Category: Social and Political Philosophy
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An Admiring but Critical Note on an Edmund Burke Quotation
A quotation and a question: Men are qualified for civil liberty, in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites; in proportion as their love to [of] justice is above their rapacity; in proportion as their soundness and sobriety of understanding is above their vanity and presumption; in proportion as…
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Two Related Political Mistakes
1) One is the idea that we can all live together and get along despite deep differences in language, race, religion, culture, political convictions and basic values. This, the contemporary liberal position, either is or tends towards the idea that there are no limits on productive and mutually beneficial interaction among very different types of…
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John Anderson: “We are all bothered by different things.”
One of the nasty roots of political disagreement. Over at Substack
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Political Observations
The short statements below are from my Facebook page. It is important to explain to the open-minded and politically uncommitted, in a pithy and non-polemical way, what American conservatives stand for. The American conservative, as I use the term, is neither a throne-and-altar neo-reactionary, nor is he an alt-Right tribalist. His conservatism takes on board…
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The Fix We Are In: How Should We Respond to the ‘Woke’ Revolutionaries?
The difference between paleo-liberal and post-liberal responses to the 'woke' Left is well described in a recent Substack entry White tribalism is a third response. I have been entertaining (with some hospitality) the notion that whites may need to go tribal pro tempore, for the time being, in order to defend themselves and their interests (which…
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Is Patriotism a Good Thing? What is a Country?
The following goes deeper into the issues involved in my Substack article Patriotism and Jingoism. I respond to comments from 'Jacques' from November 2015. My responses are in blue. ………………………. I read your blog every day. Quite apart from the high level philosophizing, it's a rare bit of political sanity and rationality and decency. Academic…
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Patriotism versus Jingoism
A meditation for Flag Day, 2021. Substack latest.
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Can the American Flag be Politicized?
From my Facebook page, toned-down and slightly expanded. ………………………….. Some know-nothing at the New York Times claimed that conservatives have politicized the American flag. That's quite a trick! How can you politicize what is already and inherently political? Can you 'meteorologize' the weather? The American flag is a POLITICAL symbol. What it stands for…
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Dreher contra Buchanan on “All men are created equal.”
Rod Dreher quotes Patrick J. Buchanan: “All men are created equal” is an ideological statement. Where is the scientific or historic proof for it? Are we building our utopia on a sandpile of ideology and hope? Dreher responds: With that, Buchanan repudiates not only the founding principle of our Constitutional order, but also a core teaching of…
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No Polity without Comity
Substack latest. No polity without comity, and no comity without commonality. E pluribus unum is a noble goal. But a durable and vibrant One cannot be made out of just any Many. Not just any diversity is combinable into unity. This is why the oft-repeated 'Diversity is our strength' is foolish verbiage that could be spouted only by a…
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Rawls and the Rejection of Truth
An important essay by Michael Pakaluk
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Is There a Political ‘Use it or Lose it’ Principle?
If you want to maintain your physical fitness, you must exercise regularly. Use it or lose it! Not so long ago I thought that the same principle had a political application: if you want to maintain your freedoms, you must exercise them. Use 'em or lose 'em! But times have changed. And when times change,…
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Thomas Sowell on the Root of What Divides Us
Thomas Sowell interviewed on the conflict of visions, the conflict between the constrained vision of conservatives and the unconstrained vision of leftists. The constrained vision "sees the evils of the world as deriving from the limited and unhappy choices available, given the inherent moral and intellectual limitations of human beings." "When Rousseau said that 'man…
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What is Nullification in Political Theory?
Here is one explanation: Nullification is a fundamental part of the American political system. But what exactly does it mean? There are two definitions. One is legal. When a court strikes down a law, it literally wipes it off the books. But there is also a practical definition – to make something of no value or…
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The State under Leftism
Substack