The Opium of the Intellectuals
Just published with my coauthored contribution. ideologyLiberalismMarxismopium of the intellectualsraymond aron
Just published with my coauthored contribution. ideologyLiberalismMarxismopium of the intellectualsraymond aron
Coming soon — the lineup includes a coauthored chapter by yours truly on The Opium of the Intellectuals. classical liberalismJean-Paul SartreMarxismopium of the intellectualsraymond aronSociology
Born on this date. If only more self-avowed lefties had the integrity of Paul Hirst, then things could be really interesting. Here are a few obituaries: European Political Science, Industry and Innovation, and The Times. Marxismpaul hirstpolitical sociologysocialism
Dario Maestripieri in Quillette. Literary studies has for several decades been given over to theory-saturated “activism masquerading as inquiry.” It’s self-aggrandizing political and identitarian Newspeak, as the late D. G. Myers put it, is “a caterwaul of screeching, dogmatic ‘movements.’ Neither method nor logic unites them.” Both Freudians and Marxists have missed the mark on…
Born on this day. Below is Daniel J. Mahoney’s entry in the Encyclopedia of Modern Political Thought. Raymond Aron (1905–83) was a distinguished French philosopher, political thinker, social scientist, and journalist. He wrote influential columns for Le Figaro (1947–77) and L’Express (1978–83) and played a major role in shaping moderate and conservative opinion in France in…
Stephen Hicks’ masterful critical survey of the disparate strands and ever-shifting cynical alliances, and as a consequence, dissonant morphology, offers a very accessible first orientation to understanding the shitstorm that we are currently in the midst of: “Why do they have that power in the humanities but not in the sciences? Why has a significant…
Anti-semitism as a term just doesn’t cut it any longer — the term should be more specific — Jew hatred. Here from a few years back Michael Ezra argues in The Philosopher’s Magazine that Karl Marx’s anti-Semitism is clear and unambiguous. anti-SemitismJew hatredKarl MarxMarxismMichael Ezraregressive left
It’s been 34 years since the death of that independent-minded and incredibly lucid writer — Raymond Aron. I chanced upon his Memoirs: Fifty Years of Political Reflection which has been made freely available here. LiberalismMarxismPolitical philosophyraymond aronSociology
Roger Scruton writes in The Spectator. Isn’t it perverse that disingenous regressives blithely walk around with hammer and sickle flags without any damn shame given the body count. Screwtape mentions Eric Hobsbawm — what a damn shit he was. I do think we are at a Darkness at Noon moment. The real purpose of politics is…
The case of Stephen Greenblatt by Bruce Bawer in the New Criterion. H/T Stephen Hicks. Cultural Studies is an intellectual and scholarly disaster. And its spiritual father is Stephen Greenblatt. Bruce Bawercultural marxismLiteratureLucretiusMarxismphilosophical literaturepost modernismregressive leftshakespearestephen greenblattstephen hicks