The Conservative Imagination: Orthodoxy and Popular Culture

Russell Kirk spoke often of imagination, specifically the "moral imagination". It was, in his eyes, perhaps the keystone of a conservative mind. He defined "moral imagination" as,

a man’s power to perceive ethical truth, abiding law in the seeming chaos of many events. Without the moral imagination, man would live merely from day to day, or rather from moment to moment, as dogs do. It is a strange faculty—inexplicable if men are assumed to have an animal nature only—of discerning greatness, justice, and order, beyond the bars of appetite and self-interest.

Refletions on the Race Racket Part II: The Great White Privilege

I still remember the first time I heard the term "white privilege". Though I can't recall the exact topic of the conversation that brought this concept to my attention, I can certainly remember my utter incredulity that such nonsense was, as my fellow conversant insisted, a "real thing", not to mention my horror that someone who I had hitherto assumed to be intelligent and sane could believe such blatant cultural marxist bunk. 

In theory, "white privilege"' refers to the alleged inherent advantages afforded to white people by virtue of their being the dominant group in society (for the purposes of this article the society in question is the United States). A closer examination, however, reveals that these so-called privileges are not inherently tied to race, and certainly not privileges which every white person can expect to claim.

Merry Christmas, Everyone (except heathens and militant atheists, of course)

It's the most wonderful time of the year again, so I thought I would share a short piece I wrote around this time last year for Trending Central. 

Christmas time is easily one of my favourite times of year. Yes, there’s the wonderful ubiquitous smell of pine, clove, orange, and cinnamon, the beautiful sights of greenery, red ribbon, and bright lights, communities coming together for things like carolling, tree-lighting ceremonies, and nativity scenes, and of course, the food. Oh, the food.

Then there’s that feeling – paradoxically both satisfying and depressing – that comes with the realisation that for a significant number of people everything I just described is a sort of kryptonite. I’m talking about the sorts of people who feel the need to do things like this. Now, I realise one doesn’t have to be a Christian to enjoy Christmas, but one certainly does have to be an anti-Christian to go out of one’s way to ruin Christmas for those who are. Being a modern liberal must be terribly tiring, to constantly take offence at everything, to live in perpetual fear of racist witches, sexist bogeymen, and old dead white monsters under the bed.

Reflections on the Race Racket Part I: Inconvenient Truths

Michael Brown. Ferguson. Race. Racism. Cops. These words have been hovering around for the last few months like a swarm of mosquitoes, draining the life out of the country's already-pitiful ability to have a meaningful conversation with itself.

I wanted this piece to be somewhat civil, I really did. I spent the longest four and a half minutes of my life trying to come up with some vaguely even-handed, even conciliatory, way of discussing such a divisive issue. But the truth is that I am fed up. I'm fed up with The Narrative the left propagates and their twisting every single negative thing that can conceivably happen to a black person into an issue of racism.

I'm fed up with their Orwellian abuse of language, having effectively redefined the word racism in order to continue accusing others of practicing it. I'm tired of their ludicrous theories about "latent racism" and "white privilege", and I'm tired of the culture they created: a culture in which the media acts as a lynch mob, blacks who don't vote Democrat are seen by other blacks as race traitors, and countless young whites across the country are ashamed of their own heritage. Most of all I'm tired of the blood-sucking charlatans who don't give a damn about dead black kids unless their killers are white.

Reflections on Ethno-Nationalism

There is much discussion amongst those on the alternative Right about race, nationalism, and tribalism. These issues are of crucial importance in the modern world. One cannot deny the unique influence of both race and ethnicity in shaping individual cultures and societies, and the more we learn about genetics and human biodiversity the more likely it appears that race and ethnicity may even be significantly important factors in individual human behaviour. However, whilst race and ethnicity are undeniably important factors in any community, relative homogeneity being arguably imperative for social cohesion, that does not mean that individual ethnic groups are or ought to be the only valid basis for state boundaries and political power.