Michael Drolling, The Wrath of Achilles, 1819.
1,636 words
Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite holidays. Along with eating turkey and pumpkin pie, it is a day where I reflect on all the things that I am thankful for in my life. As our governments take advantage of the COVID lockdowns to impose draconian measures and the Great Reset, I found myself feeling more angry than thankful (more…)
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“I believe in the certainty of chance,” sang Neil Hannon of The Divine Comedy in 1998, a wonderful songwriter musing on one of philosophy’s oldest conundrums. Are events pre-ordained or as yet unwritten? Do we live in a world of free will or determinism? All of us will look back on our lives and find at least one incident that changed (more…)
Detail, The Divorce of Empress Josephine in 1809, Henri Frédéric Schopin, 1843.
1,604 words
One of the best memories I have is giving the best man’s speech at my best friend’s wedding. I gave that speech 14 years ago and my friend has been married ever since with three great kids. Unfortunately, I have also known men who have lost their property, money, and custody of their children from devastating divorces. (more…)
Ludwig Burger, The Norns under the World, 1882.
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For Easter dinner, I had a glass of red wine, a pizza, and a slice of cheesecake. Regardless of my location, it has become a tradition for me. With the current pandemic, a heavy metal concert, and a first date in Ukraine, I have somehow ended up celebrating Easter each year with wine, pizza, and cheesecake. Perhaps it is fate. Yet it was a dinner with friends three years ago that made me question the many nuances of fate. Could an invitation to that dinner have saved a man’s life from tragedy, or would his life have taken the same path? (more…)
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One of the most interesting and original aspects of Oswald Spengler’s philosophy is his separation of history from causality. For Spengler, history is an examination of the fulfillment of a particular group’s destiny that is not necessarily subject to the strictures of cause and effect: (more…)
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Oswald Spengler (1880–1936) is one of the thinkers most admired by the Dissident Right, yet it is obvious that this admiration largely stems from Spengler’s portrayal of Western civilization as being “Faustian” in nature, that Western man (i.e., the white man) is a seeker of the infinite, which can be expressed by analytical mathematics, instrumental polyphony, perspective painting, etc. (more…)
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Part 3 of 3
Trans. G. A. Malvicini from L’Arco e la Clava [The Bow and the Club] (Milan: Scheiwiller, 1968)
We will end these observations by examining the original content of three ancient Roman notions, those of fatum, felicitas, and fortuna.
15. Fatum. According to the most common modern usage, “fate” is a blind power that hangs over men, (more…)