Born on this day, that most subtle, civilized, cultivated, elegant, insightful, humane and liberal quality of mind. For all things Oakeshottian check out the Michael Oakeshott Association, the unaffiliated Michael Oakeshott Society, loads of stuff on this site including a very rare BBC recording of Oakeshott on the philosophy of history, and last, but no means least, A Companion to…
Scathing assessment of prevailing academia by Binoy Kampmark, well and truly caught between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, higher education institutions are encouraged to be functional to market requirements (ROI, translational research); while on the other hand, so much of the university is given over to ideological indoctrination, activism masquerading as disinterested inquiry—i.e.…
What with the regressive mind set of the so-called alt-left and the alt-right (the Siamese twins of authoritarianism and thuggery), discussion of the rule of law, free speech and liberality is more salient than ever. CALL FOR PROPOSALS: find out about our new series on #ClassicalLiberalism https://t.co/g8H5UWT33R @M_W_Q pic.twitter.com/FSRkq5afVQ — Palgrave Economics (@PalgraveEcon) September 7,…
Judging by the numbers “in” class today (not to mention the hundreds of thousands that will view the podcast over the next few weeks), it is clear that the post-modern marxist monopoly on education is being severely corroded. The authoritarian priesthood are increasingly behaving like monomaniacal Aguirres adrift on a raft . . . with the…
The always insightful and elegant Elizabeth Corey in First Things. Individuality is secondary to group identity. Soon the church-like atmosphere evolved into a political rally. Intersectional scholars are, by definition, unhappy with their situations in life. Gender, sexuality, family, hierarchy, capitalism, and, most of all, the university and its “pretense” to objective knowledge must be…
Joseph Epstein, still as sharp as a whistle, in The Weekly Standard. JE’s coinage “virtucrat” (“any man or woman who is certain that his or her political views are not merely correct but deeply, morally righteous in the bargain”) is the precursor to the term “virtue-signaling”, the condition befalling many academics, politicians and in all probability many…
The very excellent Elizabeth Corey weighs in on this very hot topic. Elizabeth Coreyfree speechidentity politicsJohn Stuart MillJonathan HaidtLiberal educationliberalityMarxism
Here’s a very sharp and interesting take on what I’ve been calling virtue-signaling. The article is a couple of years old but nonetheless it is as incisiveness and salient as ever especially to one who has a basic grasp of market price signals and coordination dynamics. Isn’t it telling that despite academia being firmly under the regressive left’s management…
This famous slogan was etched into one of Woody Guthrie’s guitars. I’d rather someone of the calibre and integrity of Woody Guthrie in my corner than most of the collective brain power of thousands of the regressive left humanities academics who so fraudulently claim to stand up for the down-trodden. Having recently visited the superb Woody Guthrie…
Here are two of the more sober, clear and nuanced analyses of the current socio-cultural-political shit-storm. The first from one of the few on the Left still retaining some semblance of neuronal activity — Jonathan Rutherford (Ben Cobley is also a very thoughtful and honest commentator). The only thing I take issue with is that progressive politics is NOT liberal —…
manwithoutqualities 