Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Conservatism

  • The Sam Tanenhaus Biography of William F. Buckley

    I came across it at the local library but the sheer weight of the thing dissuaded me from checking it out.  I borrowed  Jake Tapper's light-weight (in both senses) Original Sin instead. I cannot recommend it. William Voegli's review of Tanenhaus, William F. Buckley and the Conservative Future, I can recommend.  It raises the question:…

  • Ray Monk on Frege, Russell, Patriotism and Prejudice

    Excerpt: The single thing I can imagine Russell finding most shocking would be Frege’s endorsement of patriotism as an unreasoning prejudice. The absence of political insight characteristic of his times, Frege says, is due to “a complete lack of patriotism.” He acknowledges that patriotism involves prejudice rather than impartial thought, but he thinks that is…

  • Ronald Radosh on David Horowitz: A Critical Appreciation

    On very rare occasions, something surfaces at The Bulwark worth reading. Radosh, who is well worth reading, gives his take on Horowitz's flipping of his ideological script, and takes him to task for his late extremism. But how is this judgment by Radosh not itself extreme: What David is being celebrated for is the opposite…

  • Every Generation Faces a Barbarian Threat . . .

    . . . in its own children.  A Substack entry in honor of David Horowitz, recently passed, from whom we the teachable have learned so much. We salute you, sir, and we will carry on to the best of our limited abilities.

  • Joseph Sobran

    Tony Flood asked me if I had read Joseph Sobran. I have. In fact, I have a couple of posts on him. Here's one from 6 October 2010. I've added an update. Comments enabled. Joseph Sobran Joseph Sobran is dead at the age of 64.  Beginning as a paleocon, he ended up an anarchist, and apparently…

  • Cognitive Ability and Party Identity

    Tony Flood writes, Cognitive ability and party identity in the United States Last sentence of abstract: "These results are consistent with Carl's (2014) hypothesis that higher intelligence among classically liberal Republicans compensates for lower intelligence among socially conservative Republicans." Good study. I'll read this later. But for now, one quick comment.  I am both a…

  • Is Trump’s Order to End DEI Conservative?

    From the Independent Institute: President Trump signed a flurry of executive orders last week, leaving media pundits breathless in their efforts to cover it all. One of the most controversial orders was titled “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing.” Yes, conservatives applauded loudly the government’s suspension of its commitment to DEI (diversity,…

  • The Left’s Verbal Theft

    A Substack warning to foolish conservatives.

  • Black Lives Maga!

    The South Bronx comes out for the Orange Man.  The video is about eight minutes long and puts me in mind of the old "Joe and Eddy" tune from the early '60s, There's a Meeting Here Tonight.  Black support for Trump makes perfect sense. These black citizens understand that an endless influx of illegal aliens…

  • ‘Progressive’ and ‘Conservative’

    In their contemporary usages these terms are mainly misnomers. If progress is change for the good, there is little progressive about contemporary 'progressives.' They are more accurately referred to as regressives. Or do you think that allowing biological males to compete in women's sporting events is a change for the good? It is obviously not,…

  • Saturday Night at the Oldies: Lawrence Auster on Bob Dylan

    I was surprised, but pleased, to find that the late Lawrence Auster, traditionalist conservative, photo above, 1973, had a deep appreciation and a wide-ranging knowledge of Dylan's art.  Born in 1949, Auster is generationally situated for that appreciation, and as late as '73 was still flying the '60s colors, if we can go by the…

  • Beware of Projecting . . .

    . . . your attitudes and values into others. Leader of the Stack. Excerpts: We are not all the same 'deep down,' and we don't all want the same things. You say you value peace and social harmony? So do I. But some are bellicose right out of the box. They love war and thrive on conflict, and not…

  • Lifestyle Rightism

    Sohrab Ahmari is against it. Clean living and self-improvement are no substitute for political action. One form of Lifestyle Rightism is Rod Dreher's Benedict Option which Ahmari dubs "the New Frontierism" and criticizes for its ahistoricity. Ahmari's article rehearses  one aspect of the old problem of activism versus quietism. Can one productively blend the two?…

  • Is Political Catholicism the Only Genuinely Political American Intellectual Movement?

    In Liberalism's Good and Faithful Servants, Adrian Vermeule spends eight long paragraphs out of ten explaining why "What passes for the American intellectual right is a sorry thing." He's a clever writer and his catalog of the varieties of epicene political quietism is of some interest. Only in the last two paragraphs, however, does he…

  • Does Classical Liberalism Destroy Itself?

    Joe Odegaard sends us to The Orthosphere where we find Classical Liberalism Destroys Itself. The opening paragraph is stylistically brilliant, especially the concluding sentence, and I agree with the paragraph content-wise, though not with the quotation from Dreher: “Classical liberalism detached from the Christian faith is what got us here.”  Rod Dreher, “David French: Not…