thoughts in and out of season
Dear Mr. Kalb,
Re: Christine O’Donnell’s Discrimination Suit
She is potentially a traditionalist. Here are some facts based on my years of experience dealing with these infernal complaints. Ninety percent have no basis and are dismissed early. O’Donnell’s lasted four years. Why? Was it dismissed without a settlement? We can’t know the answer to the … 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 ...
I’ve been reading Moral Mazes, an account of life in the corporate management suite by sociologist Robert Jackall. At bottom, it’s a description of life at court. The desires of the powerful are what matter, responsibility exists to be shifted, an Act of God (recession, change in management, public relations issue, whatever) might change … More ...
See here.
Thoughts on Codevilla’s essay?
Tradition makes us what we are. The institutions that are dominant today want to make us more manageable as human resources, so they destroy all traditions but those of consumerist careerism. The latter, of course, include pluralism and inclusiveness.
People usually don’t like it when things that are close to them are attacked for … More ...
The untutored or perhaps commonsense view is that there’s something out of order about certain sexual acts. They’re “unnatural,” as people once said, or “intrinsically disordered,” as the Church says today.
Nowadays of course educated people think that’s all ridiculous. After all, no one says sodomy or whatnot is miraculous, so it evidently complies with … More ...
Paul Gottfried has some comments on my post on shrinks and hipster liberalism that raise several interesting points: is the social outlook found among the modish half-educated young an organic development or an intentional construction? Can we can do something about it and the broader stream of advanced liberalism of which it is part? And … More ...
[The ninth in a series on inclusiveness.]
Western societies treat liberal ideals of freedom, equality, diversity, tolerance, and inclusiveness as uniquely authoritative. Those ideals increasingly trump all other considerations and silence all criticism.
As a practical matter, they mean rule by experts, bureaucrats, and commercial interests that promise to give everyone what he wants, … More ...