The Decline of the West By Oswald Spengler Translated from the German by Charles Francis Atkinson New York: A. A. Knopf, 1918 Spengler’s Preface to the First Edition The complete manuscript of this book — the outcome of three years’ work — was ready when the Great War broke out. By the spring of 1917 […]
Spenger’s Introduction to *The Decline of the West* [text] Read More »
One century ago, Adolf Hitler fighting in the Great War. He was a good soldier — he would be promoted to the rank of corporal, be wounded two times, and be awarded six medals. And with him during the war he had the writings of philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer. The image of Hitler reading Schopenhauer is
How Smart and Well-read was Adolf Hitler? [Good Life series] Read More »
[This column is a part of the Theist vs. Atheist series debate between Stephen Hicks and John C. Wright. This is Hicks’s response to Wright’s column. Here are the links to other columns in the series.] To evaluate religion’s track record we need to specify our evaluative benchmarks and identify whether we are evaluating religion generically
Religion and the Verdict of History [Theist vs. Atheist series] Read More »
[Originally published at EveryJoe.com.] Many smart people — including Thomas Friedman in The New York Times, Naser Khader in Newsweek, John Lloyd in The Jerusalem Post, Ayaan Hirsi Ali in The Wall Street Journal — are hoping that the Reformation will come to Islam. Some are calling for an Islamic Martin Luther. Sorry, but no.
No Reformation for Islam, Please [Good Life series] Read More »
German authorities will allow the republication of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf, after decades of censorship. Decent people can argue that the book is too dangerous to be published. But the fact is that Mein Kampf is too dangerous not to be published. The great fear is that Hitler’s ideas are not dead and that his
Is Republishing Hitler’s Mein Kampf the Correct Decision? [Good Life series] Read More »
Of course: a dating app for Remainders who feel they could never love a Leaver. And when Britain made its earlier big Remain-or-Leave Decision, almost 500 years ago, the healthy response was no doubt that a Catholic could never date an Anglican.
Brexit dating app for Remains — and Henry the Eighth Read More »
[Posted here as an example of nineteenth-century nihilism integrated with violence and destruction as a means to a revolutionary end.] The Revolutionary Catechism By Sergey Nechayev (1869) The Duties of the Revolutionary toward Himself 1. The revolutionary is a doomed man. He has no personal interests, no business affairs, no emotions, no attachments, no property,
Nechayev’s “The Revolutionary Catechism” Read More »
I went on a spring-day drive through rural Illinois and ended up in Ogle County’s Oregon, a farm town along the Rock River that is also the county seat. The north side of the courthouse square has a war memorial, with two slabs of granite engraved with the names of those who died in the
Ogle County’s war dead Read More »