In my latest Epoch Times column I suggest we could make party platforms less preposterous and ephemeral by insisting that the politicians explain to us what practical obstacles they see to implementing their focus-grouped visions.

“Germany, which had been united as recently as 1871 and within one generation had become an awesome industrial and military power, was, on the eve of war [World War I], the foremost representative of innovation and renewal. She was, among nations, the very embodiment of vitalism and technical brilliance. The war for her was to be war of liberation, a Befreiungskrieg, from the hypocrisy of bourgeois form and convenience, and Britain was to her the principal representative of the order against which she was rebelling. Britain was in fact the major conservative power of the fin-de-siècle world.”

Author’s “Preface” in Modris Eksteins Rites of Spring: The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Era

“The two strategies for ending the culture war – incremental restrictions, and ‘leaving it up to the states’ – have a history. In the 1800s, the Democratic Party wanted to leave slavery up to the states. In those days too Democrats were ‘pro-choice,’ but about slavery, not abortion. In those days too they thought ‘leaving it up to the states’ would end their culture war. That hope was futile. It didn’t end the culture war over slavery, but only prolonged and inflamed it. Eventually we had a real war which nobody wanted. ‘Leaving it up to the states’ won’t end the culture war over abortion, any more than it ended the culture war over slavery. As slavery exercised a malignant influence on our politics and culture then, so abortion exercises a beastly influence on our politics and culture today. Ironically, in our time the mantle of ‘leaving it up to the states’ has been taken up not by Democrats, but by the Republicans. The Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision is treated as an excuse to drop the whole issue. I am not surprised that the Democrats of our own day take ‘joy,’ as they say, in the liberty to kill children, but I am gravely disappointed that the Trump/Vance campaign is repeating the mistakes which the other party made over slavery. One would have hoped that they would take their inspiration not from Stephen Douglas, but from his opponent Abraham Lincoln. Mr. Trump, Mr. Vance, we are listening.”

J Budziszewski “The Underground Thomist” September 9, 2024 [https://www.undergroundthomist.org/ending-the-culture-war-over-abortion]

In my latest Epoch Times column I explore the ongoing fascination with the Catholic Church on the part of people who scorn its teachings.

“Already, by the time that Anselm died in 1109, Latin Christendom had been set upon a course so distinctive that what today we term ‘the West’ is less its heir than its continuation…. Today, at a time of seismic geopolitical realignment, when our values are proving to be not nearly as universal as some of us had assumed them to be, the need to recognize just how culturally contingent they are is more pressing than ever. To live in a western country is to live in a society still utterly saturated by Christian concepts and assumptions. This is no less true for Jews or Muslims than it is for Catholics or Protestants. Two thousand years on from the birth of Christ, it does not require a belief that he rose from the dead to be stamped by the formidable – indeed the inescapable – influence of Christianity. Whether it be the conviction that the workings of conscience are the surest determinants of good law, or that Church and state exist as distinct entities, or that polygamy is unacceptable, its trace elements are to be found everywhere in the West…. The West, increasingly empty though the pews may be, remains firmly moored to its Christian past.”

Author’s “Preface” in Tom Holland Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World

In my latest Epoch Times column I say instead of worrying about polls asking whether we think the decline in trust might mysteriously reverse itself, we should concentrate on reversing it by making sure we’re trustworthy. I know it sounds weird but it just might work.

In my latest Epoch Times column I warn against chasing trends in fashion, food or public policy.

“remember that neither scientists nor laymen learn to see the world piecemeal or item by item. Except when all the conceptual and manipulative categories are prepared in advance – e.g., for the discovery of an additional transuranic element or for catching sight of a new house – both scientists and laymen sort out whole areas together from the flux of experience. The child who transfers the word ‘mama’ from all humans to all females to his mother is not just learning what ‘mama’ means or who his mother is. Simultaneously he is learning some of the differences between males and females as well as something about the ways in which all but one female will behave toward him. His reactions, expectations, and beliefs – indeed comma much of his perceived world – change accordingly.”

Thomas S. Kuhn The Structure of Scientific Revolutions: 50th Anniversary Edition