trump would happily give him some tips about where to buy vacation properties in Virginia Beach. His steering of the private ‘confidence building’ chit-chat with General Haftar to real estate matters was not actually as ridiculous as it might seem.” 7/26/2022
The Center - “And hell, if General Haftar was going to win, President Trump would happily give him some tips about where to buy vacation properties in Virginia Beach. His steering of the private ‘confidence building’ chit-chat with General Haftar to real estate matters was not actually as ridiculous as it might seem.” 7/26/2022Review: China Miéville’s “A Spectre, Haunting: On the Communist Manifesto”![]()
The Right - “Sentimental and sycophantic in turns, it may be hard to dispel the impression that Miéville is merely a hysteric. All the same, A Spectre, Haunting is a post-Nietzschean book, which leans into the charge of ressentiment. Spurning subterfuge, Miéville quite openly asserts that justice and revenge amount, more or less, to the same thing.” 7/25/2022
The Right - “Sentimental and sycophantic in turns, it may be hard to dispel the impression that Miéville is merely a hysteric. All the same, A Spectre, Haunting is a post-Nietzschean book, which leans into the charge of ressentiment. Spurning subterfuge, Miéville quite openly asserts that justice and revenge amount, more or less, to the same thing.” 7/25/2022Review: Barry Strauss’s “The War That Made the Roman Empire”![]()
The Center - “Barry Strauss, America’s foremost popular classicist, brings the story of Actium to life in ways that rival and surpass Shakespeare’s tragedy Antony and Cleopatra and Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s Cleopatra…” 7/18/2022
The Center - “Barry Strauss, America’s foremost popular classicist, brings the story of Actium to life in ways that rival and surpass Shakespeare’s tragedy Antony and Cleopatra and Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s Cleopatra…” 7/18/2022Why Is This Not Enough?![]()
The Left - “Jackson was out walking on his property in Kansas one spring day and called Jensen with a simple question: ‘Why is this not enough?'” 7/18/2022
The Left - “Jackson was out walking on his property in Kansas one spring day and called Jensen with a simple question: ‘Why is this not enough?'” 7/18/2022Being Critical of Enlightenment Triumphalism Isn’t Always Wrong![]()
The Right - “Having considered the evidence, it seems more accurate to say that the Enlightenment project presented itself as a savior from ignorance and poverty but was really a movement to dethrone the old social order rooted in hierarchies and aristocracies.” 7/11/2022
The Right - “Having considered the evidence, it seems more accurate to say that the Enlightenment project presented itself as a savior from ignorance and poverty but was really a movement to dethrone the old social order rooted in hierarchies and aristocracies.” 7/11/2022The Oversimplification of the American Founding
The Center - “Devotion to reading non-politicized history and putting it into context is necessary and something to which we should diligently commit.” 7/2/2022
The Center - “Devotion to reading non-politicized history and putting it into context is necessary and something to which we should diligently commit.” 7/2/2022The Quarrel within American Conservatism![]()
The Right - “The current politics of California, which more than any other American state has been shaped by mass immigration from Mexico, should likewise shake the confidence of conservatives who scoff at the alleged illiberalism of immigration hawks.” 6/30/2022
The Right - “The current politics of California, which more than any other American state has been shaped by mass immigration from Mexico, should likewise shake the confidence of conservatives who scoff at the alleged illiberalism of immigration hawks.” 6/30/2022Limits in a World That Erases Them![]()
The Right - “There is a paradox to life that an acceptance of limits, borders, and boundaries can be the most liberating thing of all.” 6/27/2022
The Right - “There is a paradox to life that an acceptance of limits, borders, and boundaries can be the most liberating thing of all.” 6/27/2022What Type of Religion Is Wokeness?![]()
The Center - “As we might expect, the Woke, often well educated and articulate, have generated their own convoluted and comprehensive ‘theology’ replete with saints and sinners, priests and heretics, and even their own kind of Heaven and Hell.” 6/23/2022
The Center - “As we might expect, the Woke, often well educated and articulate, have generated their own convoluted and comprehensive ‘theology’ replete with saints and sinners, priests and heretics, and even their own kind of Heaven and Hell.” 6/23/2022The Greatness of Ronald Reagan![]()
The Center - “With bloated bureaucracies and top marginal tax rates at 70% when he entered office, President Reagan also carried in his mind a basic script about overreach of the federal government that resonated with Americans after a decade of stagflation and presidential scandals.” 6/22/2022
The Center - “With bloated bureaucracies and top marginal tax rates at 70% when he entered office, President Reagan also carried in his mind a basic script about overreach of the federal government that resonated with Americans after a decade of stagflation and presidential scandals.” 6/22/2022Review: “Conservatism: A Rediscovery” by Yoram Hazony![]()
The Right - “In my own life, being disabled and living with an acute example of life’s predicament means that the worldview Hazony describes and prescribes has made far more sense and has offered far more consolation than liberalism ever could.” 6/20/2022
The Right - “In my own life, being disabled and living with an acute example of life’s predicament means that the worldview Hazony describes and prescribes has made far more sense and has offered far more consolation than liberalism ever could.” 6/20/2022A Decent Level for All: Economic Justice and Universal Basic Income![]()
The Center - “Instituting UBI could help us to transcend traditional distinctions between the ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ poor that have shaped poverty policy for far too long.” 6/19/2022
The Center - “Instituting UBI could help us to transcend traditional distinctions between the ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ poor that have shaped poverty policy for far too long.” 6/19/2022Review: “Obedience is Freedom” by Jacob Phillips![]()
The Right - “Denial, as Jacob Phillips deftly shows in his fascinating and staggeringly original new book Obedience is Freedom, is precisely what the liberal-left excels in, substituting for a world of limits and constraints a schizoid universe where subjectivity is all that counts.” 6/16/2022
The Right - “Denial, as Jacob Phillips deftly shows in his fascinating and staggeringly original new book Obedience is Freedom, is precisely what the liberal-left excels in, substituting for a world of limits and constraints a schizoid universe where subjectivity is all that counts.” 6/16/2022Cancel Culture and the Tolerance of the Natural Aristocracy![]()
The Right - “To really thrive in our own communities, we need more than just Law and Order; a strong social fabric is required that encourages virtuous behavior as much as it punishes delinquency.” 6/15/2022
The Right - “To really thrive in our own communities, we need more than just Law and Order; a strong social fabric is required that encourages virtuous behavior as much as it punishes delinquency.” 6/15/2022
