Walking to Manhattan
I noticed a camera lying around the house, and I wanted to try out the imaging features of my blogging software, so I decided to memorialize a walk down Flatbush Avenue over the bridge to Manhattan. It’s about an hour walk, and there’s lots of stuff on the way, so why not give it a … More ...
William F. Buckley Jr. – Requiescat in pace
The paradigmatic traditionalist American Catholic Bill Buckley has died. There is a good obituary in the New York Times:
http://tinyurl.com/ysr942
Doubts about dudes
I commented very briefly on Kay Hymowitz’s not-so-pleasing account of the “new girl order“—the Way Young Women Are Now. Now she’s come out with an even less flattering account of today’s single young men. Guys will be guyz it seems. The positive part of the KH essay is that “How to make your … More ...
The headless Right
I’ve been reading Paul Gottfried’s recent book, Conservatism in America: Making Sense of the American Right. The book presents two of Gottfried’s tendencies as a thinker: his tendency to treat expressions like “liberalism” and “conservatism” as names for particular historical constellations of principles, institutions and interests rather than long-term tendencies that show up differently … More ...
Mono no aware on steroids
I just watched the Ozu film Early Summer and thought it was really quite wonderful. Basically it’s about a 3-generation family trying to find their 28-year old daughter a husband, and her refusal of what seems an advantageous match in favor of an old family friend whom the others find unsuitable but she thinks she … More ...
Amor patriae
Love of country can mean a lot of things. Many of them don’t seem to apply from my standpoint. It can mean:
- Love of the principles for which the country stands. What are those principles in America today, though—individual economic success? National strength? Global democracy? Inclusiveness and tolerance? Those are all good things within limits,
The architecture of hell
The satanic is rebellion against God. In more abstract and secular terms, it is rebellion against all order that is not a matter of unconstrained human choice. Either way, contemporary intellectual culture often tends toward the satanic. Extreme idealization of human autonomy makes willfulness, transgression, and subversion seem like virtues. They destroy traditional standards, which … More ...
Ach Hans–you make joke!
A bothersome feature of the Salingaros book I just commented on briefly is that it’s necessary. Basically, he’s saying that buildings should look normal to normal people, and fit in with the way normal people normally act and feel. Nobody’s ever had to say that before. Up to 80-100 years ago such things could not … More ...
From Cool Britannia to a New Renaissance?
A UK cabinet minister says that Britain is on the verge of a “new Renaissance,” at least if plans go forward to shift arts funding from pork barrel to pursuit of excellence. According to the Culture Secretary, and a report prepared for him, “the society we now live in is arguably the most … More ...