Something that honor and democracy have in common is that they don’t work on a supranational scale. The largest possible democracy takes place at the level of the nation-state: beyond that, as the experience of the EU shows, there is only unaccountable bureaucracy — from Quadrant, Volume LXIII, Number 1-2, No. 553 (Jan-Feb, 2019)
Like many others I have been thrilled by the exchange between Roger Kimball and Jonah Goldberg on the character of President Trump. See here, here and here . But with the greatest humility, I wonder if I might be allowed to interpose a few words on the history of the word "character" which might cast a little…
The media celebrate their election triumph over the Evil One — From The New Criterion of December, 2018
Like just about everything else, anniversaries — even those which are solemn occasions involving commemoration of the dead — are now seen as opportunities for scoring political points. In Britain, there was a debate in the press about whether or not Germans should be invited to the official ceremony of remembrance in London on the…
In the orgy of virtue-signaling that now constitutes so much of our political discourse, there is one kind that is more disingenuous and dishonorable — if we still understood what dishonor meant — than the rest. This is the kind which consists of ostentatiously criticizing those whom the reader might be expected to consider as…
"Post truth" as the media’s excuse for being post news — From The New Criterion of October, 2018
“Use that word!” said Donald Trump to the cheering crowd in Houston on Monday as he proclaimed himself a “nationalist.” A globalist is a person that wants the globe to do well, frankly, not caring about our country so much. And you know what? We can’t have that. You know, they have a word. It…
How have we come to take it for granted that "truth" must be defined in partisan terms? — From The New Criterion of September, 2018
An amusing but slight adaptation of a Nick Hornby novel which can laugh at its characters without precluding the possibility that they may laugh at themselves
Did Mr Rogers’s extraordinary capacity for love end up producing a generation of haters?
Have you noticed? An awful lot of people lately have taken it upon themselves to pronounce on what is and what is not honorable — and, in many cases, who is and is not competent to pronounce upon the subject. On that point, no one ever thinks he himself lacks such competence, but I’m afraid…
