Length: 362 Words Reading Time: 2 Minutes
This first post is meant to set the stage for subsequent ones. I hope it also provides some context for my intellectual take on various ideas that emerge in our public discourse, whether at the local or national level.
I continue to be astonished by the notions that continually resurface in our country. Most of which have proved to be demonstrably false in the past. I recall Bishop Fulton J. Sheen’s book that he titled “Old Errors and New Labels.” I am also reminded of the old dictum to beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing.
These are challenging times for America because many of these ideas do not mesh with the founding principles of America, or with common sense and rational thinking. These ideas do have severe consequences for us as a country and a culture.
I consider myself a traditionalist and a libertarian. Richard Weaver, Russell Kirk, and Edmund Burke are my heroes, as are G.K. Chesterton and Albert Jay Nock. These are men who thought well, reasoned well, and wrote well.
“Ideas Have Consequence” was the title of Richard M. Weaver’s most consequential book. I have read it twice and still go back to it for inspiration and guidance. Mr. Weaver was a scholar of the old school, and he believed and wrote that the traditions and the values of America were being attacked. I am of like mind.
In the last 100 years, the attack has become a full-fledged war with the ever-increasing emphasis and acceptance of progressive ideas and the intrusion of the Federal Government in so many facets of our daily lives. I have come to view the Federal Government as “the impossible monster.” This latter phrase is my very apt description for a political structure that has exceeded all reasonable limits, constitutional or otherwise, and that continues to expand in ever-wider circles.
Ideas, both sound and unsound, abound in today’s America, because of our access to the Internet, our smartphones, and the 24/7 news cycle. We are deluged with information that we cannot understand, evaluate, or critique. I hope that I can offer an intelligent and informed analysis of these ideas and their consequences for America.