thoughts in and out of season
James Kalb I just finished reading The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America Since 1945, by George H. Nash. It’s out now in a new 30th anniversary edition, although the text hasn’t changed much if at all since 1976 except for the addition of an epilogue.
The book covers the familiar ground. The postwar conservative movement was … More ...
I read The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels some years ago and couldn’t see that there was much there. It’s always been notorious that in the second century and later various speculative writers composed riffs on Christian themes that aroused some interest for a while (although apparently never mass interest). They were debunked and denounced … More ...
Steve Sailer’s got a good article about bigshot Harvard social scientist Robert D. Putnam. Putnam’s the guy behind Bowling Alone, a famous article (and then book) that documented the decline of civc engagement in America. More recently, as Sailer details, he’s published a study showing that more ethnic diversity means less social trust, … More ...
Here are a couple more instances of what happens when Christianity is eviscerated by abolishing its transcendent aspects: “Embracing Change”, as discussed by the inimitable Diogenes, and “Carnal Love”.
The former, of course, is a therapeutic expression meaning “do what you’re told and like it.” Its currency among touchy-feely ecclesiastical functionaries is a … More ...
As mentioned in my last entry on the Tridentine Mass, the French bishops have been lobbying intensively against it. Rumor has it that some of them have pointed out that it’s wiser not to order changes those on the spot will refuse to carry out. Apparently the Pope’s been doing some jawboning (click on the … More ...
For those who liked my gloom-and-doom entry last month, here’s something even gloomier and doomier from the late John Attarian: Requiem for the Right.
A quote from Le Corbusier that proves the man’s intelligence: “The core of our old cities, with their domes and cathedrals, must be broken up and skyscrapers put in their place.” (Cited in A Humane Economy, 85.) Say what you like, he knew his stuff. The urban environment is the setting for the rituals … More ...
Lawrence Auster asks why so often it is women, more than men, who are unintimidated by liberals. His example is Jeane Kirkpatrick. Here are a couple more, one woman (Kathy Shaidle) quoting another (“andrea”): “Barack Obama? Look—Urkel’s running for president!”
… More ...“Yeah, I know I’m going to hell. Don’t care. I’ve never met a person
Every now and then there’s a social-science result that seems illuminating. Here’s one from the ’50s: Opinions and Social Pressure. It’s often very hard to buck social consensus when it’s uniform, but even a little moral support can go a long way. All the more reason for us all to blog!
I’ve been reading the first couple of chapters of Wilhelm Roepke’s A Humane Economy, and they call up mixed feelings.
The book is generally a good one. It’s an attempt to place free-market economics in a civilizational setting. That setting is classical bourgeois society, especially as it existed in European villages and small towns … More ...