The “Gentleness” of “Soft” Totalitarianism

Rod Dreher. “It’s possible to miss the onslaught of totalitarianism, precisely because we have a misunderstanding of how its power works. In 1951, poet and literary critic Czesław Miłosz, exiled to the West from his native Poland as an anti-communist dissident, wrote that Western people misunderstand the nature of communism because they think of it… Read More The “Gentleness” of “Soft” Totalitarianism

Localism — or what?

What good is “progress” in the wrong direction Chesterton asked. Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates… The Jetsons fantasy. After Oppenheimer? Really? But, the Progressives retort, it’s only crazy reactionaries who oppose Penicillin —or Planned Parenthood (as if these were morally equivalent) who oppose Progress. No specious rationalization can justify R&D technology for… Read More Localism — or what?

The Silent Death of Cambodia (aka extreme “Equality”)

“Pol Pot, China, America”. Updated. “Year Zero: The Silent Death of Cambodia is a 1979 British television documentary film written and presented by the Australian journalist John Pilger, which was produced and directed by David Munro for the ITV network by Associated Television (ATV).[1] First broadcast on 30 October 1979, the filmmakers had entered Cambodia… Read More The Silent Death of Cambodia (aka extreme “Equality”)

No Thank You, Elon.

Updated: Neuralink Corporation is a neurotechnology company that develops implantable brain–computer interfaces (BCIs). Co-founded by Elon Musk, Max Hodak and Paul Merolla, the company’s headquarters is in the Pioneer Building in San Francisco sharing offices with OpenAI.[5] Neuralink was launched in 2016 and was first publicly reported in March 2017.[1][6] —Wikipedia Telegraph UK. “His reasons to do this are two-fold. At one level, he sees an… Read More No Thank You, Elon.

“Democracies Will Change Their Nature”

“…democracies will change their nature; the quaint old forms—elections, parliaments, Supreme Courts and all the rest—will remain. The underlying substance will be a new kind of non-violent totalitarianism. All the traditional names, all the hallowed slogans will remain exactly what they were in the good old days. “Democracy and freedom will be the theme of… Read More “Democracies Will Change Their Nature”

“New Spirituality” & the Ghost of Catholicism

By John A. Perricone | New Oxford Review, January-February 2021 The Deleterious Effects of a Subtle Inversion One of Hollywood’s more sybaritic starlets solemnly announced the other day that she was embarking on a 30-day “spiritual cleanse” in India. Since neither ecumenism nor eco-enthusiasm is my métier, I was bewildered. Could it be some novel… Read More “New Spirituality” & the Ghost of Catholicism

Rousseau on the Origins of Liberalism. Roger Scruton.

Excerpts from Roger Scruton’s 1998 New Criterion essay, Rousseau on the Origins of Liberalism “Rousseau’s attack on society in the name of ‘nature’ exemplifies what to me is the root error of liberalism in all its forms, namely, the inability to accept, or even to perceive, the inherited forms of social knowledge. By social knowledge,… Read More Rousseau on the Origins of Liberalism. Roger Scruton.

1917: Lenin, Wilson, and the Birth of the New World Disorder

Via Amazon.com “the story of two men and the two decisions that transformed world history in a single tumultuous year, 1917: Wilson’s entry into World War I and Lenin’s Bolshevik Revolution. The “Perfectibility of man” In April 1917, Woodrow Wilson, champion of American democracy but also segregation, advocate for free trade and a new world… Read More 1917: Lenin, Wilson, and the Birth of the New World Disorder