A politics of affection
Affection, in the sense that I mean it, is a broad kind of love: a gentler, more abiding, more generous way of feeling-toward, and of… Read More »A politics of affection
politics
Edmund Burke on virtue, experience and political leadership
Words from the past for the present. … no name, no power, no function, no artificial institution whatsoever, can make the men, of whom any… Read More »Edmund Burke on virtue, experience and political leadership
Michael Oakeshott on apprenticeship and practical knowledge: “It takes two generations to learn a profession”
… so impractical is a purely rationalist politics, that the new man, lately risen to power, will often be found throwing away his book [-learned… Read More »Michael Oakeshott on apprenticeship and practical knowledge: “It takes two generations to learn a profession”
Michael Oakeshott on political activity and continuity
Those societies which retain, in changing circumstances, a lively sense of their own identity and continuity (which are without that hatred of their own experience… Read More »Michael Oakeshott on political activity and continuity
Edmund Burke on Circumstances and Political Principles; or, Context is King
I flatter myself that I love a manly, moral, regulated liberty as well as any gentleman of that society [the English Revolutionary Society, which wrote… Read More »Edmund Burke on Circumstances and Political Principles; or, Context is King
Hannah Arendt on science, language, politics and our future machine overlords
Arendt wrote the prologue to The Human Condition not long after the successful launch of Sputnik raised the first realistic prospect of humanity taking its… Read More »Hannah Arendt on science, language, politics and our future machine overlords
The chain reactions of literature: more from Katherine Rundell on children’s books
This is a fun essay from Katherine Rundell. I’ll forgive her for using Plato to argue for censoring social media at the end when she… Read More »The chain reactions of literature: more from Katherine Rundell on children’s books
Good governance. Shared ownership. Tangible progress.
Not to be taken for granted in the family, with members bound by blood, shared history, shared interests and (we hope) mutual affection. Challenging in… Read More »Good governance. Shared ownership. Tangible progress.
Hannah Arendt on the abolition of distance, abstraction and alienation
He found the Archimedean point, but he used it against himself; it seems that he was permitted to find it only under this condition. Franz… Read More »Hannah Arendt on the abolition of distance, abstraction and alienation
Hannah Arendt on speech and action, equality and distinction
Human plurality, the basic condition of both action and speech, has the twofold character of equality and distinction. If men were not equal, they could… Read More »Hannah Arendt on speech and action, equality and distinction