“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.”
Tag: Essay
The Value in Reading Byung-Chul Han
The Case for Retiring “Confederate Heroes Day”
“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.”
Multiculturalism Is Madness

“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.”
Free Speech: An Eternal Struggle
“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.”
Philadelphia Schools Have Replaced Critical Thinking with “Criticality”

“Like so many school districts in a post-George Floyd America, Philadelphia’s is rushing to embrace anti-racism.”
We Are All Socialists

“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.'”
What Is a Human?
“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.”
The Boredom of War

“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.”
Review: Maurice Glasman’s “Blue Labour: The Politics of the Common Good”
“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.'”
No, Let’s Not: Perpetrators of Pandemic Authoritarianism Cannot Be Forgiven

“It must become embarrassing to admit one ever supported uninformed and nonconsensual participation in a medical experiment or mass house arrest and coerced isolation.”
No Easy Answers: Facing Ecological Crises Honestly

“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.”
The NatCons v. Ukraine
“At least Hazony recognizes that the democratic world should defend Ukraine. Other nationalists do not agree.”
Jordan Peterson’s “A Conservative Manifesto” Is Not Conservative
“It is instead Hayekian liberalism delivered with a Calvinist grimness.”
Review: Slavoj Žižek’s “Surplus-Enjoyment: A Guide for the Non-Perplexed”
“Combining inanity with compelling anecdote, idiocy with sensible instruction, Žižek addresses himself to the ‘mess we’re in.'”
The Joy of the Knife: On Autoimmune Responses in Politics

“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.”