thoughts in and out of season
James Kalb Roger Scruton has a really excellent article on Islam and politics (*.pdf format). A notable aspect of the piece is the light it sheds on the strength of Islam in relation to modernity. Scruton’s account confirms that radical Islam isn’t medieval at all. It reflects, for example, in the form of Wahhabism, the Protestant Reformation … More ...
The demand for control of opinion, incorporated into human rights conventions and increasingly enacted into law, calls the coherence of human rights thought into question. Human rights forbid prosecution of those who deny God, but demand it for those who deny the gas chambers.They require stamping out advocacy of sexism, but favor advocacy of … More ...
Atrocities in a shrinking world create a demand for clear principles of human rights. Recent developments have made clear the necessity of limiting attempts to enforce them directly, and placing them in a system that recognizes the human need for particularity and substantive concrete loyalties. To facilitate discussion, we have put together a proposal for … More ...
Here are links and discussions relating to human rights from the perspective of the human rights movement:
The following sites present criticisms and complaints regarding “human rights,” at least as now generally understood and institutionalized.
At present there are practical limits to the effects of human rights theory. However, it is in principle an absolutist ideology that enjoys the support of elites worldwide. In order to safeguard its beneficial aspects, principled limitations are necessary to make it consistent with tradition and subsidiarity.
What is to be done about human rights?… More ...
The current human rights movement proposes a comprehensive system of social morality. That system demands forcible action to promote universal equality and guarantee the well-being of everyone in the world. Universal empire is therefore its natural organizational form, and opposition to empire, in the name of limited government and particularism, is opposition to what now … More ...
What follows is the text of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, with comments regarding aspects of the document that foreshadow the present state of overreaching and confusion, and suggestions for a more modest and coherent understanding. The comments and suggestions should be read in conjunction with our discussion of the current human rights movement … More ...
I. Introduction
Today we will be discussing liberalism, which is a subject we all know something about. It is so much around us that it is difficult to get perspective on it and see what it is. That can make … More ...
A slightly edited version of the following essay appeared in the Summer 2002 issue of Telos.
To understand conservatism we must understand how conservatives differ from leftists and libertarians.
Basic oppositions in politics usually have to do with fundamental issues of social organization. Will king or parliament be supreme? Pope or emperor? Local community, … More ...