If individuals are to find real and abiding happiness, we have to go back to our roots — the books, ideas, concepts of the Western tradition. In short, the tree must be re-rooted if it is to bear fruit again.
“God is dead,” observed the title character of Thus Spoke Zarathustra, written by philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche in 1883. The notorious claim, often interpreted as a celebratory declaration, was not delivered as a boast. Rather, Nietzsche made his observation about a rapidly changing Western culture with a profound sense of foreboding. The fear arose from the...
There is a great open pasture land before Tarheels. It is the future. As we, the people of North Carolina, stand before the uncharted terrain of another year, it is crucial to exercise situational awareness, a concept deeply ingrained in military strategy. This year is particularly significant for our state, with governor elections, crucial legislative...
About a quarter of a century ago, I read Whittaker Chamber’s magisterial “Witness,” his cri de coeur execration against “Godless” communism. As a young man, Chambers had embraced communism and even wrote for the Marxist-cum socialist Daily Worker. Over time, however, he came to realize that in this war of ideas, one side embraced God...
“Chaplain, can we talk?” The sergeant caught me as I was nursing my second coffee of the morning on my way to my office. “Sure thing, Sergeant.” I saw a look on my colleague’s face that seemed out of the ordinary. I would guess from experience that this was not about the usual reasons soldiers...
The United States education system is failing in almost every aspect, but nowhere is this seen more than in the humanities. In a recent poll by the Annenberg Public Policy Center, it was found that 44% of adults failed to name all three branches of government. Of these adults surveyed, 25% could not name even...
It turns out that the late communications scholar, Dr. Neil Postman, was spot on: We are entertaining ourselves to death. Lest you anticipate yet another conservative op-ed article bashing “the other side,” worry not — and, please, keep reading. I actually think it’s a matter of survival. Like the rest of our citizenry, we who...
The rewriting of history is reaching new and absurd levels if World War II can be blamed on the Allies and not the Axis powers.
Loosely defined, the phrase “liberal arts” refers to courses in Western philosophy, theology, literature, art, and history, with science and foreign languages playing a real but secondary role. For the ancient Greeks and many modern Westerners, the liberal arts have been thought necessary to cultivate good citizenship in a government of the people, by the...
The only organ to which secular progressive political activists make little appeal these days—one could consider it America’s only understimulated organ—is the cerebrum. The brain. But when progressives do appeal to voters’ rationality, they wisely do so more primarily through story than through argument. Yet, unfortunately, the progressive story is a “story” not only in...
The United States was founded on the principle that government exists to protect the natural rights of the governed, including, especially, the natural right to liberty. The Declaration of Independence says so explicitly. The Constitution — signed 233 years ago today — is clearly an attempt to give practical expression to that principle. The Constitution...
