Eric Scheske

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Eric Scheske

Eric Scheske

The Utopian Gardener: An Autobiographical Incident

The Utopian Gardener: An Autobiographical Incident

Rational ideas create hell on earth. Just ask a kulak. Or just ask the lettuce plants in my garden. I had a great gardening idea a few years ago. I called it “wild gardening.” The idea was simple and based on U.S. foreign policy over the past 75 years.

Misshapen Creatures that Live in the Earth Can Give Us Sage Advice?

Misshapen Creatures that Live in the Earth Can Give Us Sage Advice?

Well, no. But: Don't Fear the Gnome The first philosophical event in the Greek world, the selection of their seven sages, gives the first distinctive and unforgettable characteristic of Greek civilization. Other people have saints, while the Greeks have philosophers. They are right when some state that a

It’s Time We Recognize Noise as the Eighth Capital Sin

It’s Time We Recognize Noise as the Eighth Capital Sin

I’m thinking the list of seven capital sins — Pride, Envy, Avarice, Anger, Sloth, Gluttony, Lust — ought to be expanded to eight. This may be audacious of me, and I’m not sure what type of campaign I’d need in order to obtain official recognition for an eighth sin,

This Might Be the Best Book of the 21st Century

This Might Be the Best Book of the 21st Century

Look Homeward, America. Bill Kauffman. ISI Books, 2006. Strong, deep, readable, desperate, fun. All those adjectives–even those that trip over one another–fit this book. It's such a good book, it made me want to quit writing. “If someone like Kauffman, with his erudition and talent, isn&

Is the Netflix Documentary a Paean to Catholic Convert and Daily Communicant Marshall McLuhan?

Is the Netflix Documentary a Paean to Catholic Convert and Daily Communicant Marshall McLuhan?

The Social Dilemma uses the intellectual framework built by McLuhan, but the similarities stop there The Social Dilemma documentary has broken records. According to its main star, Tristan Harris, 38 million households in the first 28 days saw it on Netflix. That’s incredible. What’s even more incredible? The

How Not to Sacrifice if You're a Father

How Not to Sacrifice if You're a Father

Hint: Don't be Rousseau I’ve been reading some Nock. Albert Jay Nock, one of the premier American essayists of the early twentieth century and one of the founders of modern conservative/libertarian thought. A weighty man, that Nock. But also a disturbing man. In a 1964 biography,

You're Not a Lunatic? Thank Your Daddy.

You're Not a Lunatic? Thank Your Daddy.

What do the violent extremes on the Left and the Right have in common? They tend to come from fatherless or divorced homes. That's Mary Eberstadt's observation in “The Fury of the Fatherless” in First Things. She recites the well-known statistical facts about fatherlessness in the

Loneliness and Activism

Loneliness and Activism

A Sports Cliché that Can Improve Your Daily Life

A Sports Cliché that Can Improve Your Daily Life

"Take what the defense gives you." Our local high school basketball coach was working with his talented but very young (8?) son. The father guarded his son. The son made the wrong move and turned the ball over. His father said, "Take what the defense gives you.

Read on the Run

Read on the Run

For years, I've wanted to start the "On-the-Run Reader." It would be a Reader's Digest-type publication, but weightier and lighter. The subject matter would be more serious than RD, but the length of the "articles" (more like blurbs, quotes, summaries, and essays)