9,202 words
There is an elective affinity — a relationship of reciprocal attraction and mutual reinforcement — between a) John Locke’s argument that a child’s mind initially resembles an “empty cabinet” or a “white paper void of all characters” which can be shaped by controlling the education impressed upon the child’s mind, and b) the origins of a literature specifically written for children in the 1700s in England. (more…)
Alain de Benoist
6,688 words
Introduction here; Chapter 2 Part 1 here
Translated by F. Roger Devlin
Opinion democracy? Televisual democracy? Market democracy? Democracy is in crisis, and the pathologies which affect contemporary democracies increasingly occupy observers’ attention. The common opinion is that these pathologies, far from being inherent in democracy itself, result from a corruption of its principles. (more…)
2.916 slov
English original here
Alain de Benoist
Contre le libéralisme: La Société n’est pas un Marché
Monaco: Éditions du Rocher, 2019
Název nejnovější knihy Alaina de Benoist Contre le libéralisme (Proti liberalismu) je polemický, zatímco podtitul La société n’est pas un marché (Společnost není trh) by klidně mohlo posloužit jako velmi případný slogan demonstrace. (more…)
The Blood Compact Monument in the Philippines, which commemorates the blood compact between that country and Spain that was made in 1565.
2,089 words
Most classical liberal thinking, which is still ultimately liberal and thus subversive, is based on the idea of the Lockean social contract. But what if the idea of a social contract is a complete farce? Given that classical liberalism underpins much of lukewarm conservatism, if we knock out the idea of social contracts, we also knock out conservatism. (more…)
2,620 words
Part 2 of 4 (Part 1 here)
Translated by F. Roger Devlin
The Ideology of Sameness
“I think the entire history of the world and of societies can be fully interpreted according to two great principles,” writes the sociologist Paul Yonnet, “viz., that of equalization and that of differentiation (or the tendency to similarity and the tendency to deviation), between which relations of re-equilibration, of compensation (true, false, symbolic, or real) or consolation, are constantly being formed.”[1] (more…)
3,808 words
Translated by F. Roger Devlin
Communities, whether old or recent, whether ethno-cultural, linguistic, religious, sexual, or something else, are natural dimensions of belonging. No individual can exist without belonging, even if only to distance himself from it. (more…)
Jonathan Haidt
4,274 slov
English original here
V první části své eseje jsem se věnoval Haidtovu argumentu, že morálka se vyvinula jako reakce na různé „adaptivní výzvy“. Z těch se etablovalo několik „morálních základů“ spojených s péčí, férovostí, loajalitou, autoritou, posvátností a svobodou. (more…)
3,587 slov
English original here
Bývalý liberál Jonathan Haidt je profesorem etického vedení na Sternově ekonomické fakultě Newyorské univerzity. Nedávno přišel s novou knihou The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas are Setting up a Generation for Failure (Rozmazlená americká dušička aneb jak dobré úmysly a špatné nápady vysílají celou generaci na cestu neúspěchu; spoluautor Greg Lukianoff), (more…)
5,924 words
Part I here, Part II here, Part III here, Part IV here, Part V here, Part VI here
Part 1 of 2
A life devoted to self-aggrandizement might appear to be in accord with nature, which sanctions the will to power. But in reality, overweening individualism cannot lead to the happy outcome that Aristotle conceived as the ultimate goal of man’s life. Power serving exclusively egotistical ends is relatively short-lived and thus of a lower order of magnitude. (more…)
2,318 words
Michael Brendan Dougherty
My Father Left Me Ireland: An American Son’s Search for Home
New York: Sentinel Books, 2019
When this was first published a couple of years ago, reviewers had two distinct takes about the book. One was that it was a wistful, sometimes bittersweet memoir about growing up without a father, because the father was off in Ireland, having never married Dougherty’s American mother; and also, the author had some romantic notions about Ireland, and wasn’t that special. (more…)
