Breaking from the PC prison
I’ve been reading the manuscript of Bruce Charlton’s forthcoming book on PC, Thought Prison, which grew out of posts and discussions at his weblog.
It’s a good book, I’m writing a blurb for it, and I hope it catches on.
As he notes on his website, his views are mostly consistent with mine. … More ...
From scientism to PC
Conservatively-minded people who favor the scientific outlook to the exclusion of other sources of knowledge point out that PC, the insistence that human differences don’t exist or don’t matter or shouldn’t be allowed to matter, is anti-scientific.
That’s true, of course. It’s also true though that scientism—the view that knowledge is not knowledge unless it’s … More ...
From living order to transcendence
I mentioned marriage as an example of the antiliberal implications of the new science of complex order developed by writers on architecture such as Christopher Alexander and Nikos Salingaros.
There are of course many other examples, because the new science goes to basics. It helps make sense of living systems, explains how their specific qualities … More ...
Figuring out our situation
I’ve been reading Nikos Salingaros’ Twelve Lectures on Architecture: Algorithmic Sustainable Design. It’s a somewhat expanded set of notes for a series of lectures he gave a couple of years ago on architecture and urbanism. As such, it gives a clear if rather spare presentation of ideas he’s presented in his other books. … More ...
Alas, no panel at the convention …
Another recommendation for my book, this one from the president of the Modern Language Association: “a book that gets right to the core of the matter: immanent tyrannical elements in the political philosophy that first challenged tyranny” (it’s in the next-to-last paragraph on the linked page). The review Berman refers to is unfortunately not available … More ...
Democracy and its discontents
I’ve been reading The Problem of Democracy, a new translation of a short book by the French writer Alain de Benoist.
“Democracy,” even more than “inclusiveness” or “social justice,” is viewed as an incontestable fundamental good today. Everybody seems to agree it’s how things have to be. Nonetheless—or maybe therefore—most people don’t think about … More ...
A Self-Contained World
[The following review appeared in the January 2011 issue of Chronicles.]
The Tyranny of Guilt: An Essay on Western Masochism, by Pascal Bruckner, translated by Steven Rendall. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press 256 pp., $26.95
Pascal Bruckner is a French version of the Cold War liberal, updated for the age of jihad. … More ...
Whither knowledge and power?
A recent discussion with Bruce Charlton on knowledge, society, and the Eastern and Western Church provokes reflection.
It’s notorious that involvement in particular activities makes it hard to keep their connection to the whole in mind. Standard examples include making money, attention to the opposite sex, and attempts to control things generally. Hence the monastic … More ...
Always something to say
[The following review appeared in the October 2010 issue of Chronicles.]
Neoconservatives: The Biography of a Movement by Justin Vaïsse, translated by Arthur Goldhammer. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press 376 pp., $35.00
There are very few neoconservatives, people disagree on who they are, and they have no popular following or definite organizational structure. Even so, … More ...