America’s Philosopher posits that Americans in the 20th century weaponized John Locke for their own ideological ends and read Locke into the American founding. This has given Locke an outsized importance as a means to an ideological end.
Year: 2023
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As American as a Stolen Election
U.S. presidential elections are routinely contested for a reason: Cheating has been a recurring part of the American electoral process.
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Warren Harding’s Real Scandal Was His Conservatism
Warren Harding is overlooked as one of America's best presidents, not because of scandals, but because he was an unpretentious peacetime president who made America normal again.
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Hunter’s Plea-Deal Implosion Reveals the Justice Department’s Deception
The Justice Department's attempt to avoid public scrutiny of the sweetheart plea deal it gave to Joe Biden's son, Hunter, has blown up in its face.
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Remembering Harold Innis
Harold Innis consistently pointed to the recurrent historical pattern in which imperial centers control and exploit those who live on the margins of a political order. Innis warned that this dynamic would not disappear with the rise of mass democracy.
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Geographical Diversity May Be The Next Affirmative Action Trojan Horse
Affirmative action advocates aren't likely to stop trying to implement their racial politics even after the Supreme Court's decision. A "geographical diversity" law in Arkansas may be the model for the left's next move.
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Demography Destiny, for Us and China
Population matters, but continuity of character matters more. Without that, a nation ceases to be.
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The Imperial Imperative
In the Shadow of the Gods chronicles the charismatic and influential movers of history, known as emperors.
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What We Are Reading: August 2023
Immigration proponents make obvious contradictory claims. They repeat endlessly that recent immigrants are integrating just as fully as earlier immigrants did. Yet they also want to turn the idea that “America is a melting pot” into a prohibited microaggression. If it really is happening, why is it a moral crime to mention it? They lose...
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Books in Brief: August 2023
Short reviews of Danger Close! A Vietnam Memoir, by Phil Gioia, and Superabundance: The Story of Population Growth, Innovation, and Human Flourishing on an Infinitely Bountiful Planet, by Marian L. Tupy and Gale L. Pooley.
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Longing for the Sacred
Though his portrayal of the Catholic saint is superficial at best, Padre Pio director Abel Ferrara's at least accomplish something, accidentally, by leading the film's star onto a redemptive path.
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Sailing Ships and Troubled Waters
The ship captain as Nietzschean superman, in the 1941 film adaptation of Jack London's The Sea Wolf
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August 2023 Chronicles
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Following Affirmative Action’s Demise, Slay the DEI Leviathan
Following the Supreme Court's overturning of higher education affirmative action, there have been a rapid succession of righteous pushbacks against the academic commissars who collectively comprise America's DEI regime.
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Blame Bob Hope
The Democratic Party's realignment with big business was engineered by former DCCC Chairman Tony Coelho, once a lost young man before comedian Bob Hope took him under his wing.
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The Frontrunner Who Looks Like a Loser Is Biden
Democrats don't want to lose next year, but they have to play the hand they dealt themselves.
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To Be Or Not to Be Western Civilization
Shakespeare and the Idea of Western Civilization, by R.V. Young, is an invaluable defense of Shakespeare against modern anti-Western critics.
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Remembering St. Thomas Aquinas
St. Thomas Aquinas is a universally admired philosopher who was able to distill the whole of human discourse. His thought even influenced America's Founding Fathers, as seen in the biblical ordering of the new American nation in the Treaty of Paris.
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The Justice Department Decided to Help the Bidens Evade Taxes
The Justice Department has put the entire U.S. tax system in jeopardy by handing out an indulgence on unpaid taxes to the president's politically connected son, Hunter. It's easy for politicians to raise taxes if they know they won't have to pay them.
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A Post-Riot Letter from France: A Tense Bastille Day
The targeted burning of France's public schools and libraries in its latest riots shows that the rejection of French education and culture by Muslim immigrants has become overt and systematic. France is a nation shattering into ghettos.
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The Left’s Rising Anti-Americanism
Americans have traditionally celebrated the Fourth of July with parades, cookouts, and fireworks. We would gather with friends and family to celebrate the birth of our nation and perhaps even take a moment of thanksgiving to appreciate that we live in the greatest nation the world has ever seen. Sadly, every year now it seems...
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Britain’s Bad Example for American Conservatives
Social conservatism and something like populism are the starting point for right-leaning politics today. The UK's Tories failed by ignoring social conservatives; the GOP is in danger of repeating their mistake.
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Democrats’ Assault on ‘Our Democracy’
The Left's crocodile tears about the fate of "our democracy" can be easily explained by the fact that when Democrats and left-wing activists speak of "democracy," they really mean "progressivism."
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Silicon Valley God Complex
Elite freaks have a tendency to try to set themselves up as the Almighty.
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Letting Paris Burn
France is reaping the harvest of disastrous immigration and economic policies. Rather than advocating for an unlikely restoration of order in Paris and other riot-prone Western cities, conservatives should steel themselves to wait patiently for collapse.
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Roberts Left a Loophole in the Affirmative Action Decision
Chief Justice John Roberts' rejection of the racial discrimination of affirmative action is one of his greatest Supreme Court rulings. But unfortunately he left in a giant loophole that will allow colleges to continue to privilege blacks and Hispanics over Asians and whites.
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The Voice of God No More
The invasion of Dodger Stadium may mark the peak of public tolerance for all things LGBTQ+. Reaching this low point was the inevitable result of Americans discarding all guiding principles other than unfettered personal autonomy and absolute equality.
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Don’t Rock the Boat, I’m Counting My Money
D.C. swamp creatures who attack paleocons and other conservatives outside of the mainstream seem unable to comprehend that recovering our liberty demands overturning, not defending, our ruling oligarchy.
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A Very Russian Drama
The aborted Wagner coup was an internal conflict within Russia's elites. Although resolved peacefully, it undermined Putin's authority and has increased the chance that he will be tempted to make risky moves—even nuclear ones.
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Civilizations Clash—in Ukraine and at Home
Ukraine and Russia were at peace until a civilizational divide: one chose the West and one chose Slavic-Orthodoxy. Samuel Huntington's "Clash of Civilizations" thesis has proven correct—and predicts a similar rift within America.
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Farewell to Cormac McCarthy
Cormac McCarthy is gone, having secured his place in the literary canon. At his best, McCarthy’s often terrifying, but deeply religious, tales are a moving spiritual and aesthetic experience. May he rest in peace.
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There Is No ‘Moving On’ From Corruption
The classified document mishandling charges against Donald Trump pale in comparison with the legal violations of Democrats, including by Joe Biden and his son Hunter. Such a brazen legal double standard exists only in the world's most corrupt countries.
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Silvio Berlusconi: An Italian Saga
Berlusconi was a singular phenomenon in Italian politics, a revolutionary and explosive blend of dynamic innovation and respect for tradition. With his death, a major chapter in the history of the Italian Republic comes to a close.
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Fertility, Family, and Bio-Socialism
A California bill attempts to replace the biological laws of fertility with its own political preferences, to remove the family from the realm of custom and nature and socialize the very building block of society.
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Is Direct Clash Between NATO and Russia Possible?
Chronicles Foreign Affairs Editor Srdja Trifkovic assesses the status of the Russo-Ukrainian War after the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam.
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From American Dream to Orwell’s Nightmare
If we shudder at the thought of Big Brother's eyes in our homes, we should also be alert to his hands in our pockets.
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The Importance of Bahkmut
After the fall of Bakhmut, the moment of truth will come if the Ukrainian counteroffensive fizzles out, and especially if the Russians respond by starting a major advance of their own.
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End American Gerontocracy
Joe Biden's latest fall demonstrates again that he is a massive liability as president. It also shows how America is suffering from gerontocratic rule, with aging Baby Boomers in their 70s and 80s dominating leadership positions.
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June/July 2023 Chronicles
Chronicles June/July 2023: Transhumanism, a Deal With the Digital Devil. Thematic essays on the subject of transhumanism and the effect of artificial intelligence on humanity.
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Embracing Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence has become an increasingly prominent presence in our lives, stirring both awe and apprehension.
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Rise of the Deadbots
Among the advancements in AI applications are those popularly known as “deadbots,” which allow users to speak to the dead without secret rituals, mediums, Ouija boards, or cryptic table-tapping. The proliferation of deadbots poses serious ethical questions, and their growing acceptance is a measure of our desperate, post-human secularity.
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What We Are Reading: June-July 2023
Short reviews of Noble Savages, by Napoleon Chagnon, and The Natural Family Where It Belongs, by Allan C. Carlson.
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Books in Brief: June-July 2023
Short reviews of His Name Is George Floyd, by Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa, and Aftershock, by George H. Wolfe.
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The Wheel and War
We may long for the romantic and heroic days when acts of military derring-do were performed by Medal of Honor recipients, but it looks like the future belongs to the ugly, impersonal, and utilitarian.
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The Future of War
The United States and almost all other states are caught up in the biggest change in war in about 350 years. The state is losing its monopoly on war.
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Empire’s Bloody End
In A Continent Erupts Ronald Spector analyzes the complex conflicts of East and Southeast Asia in the 10 years after the end of World War II.
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The Future Past
Archeofuturism, a concept that arose on the French New Right in the 1970s, charts a path toward a rebirth of tradition amid a future convulsed by technological change.
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Being Human
Questions of transhumanism have been the subject of many dystopian and futuristic movies, but our fascination with the subject says more about ourselves than the machines.