thoughts in and out of season
There are any number of decline-of-Western-Civ books. Since I just wrote one myself, I ought to talk down the competition. In the case of John Carroll’s book, The Wreck of Western Culture: Humanism Revisited, I just can’t. It’s too brilliant.
Carroll’s basic point is that man needs a place to stand, and humanism—the attempt … More ...
In my discussion of Edward Feser’s The Last Superstition I commented that “functional pattern” (my usual term) seems to cover the same ground as Thomistic “formal cause” and “final cause” taken together. In each case the point is to describe the thing missing in modern thought that makes it go haywire, most strikingly in connection … More ...
Environmentalism is truly a religion. Consider:
It has its weekly rituals (putting out the blue box); it has its dogmas that must not be questioned (catastrophic, man-made global warming) and its corresponding heretics (Bjorn Lomborg, and everyone else who has a hint of scepticism regarding the dogma of catastrophic, man-made global warming); it has its … More ...
Rod Dreher sent a note asking how trads should argue with “gay marriage” proponents, and posted my reply at Beliefnet.
And that comforts me. (The title of this entry isn’t literally true, but Rod Dreher does say my book is “a blockbuster that belongs on the shelves of any thinking conservative who wants to understand where we are today, and where we are going.”)
I just finished reading Edward Feser’s The Last Superstition: A Refutation of the New Atheism. In spite of its title, the book is less a discussion of the “New Atheism” (Dawkins, Dennett, et. al.) than a wonderfully clear overview of Thomism. As such, it emphasises its response to the insights and inadequacies of … More ...
Zenit, the international Catholic news agency, just published an interview with me about the topics I cover in my book.
I just finished reading Allan Carlson’s Third Ways: How Bulgarian Greens, Swedish Housewives, and Beer-Swilling Englishmen Created Family-Centered Economies – And Why They Disappeared. It’s a really excellent collection of short case studies of 20th century attempts to create, recreate or maintain local, familial, distributist or agrarian economic forms in the face of commies, … More ...
Commenter Alice, with whom I’ve had a couple of exchanges at her husband’s weblog, carries her battle into the opposition’s territory. The pile of arguments is getting unmanageably high, so I’ll set up my response as a new entry:
… More ...Dear Alice,
I agree that not all ways of viewing the world are equal.
Hi Mr. Kalb,
I bought and recently read your book, and enjoyed it very much, depressing as the subject matter itself is. I found your ideas and general argument well-developed, and well-argued.
But I have difficulty, personally, feeling optimistic, even though I agree with your reasons for optimism that eventually, the truth must out, and … More ...