Articles 356

The bedrock principle of all Liberalism, whether of the Right or the Left, is Locke’s assertion that “every man has a Property in his own Person.” If is from this…

The following is the fourth installment of John McClaughry’s memoir, Promoting Civil Society Among the Heathen.  See the previous chapter here. 7.  Ronald Reagan  Now let’s backtrack to 1966 and follow…

Dana Gioia has spent his career making metaphors: drawing disparate things together to reveal the breadth and depth of aesthetic experience, but doing so in a way that has frequently…

[Cross-Posted to In Medias Res] The semester has come to an end here at Friends University, and students are leaving campus for their holiday break. Right now I'm grading, and…

THE PRESIDENT HAS AN ASSIGNMENT FOR YOU: This is what the bold text on the whitehouse.gov website tells us as it proudly heralds a new national “Student Film Contest”.   Next…

The following is the third installment of John McClaughry’s memoir, Promoting Civil Society Among the Heathen.  See the previous chapters here and here. 5. Ford and the Ethnics  Gerald Ford became…

Born in 1909 to secular Jewish Parisians, at age 10 Simone Weil was memorizing Racine and marching in labor union protests.  She attended the École Normale and then briefly taught…

Every now and then we hear of a lucky homeowner who takes down a wall to make renovations on his house, and finds inside it a cache of wonders; dozens…

The following is the second installment of John McClaughry's memoir, Promoting Civil Society Among the Heathen.  See the previous chapters here. 3. The Community Self Determination Act  During my year at…

[Cross-Posted to In Medias Res] Amongst those Americans who believe that the civic virtues which make both popular government and a fulfilling independence possible are themselves dependent upon, to a…

As a student, I never trusted teachers who wanted to be part of student culture. You know the type, the teacher who wishes to have influence by becoming as much…

John McClaughry is one of the most misunderstood figures in modern American politics. He served several terms in the Vermont House and state senate and ran unsuccessfully for the U.S.…

As I write this, Edward Snowden is moping his way through exile in the Moscow airport. He can't leave because crossing through passport control would mean legally entering Russia, and…

Holland, MI My wife will be the first to point out that I’m not much of one for marking anniversaries, but it seems - to use Lincoln’s language - fitting…

On Monday, November 11, I delivered the first "First Lecture" to students at the University of Notre Dame.  This series - modeled on the idea of the "Last Lecture" -…

Niccolò Machiavelli wrote The Prince while unemployed and in exile following the restoration of the Medici to Florentine rule in 1512. He dedicated it to Lorenzo de Medici, Duke of…

First published in Dutch as De triomf van de liberale staat in the anthology Essays Over Het Midden (Groningen, The Netherlands: Uitgeverij de Blauwe Tijger, 2013) It was sometime back in the Dark Ages—by which I…

“I was, besides, endued with a figure hideously deformed and loathsome; I was not even of the same nature as man.” So says Frankenstein's creature. After being animated, the beast…

If a rainbow is a symbol of hope, there's a bright 'bow in the sky' to be found in Alfonso Cuarón's Gravity.  And, just maybe, the movie might be an…

Politics on a Human Scale: The American Tradition of Decentralism. Jeff Taylor.  Sept. 2013.  582 pages.  Lexington Books. On occasion a political book emerges with such a wealth of information…

It is necessary for the perfection of human society that there should be men who devote their lives to contemplation. --St. Thomas Aquinas  The trouble with mere pragmatism is that…

The language of “human scale” politics originated, at least in modern America, among the New Left and the Counterculture. More recently it has been adopted by traditional conservatives (appropriately enough).

Arthur Brooks dropped out of college when he was nineteen. He played French Horn in orchestras and ensembles around the country. He joined the City Orchestra of Barcelona. He had…

Hidden Springs Lane. The great shutdown charade (less than 50% of workers furloughed) is over for now. However, though our leaders are patting themselves on the back for ending the…