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December 15, 2024
Civilization and BarbarismImage: The Triumph of Civilization, Jacques Réattu, public domain. As the true scale of German war crimes committed during the 1940s eventually became known, the public response across the West was one of outrage and disbelief. That ...
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November 30, 2024
A Disaster ForetoldImage: Public domain. The myth of Laocoön is tragic. In vain, he warned his countrymen in Troy against opening the gate to the colossal wooden horse left behind by Greek invaders. However, he was blinded by the gods who then had him kille...
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November 16, 2024
Immigration, the Relapse to Barbarism, and the End of CivilizationImage: Public domain. The Thirty Years’ War was hard on Europe. So profound were the ramifications of the Christian schism that doubts arose as to whether the wounds could ever be healed. Leaving trails of mutilation and destruction behi...
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October 30, 2024
Human Nature and the Course of HistoryImage: Public domain. History is linear, of course, rather than cyclical. What creates an illusion of the latter is the relative stability of human nature — compared to cultural designs — across time and place. A conglomerate of (a...
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October 14, 2024
Feast of the CannibalsSaturn devouring one of his sons, by Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens Three revolutions in France, Russia, and Iran legitimized destruction and violence with a narrative of political persecution, inequality, and social injustice under monarchi...
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September 30, 2024
Masochistic Fatalism in Times of ChallengeImage: Public domain. In the spring of 1989, while Eastern Europe prepared for liberation, Iranian imam Ruhollah Khomeini issued a so-called “fatwa” calling for the assassination of Indian-born author — and British citizen ...
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September 9, 2024
War Denial in the WestSince the beginning of time, humans have allowed themselves to get consumed by hatred and involved in bloody conflicts. Although the West, where descendants of faithful churchgoers have largely dispensed with God, imagines that it has put Wars of...
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August 26, 2024
Barbarians at the GateA long time ago, Charles Martel, uncrowned ruler of the Franks, led his Christian army to victory over the forces of Arab commander Abd al-Rahman al-Ghafiqi at the Battle of Tours (October 10, 732 C.E.). The defeat of the Muslim invaders, especial...
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August 9, 2024
Conspiracy TheoriesAttention to the actions and stated or inferred motives of others has survival value in a group setting. If it is wildly exaggerated, however, fueled by an unfounded mistrust of others, paranoia is present. To be (severely) paranoid is to be insane. ...
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July 24, 2024
Justice and DefianceHow rich and wonderful Christendom could have been. A miracle of aesthetic sublimity and principled ethics. As a matter of fact, a world much like this did once exist: A world in bloom. Around the time, when Theodosius I issued the Edict of Thessa...
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July 10, 2024
The Silence of the BellsLong ago, they were dystopian fantasies. To imagine a world with the night sky lit up by burning cathedrals. A world of Christians fleeing for their lives in plundered, smoking landscapes. A broken Europe suffering the same fate as Constantinople in ...
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June 29, 2024
Dealing With EvilFor those without a fatal attraction to the extreme, evil is uncomfortable to approach and examine in depth. So how do we best deal with it in order to protect ourselves and posterity? Allegedly, Israel, Canada, and sixteen European countrie...
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June 22, 2024
The Swedish TragedyFor Westerners to denounce their own cultural inheritance became a provocative, embarrassing, and ill-conceived political ritual in the late twentieth century. A case in point is the Swedish social democrat Mona Sahlin. A Western counterpart of an...
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June 12, 2024
Good and EvilThe moral evil of human action divides people and breeds discord. However, it comes in many guises that may easily deceive us. And for those whose heart is empty, nothing is easier than pretending to be good. Outward piety and renunciation may well m...
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May 26, 2024
Claiming StatehoodWhat does it take to make a good society? In the West, not only liberals, but even conservatives of the activist disposition, have tended to think that we have really succeeded in creating a just society, if not a “good society,” in the P...
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May 18, 2024
In the Shadow of GiantsIt was the time of trials. The twentieth century tested the strength of civilization to the limit. As Westerners indebted to Roman law and Erasmus of Rotterdam humanism, we barely survived the mortal challenges of Bolshevism and Nazism. Like the anci...
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May 11, 2024
The Free WorldNothing in the balance of power has really changed since World War I. The West needs America for its survival as the free world. However, America for her part needs a leader dedicated to the cause of freedom, and prepared to take on the leadership of...
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April 28, 2024
Hypocrisy and CowardiceThe times are changing. In predominantly Anglican and Protestant parts of the West, where we lead the way in terms of de-Christianization and ideological self-destruction, swearing by political goals such as “redistribution of wealth,” ...
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April 19, 2024
Wealth and RedistributionWhy should any living person dwell on the French Revolution? Well, there is more to it than picturesque Parisian backdrops, powdered wigs, and peculiar costumes. On the other hand, the powerful image of a blood-spattered guillotine may give us a hint...
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April 6, 2024
Sins and AtonementIf we are to believe our declared enemies, especially those in our midst, we have a lot to answer for in the West. Apart from natural disasters, nothing has been more apt to produce inequality, want, and misery in the world than our civilization. Sup...
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March 28, 2024
The Third Fall of RomeThe world is changing. In the West, we are no longer the same as we once were and doubt our right to be here. Sensing our weakness, “barbarians” from afar multiply at our borders (i.e. along the Rio Grande and in the Balkans). Harbingers ...
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March 16, 2024
Modernism RevisitedWe ought to reflect on the architectural symbols of Western civilization if we actually love it and are determined to preserve it for posterity. There is no reason to assume that we are at the end of history, as it were, so that the survival of civil...
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March 5, 2024
The Battle for BeautyThe National Civic Art Society has long championed a revival of classical architecture and undoubtedly exerted influence on policy makers in connection with the Executive Order on Promoting Beautiful Federal Civic Architecture. In the proud youth of ...
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January 20, 2024
The Case for InterventionismAt last, America and some of its closest allies decided to strike against the heavily armed rogues who, since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, have disrupted international shipping in the Red Sea. The enemy forces in Yemen are not acting on their own...
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December 28, 2023
Political Activism, Institutional Failure, and Anti-Intellectualism in AmericaThe West shares an old problem with the rest of the world: the constant menace of totalitarian zealots determined to interfere in the lives of others, however they brand themselves ideologically, citing religious or political dogma. What sets the ...
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November 3, 2023
Standing up for CivilizationA year and a half ago, Russian troops invaded Ukraine. And almost a month ago, swarms of irregulars from Gaza suddenly crossed the border into Israel, spreading death and destruction. A “barbarian conspiracy” is once again testing the ...