Introducing Blaise Pascal: The First Anti-Modern
If we’re going to battle against modernity, we need to recognize our champions. Pascal might have been the first.
Existence Strikes Back Part II
What is the Great Rejection? Modernity rejected the Tao portion of the Reality Spectrum and focused almost exclusively on the “essence” part of the Reality Spectrum: things we can count, measure, and understand through reason and logic. This rejection of the Tao is the "Great Rejection.”
Black Magic and Scientism
Magic has fascinated me since I learned that the high watermark of magic was the Renaissance. The cutting-edge Renaissance thinkers were magicians. Magic and science were intertwined, its practitioners flitting between the two practices (arts) in their attempt to understand and, ultimately, control/manipulate the world, unaware that they are
Science and Magic . . . And Math
This is a great historical tie into Part II of Existence Strikes Back and its observation that modernity's momentum began to build in the 13th century, as Western civilization's capacity for control increased. Magic and science were twins in the cradle of modernity. This essay points
Trying to Figure Out How We Got Into These Rationalist Cocoons
And the cocoons' severe limitations
The Self-Destructive Effects of Progressive Sadness
David Brooks at the New York Times
Conservatives and the Culture
Claes Ryn, from Catholic University. A collection of his essays have just been published.
The collection appears largely to recount the problem that conservatives have long been aware of: they abandoned the cultural field to the enemy.
Shortly after World War II (others might date it back to 1900; others,
How to Brand Yourself Today
Pick Four Traits. One of Them Must be “Victim”
Machiavelli Would've Used the N' Word (if It Would've Advanced the Prince)
Machiavelli was probably the first person to advocate a rationalist system in contradiction to irrationalist norms.
How Do We Account for Thomas Merton?
Thomas Merton started as a writer, became a Trappist monk with genuine insight into the spiritual life, and then wrapped himself in worldly activism. What happened?
Neil Young Never Hated the Man
He just hated THAT man