The conventional wisdom on the political right is that university is now little more than leftist catachesis reliably producing leftist graduates. That left-leaning faculty dominate the American university cannot be… Read more Habits of Liberty: Part V →
Glenn Greenwald rightly says that the “monopolistic” and “anticompetitive entities” of Big Tech have “engage[d] in anti-trust illegalities to destroy rising competitors” such as Parler, whose “destruction preserves the unchallengeable… Read more Habits of Liberty: Part IV →
In April, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam signed legislation facilitating the removal of Confederate monuments, nattering the while: “These monuments tell a particular version of history that doesn’t include everyone. In… Read more Religion, Fundamentalism, Gnosticism, BLM: Part VI →
I read someplace, years ago, that the object of science is, laboriously and at great expense, to confirm the commonplace. Here’s my favorite illustration: Shakespeare gave us (perhaps transmitting Plato)… Read more The Kindness of Prejudice →
I rescued this juvenile chipmunk from a neighbor’s cat. He seemed to be in shock, so I took him inside and gave him some diced apple and maple spinners. After… Read more A Mother’s Fierce Love →
We have been studying why liberty must be more than an idea or speech. Part I considered how ideas are inflected or corrupted by incompatible habits; a bureaucrat, for example,… Read more Habits of Liberty: Part III →
Culture—understood as something not only thought, but enacted and embodied—shapes our articulation of values. Liberty, I have suggested, wears a different aspect under the present centralized bureaucracy than it did during the phase of our free-market republic. Christopher Lasch describes a related shift in our idea of “democracy”: “The word has come to serve simply as a description of the therapeutic state. When we speak of democracy today, we refer, more often than not, to the democratization of “self-esteem.” The current catchwords—diversity, compassion, empowerment, entitlement—express the wistful hope that deep… Read more Habits of Liberty: Part II →
The Declaration of Independence tells us that government derives its “just powers from the consent of the governed” who lay “its foundation on such principles and organiz[e] its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.” Liberalism thus substitutes liberty or choice for any “abstract and eternal justice, beyond all local custom or convenience.” It is agnostic and agonistic regarding questions of ultimate value. A liberal nation discovers and effects its choice by means of polls and market, and because that… Read more Habits of Liberty: Part I →