Why Weak Fools Can Dominate
Exploring the fool in Christ and the fool in Antichrist. Ivan the Terrible v. Nicholas of Pskov. Nietzsche v. Everyone
History
Thank Samuel Johnson for the Jane Austen Revival
Without his “Dictionary,” you probably wouldn't be able to make sense of “Sense and Sensibility”
History of Western Civilization in Just Five Minutes
My first Substack project. It might take ten minutes, btw.
Bill Kauffman on the Subjugation of Canada and Neil Young's Sanity
Bill Kauffman at The American Conservative
We Either Flee Devils or Fight Them
Toward the end of The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield tells himself he will move out West and shut himself off from everyone and everything, possibly by posing as a deaf-mute.
If he pretends to be a deaf-mute, he reasons, people would have to write messages to him on
Magic in Everyday Renaissance Europe
Laura Miller at Slate
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
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
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,
Why June 1 is a Great Day to Honor the Copts
A little Coptic history, a feast day to remember, and a great drink I concocted from my garden produce.