Western Civilization

The Counter-Repudiation That’s on the Way 8
- Culture, Politics, Western Civilization
- August 17, 2022
Philosopher, writer, and teacher Roger Scruton labeled our age “the culture of repudiation” in his 1998 book An Intelligent Person’s Guide to Modern Culture. Though I am oversimplifying here, his basic premise was that academics and other influential writers and thinkers had given up defending, much less advancing, Western thought and culture. Many, in fact,
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Riding the Underground with Winston Churchill 4
- Culture, History, Politics, Uncategorized, Western Civilization
- August 15, 2022
Five minutes and 47 seconds. That’s the length of the scene when Prime Minister Winston Churchill avails himself of the Underground, also called the Tube, in the film Darkest Hour (2017), a brief and fictitious cinematic interlude, yes, but one bulging with messages for us today. On boarding the carriage, as the English call it,
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A Man Without a Country? … Not Quite Yet 6
- Culture, Literature, Western Civilization
- August 11, 2022
In January 1978, Kris and I were married in Milwaukee, Wisconsin—admittedly not the most propitious time weather-wise for a wedding. We’d saved our money, enabling us to honeymoon in Europe, spending a month with a friend in Switzerland and then traveling as cheaply as possible to Italy and France. One example of the times and
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What Are We Going to Do When It Happens Again?6
- Culture, Politics, Science, Western Civilization
- August 5, 2022
Recently I ordered a copy of Naomi Wolf’s The Bodies of Others: The New Authoritarians, COVID-19 and the War Against the Human, and began the book the day it arrived. Like you who are reading my words, I lived through the lockdowns, the masks, the school and church closures, and all the rest of it.
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Four Elements of a Good History Curriculum 5
- Education, Culture, History, Politics, Western Civilization
- August 4, 2022
Protesting parents showing up at school-board meetings is one of the new scenes in our cultural landscape in recent months. COVID policies and gender propaganda are big on the list of things parents oppose, but the teaching of critical race theory (CRT) is another issue that raises their hackles. CRT disturbs many parents because it
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Word Salads No More 5
- Education, Culture, Western Civilization
- July 29, 2022
Church was crowded, and I ended up, as I often do, sitting near the back. Just as Mass began, I glanced over my shoulder, as I also often do, to see whether some elderly person or pregnant mom might need a seat. (Saint John’s is jammed full of young families and children.) I spend a
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