CATEGORY: MORALITY (15 min)

Calling for order

The great thinker Russell Kirk famously pointed to order, as seen from ancient times to the modern era, as the foundation of American political theory. But perhaps that concept of order shouldn’t stop at the halls of our nation’s government; it should also extend to our personal lives.

Daniel J. Sundahl, in a chapter from an upcoming memoir published in The Imaginative Conservative, discusses how much the notion of order has affected his own life. He creatively weaves in examples from philosophical works and anecdotes from everyday existence to build a fascinating narrative.

Sundahl cites Kirk’s The Politics of Prudence, which delves into the reasons for the modern disordering of government, before diving into a journey from the barber shop to the church and from Dante to T.S. Eliot. Throughout his writing, Sundahl focuses on the interplay between our natural desires to “follow our hearts” and the necessity of concordance with the natural law.

“I believe, though, that truth is also known by the heart,” Sundahl writes.

Follow him on his inward expedition right here.

CATEGORY: EDUCATION (3 min)

Thinking out loud

A major goal of the university system ought to be helping shape the minds of young men and women. One would hope new graduates will be able to discern good ideas from bad ideas and to ask incisive questions about the outside world.

Unfortunately, as Ulrich L. Lehner notes in First Things, colleges are instead shaping students into replicas of each other.

Lehner cites the oppressive peer pressure on campuses as a major reason for the lack of true critical thinking. If everyone else thinks one way, it’s hard for you to think any other way.

Lehner does not think college education should be thrown out with the bathwater, though. He argues students—and adults—must buckle down and intentionally develop their own abilities to evaluate data.

“Like a habit, it is a way of living,” Lehner writes. “You have to want it, and to make it a priority.”

Discover Lehner’s prescription for building this habit here.

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Imagine gathering with top undergraduates from across the nation for an in-depth, weeklong (and all-expenses-paid) summer conference exploring the conservative intellectual tradition, where you can experience opportunities like:

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That’s what the ISI Honors Program is all about.

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CATEGORY: CULTURE (15 min)

Cities of disorder

The order that Kirk and Sundahl hold in such esteem is under attack in today’s America. But much like the long history of order that Kirk famously chronicled, there is a story to how disorder came to threaten our nation’s system.

In our Intercollegiate Review archive, Jeff Polet tells that story, taking inspiration from Kirk to highlight five “anti-cities.” These locations were part of the breeding ground for chaos and have led to the modern war over order in America.

Polet begins with Paris, discussing its disrespect for tradition and ancestry. He then moves less than 200 miles away to Brussels, a longtime home of cosmopolitan universality and now the overreaching European Union. Crossing the Atlantic, Polet brings the criticism to our own shores in New York City, shining a light on the excessive power of Wall Street.

The fourth city, Washington, D.C., has become home to a massive bureaucratic monstrosity, Polet says. And finally, Polet turns an eye to Silicon Valley in California, a place that he argues has had the most insidious effect of all.

Find out exactly what that effect is, and how we can fight back, right here.

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