thoughts in and out of season
The following essay appeared in the December 11, 2002 issue of FrontPage magazine. It is also available in Spanish.
The fountainhead of the modern human rights movement is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948. Today, when so much is up for grabs in the … More ...
The following essay appeared in the July 1997 issue of Pinc.
… More ...Most objections to civil rights laws have to do with their empirical basis, with things like affirmative action that can be seen as abuses, or with libertarian principle and abstract economic reasoning. However cogent those objections are, they get shrugged off. It remains
There is a conception of identity that grows up and takes hold in liberal society, if only because we can think about ourselves and our actions only by reference to what we are. As always, we define our identity by reference to the common goods the community recognizes. If I say I am American the … More ...
The following essay appeared in the December 1998 issue of Pinc. It is also available in Czech.
No one treats a policeman like any other man. The response is elemental; we can not help but feel the force he represents. Our attitude is not simple fear of consequences, which rationally would usually lead … More ...
The following essay appeared in the April 2000 issue of Pinc, and has also in large part been published in Danish. It may be of some interest because general discussions of anti-racism as an outlook and phenomenon are so exceedingly rare, given the importance of the subject.
… More ...“Racism is the worst of sins,
The attitude of elite and populace toward each other sums up the situation today. Elites consider the people ignorant and bigoted, the people think their rulers pretentious, hypocritical and self-seeking. The reason for the dislike and suspicion is less personal qualities, with regard to which elite and populace may differ little, than social position and … More ...
The following essay appeared in the February 1998 issue of Pinc.
Political correctness spreads, and once it arrives it stays; few like it, but no-one can do anything about it. In America most thought it was a hobbyhorse for a few cranks, while Europeans shrugged it off as an outlandish fad. We have all … More ...
To think and act we have to trust things that go beyond what we can perceive or demonstrate. Our knowledge cannot be a mere summary of the evidence but must rest on something further—at a minimum, on a belief that future evidence will validate it. It is a system of coherent belief, and like any … More ...
The collapse of the liberal regime into irrationality, contradiction and tyranny, and the inability of limited adjustments to restore it to health or even stability, suggest that a basically different direction is needed for our public life. Liberalism is an attempt to make freedom the ultimate principle of public life. The attempt makes no sense, … More ...