The failure of institutions in the pandemic crisis
Yuval Levin argues that the institutions of contemporary society, primarily America in his account, have become…
What on earth is going on? Reflections on the current unrest
In today’s world the falcon cannot hear the falconer. In the widening gyre of overlapping world…
Plague Notes
The stay-at-home urging continues, and we are all doing the responsible thing. Some order appears to…
The great seclusion
Michel Foucault’s history of madness describes the decrees of 1656 that confined the insane, the unemployed,…
The plague year
I have been following the emergence of the coronavirus pandemic since January, especially through the remarkable…
Degeneration
“A generation after the commissars left the scene, positive freedom is more difficult to attain, and…
The persistence of the Mahabharata
My trip to Bali – now over, since I am returned from the tropical paradise to…
Notes on a Balinese cockfight
I am in Bali, staying for a short stay luxury escape at Padma Resort, Ubud, which…
Emmanuel Todd’s Lineages of Modernity
“Never have human groups of such a size been so rich, so old, so educated, so…
Where is virtue in dark times?
“It is always dangerous to draw too precise parallels between one historical period and another; and…