In my latest Epoch Times column I argue that the main governmental problem in Canada isn’t who we entrust with power, it’s the amount of power we entrust them with.
“This is what ordered liberty gives us: a game with rules, making it understandable, playable, and enjoyable, but also infinitely complex, filled with endless variation and diversity. But without rules governing the play and interactions on or off the board, it would be meaningless. Likewise, when talking about freedom in a biblical sense, we are talking about the freedom to do as we are called to do. There are rules for our good, to give us the freedom to carry out our responsibilities, the duties of our offices and callings, willingly and faithfully. Lord Acton was correct: ‘Liberty is not the power of doing what we like, but the right of being able to do as we ought.’ And even more than that, freedom is living the way we were created to live, as image bearers of God.”
André Schutten and Michael Wagner, A Christian Citizenship Guide 2nd edition [following a surprisingly sensible chess analogy].
In my latest Aristotle Foundation column, published in the Western Standard, I say the embrace of radical DEI ideology by Canada’s military leaders, including a notorious recent issue of Canadian Military Journal, makes sense if you put aside conspiracy theories and recognize that ideas have consequences and people believe their beliefs, including ones you don’t share.
“As Dr. F.G. Oosterhoff says, ‘Ideas have a history.’ More than that, ideas have consequences, and bad ideas have victims.”
André Schutten and Michael Wagner, A Christian Citizenship Guide 2nd edition
In my latest Mercatornet column I ask how Americans reached this dreadful pass and what any of us can do about it.
“Our plans miscarry because we have no aim. When a man does not know what harbour he is making for, no wind is the right wind.”
Seneca, quoted by a writer whose name I did not record in National Review July 11, 1994
“Great men are almost always bad men”
Lord Acton (aka John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, 1st Baron Acton of Aldenham) quoted in James C. Holland’s Introduction to the Acton Institute’s 1993 edition of Acton’s The History of Freedom
“There is nothing wrong with old ideas, so long as they are true. And there is nothing admirable about new ones, if they aren’t.”
J. Budziszewski “The Underground Thomist” May 8, 2023 [https://www.undergroundthomist.org/things-i-had-to-learn]