7,566 words Richard M. Weaver Ideas Have Consequences Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1948 Expanded edition, with a Foreword by Roger Kimball and an Afterword by Ted J. Smith III, 2013. The defeat of logical realism in the great medieval debate was the crucial event in the history of Western culture …. There is no […]
Richard Weaver The Southern Tradition at Bay: A History of Postbellum Thought New Rochelle, New York: Arlington House, 1968 4,501 words Richard Weaver’s The Southern Tradition at Bay has grown in both poignancy and meaning since its posthumous publishing in 1968. Originally Weaver’s 1943 doctoral dissertation at Louisiana State University, this work offers a survey […]
Richard M. Weaver 616 words America wasn’t always a liberal country. The founders drew more upon classical republicanism than liberalism. In the nineteenth century, the populist movement was decidedly anti-liberal. But the founders and the populists were never consistently anti-liberal, because consistency is the province of intellectuals, not statesmen. America never had a genuinely anti-liberal […]
1,582 words Richard M. Weaver Edited by George M. Curtis, III and James J. Thompson, Jr. The Southern Essays of Richard M. Weaver Indianapolis, Indiana: Liberty Fund, 1987 Richard Weaver is known for two notable ideas that need to be emphasized. First, he proposed that there is an objective truth, not many truths. Second, he […]
1,937 words There are great thinkers, and then there are great thinkers whose prescience is so acute that they seem to operate on a precognitive, almost prophetic level. Included among the latter category is Richard M. Weaver (1910-1963). Weaver was a professor of English at the University of Chicago when the humanities were taken seriously, […]
905 words I recently went with a friend to deliver some groceries to a guy who had a medical problem and couldn’t get to the store. We went to this person’s house and found him on his couch, watching The Breakfast Club on video. He was in his late thirties. His overall style was “hipster.” […]
1,204 words Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite swept the Oscars ceremony this year, winning the awards for Best Picture (the first foreign-language film to earn the award), Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best International Feature Film. It has been hailed as the best film of 2019 and currently enjoys a 99% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. […]
215 words / 70:38 To listen in a player, click here. To download the mp3, right-click here and choose “save link as” or “save target as.” Greg Johnson talks to composer Xurious about his intellectual, political, and artistic journey and the censorship of his music by YouTube. 0:00: Introduction 1:46: With Open Gates: The Forced […]
6,431 words Errol Morris’ American Dharma, which is a documentary about Steve Bannon, is probably the most elusive film ever produced by a major filmmaker. Although it premiered at film festivals in September 2018 and received a great deal of press (most of it negative) at the time, it was impossible to see for over […]
1,548 words Is Billie Eilish’s new Bond song, “No Time to Die,” the worst Bond song ever? Close. But sadly, there is a lot of competition for that title. Here is my ranking, from best to worst. Note: Not every Bond theme is a Bond song. Doctor No and On Her Majesty’s Secret Service have […]
1,536 words The Main Thing, the fifth studio album from the corduroy indie band Real Estate, was released today, February 28, 2020. It contains some of their most mature work yet, coupled with a healthy attitude towards introducing more complex synthesizer work and poetic lyricism for an album that can be beautiful in its feather-lightness. […]
2,398 words Protesters march on Avenue Habib Bourguiba in downtown Tunis, 14 Jan 2011 One spark can ignite the whole world, or at least one part of it. It was December 17, 2010, when a young man named Mohamed Bouazizi pushed his handcart down to the market in Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia. Police approached him and […]
2,118 words Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam It has been said that money spent on travel is never wasted. Travelers expand their knowledge of the world, acquire memories that last a lifetime, broaden their minds and, if lucky, have fun. Since I have the good fortune to work in a field that […]
1,844 words Christopher Caldwell The Age of Entitlement: America Since the Sixties New York: Simon & Schuster, 2020 In January, when I first read and reviewed Christopher Caldwell’s The Age of Entitlement, I couldn’t help noticing that the book was being hit by a broadside smear-attack, impressive in its vitriol. Four days before the book’s […]
863 words Eilish. Billie Eilish. Never afraid to wring every drop of money out of a pop sensation, this is who the film industry is having sing the theme to the new James Bond film, No Time to Die. The media is billing this interestingly; the New York Times covered the song with glowing praise […]
Harvey Weinstein leaving the New York Supreme Court. Justin Lane, for Shutterstock. 1,099 words Disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein was convicted of criminal sexual assault and rape in the third degree this week. He did catch a break in being found not guilty of the more serious charges of predatory sexual assault and rape in […]
1,184 words Among the tedious mainstream talking points of the past few years has been the tone of political discourse in this country. This began with the candidacy of Donald Trump, during which his supporters unleashed hell on his opponents on social media. It continues now with Bernie Sanders supporters who, with similar passion — […]
Immanuel Kant 2,092 words Part 3 of 3. Part 1 here; part 2 here. Author’s Note: The following text is based on a talk delivered at the Northwest Forum in Seattle on June 9, 2018. I want to thank the organizers, the audience, and James B. for the transcription. Universalizability Love of one’s […]
2,307 words G. M. Flanders The Ebony Idol New York: D. Appleton & Company, 1860 Uncle Tom’s Cabin was the founding example of white guilt agitprop. Several books were written in response, including a work by Mrs. G. M. Flanders, The Ebony Idol. This obscure genre of counter-propaganda often is called plantation literature, though in […]
Leftover Crack, live in Cologne, 2006. 1,207 words “You cannot edit strength and beauty out of life.” — Bronze Age Pervert Punk music is often connected with left-wing anarchism. In connection with this philosophy, it ostensibly rejects traditional aesthetics and order, but in reality, practically everyone still prefers harmony over chaos, and this is reflected […]
2,155 words Full text of Enoch Powell’s Rivers of Blood Speech here. One can hear it read here. The single most talked-about Member of the British Parliament today was a lowly backbencher who was kicked out of the shadow government of his party. The cause of this strange situation is the farsightedness of the man […]
854 words Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen is his best movie since his first two feature films, Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) and Snatch (2000), largely because it is a gentrified return to their crime caper format. Ritchie at his best is a kind of British Quentin Tarantino, with his underworld settings, non-linear storytelling, […]
2,115 words Library of Congress Reading Room Earlier this month, the Architectural Record obtained a draft copy of an executive order that, if implemented, would have a significant impact on federal architecture. Titled “Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again,” the order states that “the classical architectural style shall be the preferred and default style” for all […]
1,945 words If you enjoyed the salty taste of liberal tears as much as I did in 2016, get ready for 2020. All signs point to a Trump win. (Don’t take my word for it. See here, here, here, here, and here.) But it is what happens next that really interests me. Liberals have gotten […]
Tallinn, Estonia. 1,514 words When I think about Estonia, I think about Kalevipoeg, Estonia’s national epic by Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald. To me, this poem best represents the Estonian people, whose history, language, and mythology are distinct compared to the rest of Europe. The Estonian Declaration of Independence, created on February 24th, 1918, even quotes an […]
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