thoughts in and out of season
James Kalb Political modernity is based on rejection of the premodern belief that man participates in some sort of higher nature. As such, it can take several forms. Liberalism is the form that has won, but not the only one that has existed.
If we get rid of the transcendent, we might view man as fundamentally biological … More ...
Bruce Charlton has been churning out post after post on political correctness. (See his weblog entries posted November 1 through November 3.)
One of his themes is the relation between “old left” bureaucratism and “new left” hedonism. The former runs the show, the latter makes things a bit more fun for those who run it.… More ...
A discussion group I’m part of (The H. L. Mencken Club) is thinking of putting on a conference on the “conservative canon”—books that have been, or should be, central to conservatism in America.
The thought seems to be that the old booklists have become stale. Time has passed, conditions have changed, and books … More ...
Here’s a talk I gave yesterday at the annual conference of the H. L. Mencken Club.
… More ...The title of my talk is PC: The Cultural Antichrist.
It’s an odd title, but political correctness is an odd tendency. It’s a bit uncanny. It doesn’t fit in with how we normally think about things. That’s why
A reader writes to complain about the tendency of many conservatives to adopt “Islam oppresses women” as a major reason for opposing Muslim assertiveness and expansion. Doesn’t that approach (he asks) play into a feminist analysis of society, and end by supporting feminist solutions generally? And as a factual matter, can it really be true … More ...
Bruce Charlton notes one oddity of PC, its denial of culture as well as genes as a serious influence on human behavior. Everybody’s inevitably the same as everybody else, as a little effort would make clear. Or such is the dogma.
The dogma, of course, is batty, and people insist on it only because … More ...
I had a discussion with a reader, in connection with a post on political correctness at Bruce Charlton’s blog, about whether our rulers actually believe what they say they believe. He was inclined to say that the whole current system is based on the denial of objective goods and essences, so it’s clear nothing can … More ...
Gornahoor, apparently an Integral Traditionalist site, had some complaints about my recent post on tradition (which I crossposted to Alternative Right).
I’m Catholic rather than Integral Traditionalist, so the complaints probably reflect a difference in point of view. Nonetheless, most of them can probably be allayed by an explanation of the point of … More ...
In an age of checklists, decision trees, and zero tolerance, it’s a puzzling notion.
People think it means giving up on reason. Or doing what’s been done no matter what. Or accepting an external authority that has nothing to do with the situation we’re actually dealing with.
What else could it mean, when each of … More ...
A blogger who combines the practice of medicine with Catholicism and Austrian economics comments on my views and repeats some of the mistakes people make when they think about tradition. They’re common mistakes, so a response seems in order even though no doubt it’s all been said before.
He seems to think that saying “tradition … More ...