her pride. With her husband in thernarmy, she is left behind to do the hating.rnFaced with an Indiana captain (playedrnbeautifully b}’ Chris Cooper) who treatsrnher with an unaccustomed kindness, shernfaces a painful trial of her loyalties, andrnby necessity she drags her young sonrnalong with her.rnThere are several wonderful scenes inrnthe film, one of the best...

PERSPECTIVErnAthens and Jerusalemrnby Thomas FlemingrnThe holiday season is responsible for some of modernrnAmerica’s most deeply felt traditions: cheap airiine ticketsrnon Christmas day, seasonal hymns like “Jinglebell Rock” andrn”Blue Christmas,” ACLU suits against the school Christmasrnpageant, and the Andy Williams Christmas special, for whichrnthe divorced Mr. Williams (one of whose wives killed her lover,rnOlympic skier Spider...

came to him in a dream, he says, and rebuked him for being notrnChristianus but Ciceronianus.rnOther fathers were more generous to pagan philosophy.rnJustin Martyr writes to the young Marcus Aurehus and hisrnbrother, claiming that the moral principles which paganrnphilosophers have only taught, Christians actually live out everyrnda)’, and there is no need to discuss the...

Scott, who wrote novels extolling the Christian heroism of thernCrusaders.rnOh, well, I have been told, those heroes were not good Christians.rnWho says so? Not the first gentile Christian, a Romanrncenturion converted by Peter; not the Popes, who called repeatedlyrnfor Crusades; and not Archbishop Turpin, one of Roland’srncompanions, who, even with four lanceheads in his breast,...

Epigramsrnby X.J. KennedyrnInvasionrnIn pours the packaged tour. Before its menacernThe Sistine Adam quails, while sinking VenicernPrefers slow drowning in the AdriaticrnTo shooting by a Kodak automatic.rnFor a Friend To Whom He’d Sent His BookrnI wish you’d say, “What hopeless trash, you twit,’rnAnd not “look forward soon to reading it.”rnJust a SuggestionrnWars meant to end all...

clearly visible above the misty fields and the pale-green and yellow-rnleafed willows and poplars gendy gilded by a vaporous sun,rnwere the ruins of the Schonburg fortress, a robber baron’s keeprnwhich the irate inhabitants of Naumburg had finally stormedrncenturies ago in order to secure free passage for the barges plyingrnup and down the sluggish Saale River....

tocratic founders represented by a sorrowing Countess Gerburg,rna bashful Markgrave Hermann and his blooming Polishrnwife, Reglindis, a cringing Count Tyzzo of Thuringia, an angryrnCount Wilhelm, a masterful Markgrave Ekkehard and hisrnlovely wife, Uta.rnIn The Story of Art, Ernst Gombrich added this commentrnbelow a reproduction of the determined Ekkehard (shownrnrolling up the sleeve of his sword-gripping...

tion was with regard to the priest- and clergy-hating author ofrnThe Antichrist, he confessed that he had first stumbled on Nietzschernat the age of 16 and had been so enthralled by what hernread that he had remained fascinated ever since. “It’s easy,rnthough often useless, to argue with an ordinary atheist,” he explained.rn”But to tackle Nietzsche...

respects in which Nietzsche’s preoccupations have immensernrelevance for the present.rnThe first was his prophetic vision of the quagmire of putrescentrnmediocrity into which Western “civilization” was going tornbe sucked down by a rampaging egalitarianism and an equallyrnunbridled “liberalism” (the cult of freedom, elevated to the statusrnof an absolute, as opposed to relative, value). As he put...

prophecy, a patron of poetry, music, and healing. Only on rarernoccasions is he said to be a sun god; the sun and the moon belongrnto minor divinities, Helios and Selene. Hermes, the messengerrnof the gods, is the son of Zeus by a minor goddess, thernnymph Maia. Aphrodite, the goddess of love, is the daughterrnof Zeus...

In the beginning, the cults centered upon the sanctuaries ofrnthe gods seem to have been under private control, in the handsrnof certain families. In historic times, they belonged to the community,rnwhose welfare was thought to depend on them.rnMonotheism may well be older than polytheism; it seems thatrnto begin with each community tended to have its...

ing spiritual support. Maybe the time has come to search forrnother paradigms? Perhaps the moment is ripe, as Alain dernBenoist would argue, to envision another cultural and spiritualrnrevolution—a revolution that might well embody our pre-rnChristian European pagan heritage?rn—Tomislav SunkrnNietzsche well understood the meaning of “Athens againstrnJerusalem.” Referring to ancient paganism, which herncalled “the greatest utility...

people than Christians are among themselves.” SulpiciusrnSeverus wrote: “Now everything has gone astray as the result ofrndiscords among bishops. Everywhere, one can see hatred,rnfavours, fear, jealousy, ambition, debauchery, avarice, arrogance,rnsloth: there is general corruption everywhere.”rnThe Jewish people were the first to suffer from Christianrnmonotheism. The causes of Christian anti-Semitism,rnwhich found its first “justification” in the...

cepted but are not recognized. The Church ordered Jews tornchoose between exclusion (or physical death) or self-denialrn(spiritual and historical death). Only through conversion couldrnthey become “Christians, as others.”rnThe French Revolution emancipated Jews as individuals, butrnit condemned them to disappear as a “nation”; in this sense,rnthey were forced to become “citizens as others.” Marxism, too,rnattempted to...

transcendent causation, not to a fortuitous encounter of circumstances,rnone circumstance being “popular imagination.”rnThe latter plays, of course, an important role; but worshipers alsornrefer to divine presence and intervention, without in eachrncase tracing the why and the how. At any rate, the thesis thatrnan arbitrary “nature” is the being behind the beings, the ultimaternreference, is not...

of social justice to control necessity andrnchance, in the sense both of mitigatingrntheir effects on the individual and ofrnshowing that what cannot be mitigatedrnis not unjust.” The difference betweenrnancient and modern attitudes turns outrnto hinge on Kant and to culminate inrnJohn Rawls, philosophers who have arguedrnfor the separation of moral judgmentrnfrom social context and historicalrncontingency....

just”) is an emphatic form of the positivern(“just”).rnThis is the way Wilhams treats hisrnown field, philosophy. In dealing withrnClassical Greek literature his ignorancernof the scholarly problems of the texts herndeals with, and especially of the Germanrnbibliography on these problems, is appalling.rnHis occasional obiter dicta onrnproblems he knows nothing about are anrnembarrassment. His one comment onrntextual...

were said to have been responsible didrnnot spare the homes of black people,rnthough they did, mysteriously, jump overrnthat of the French consul. The mayor ofrnColumbia observed three Union soldiersrnshoot to death a black man they consideredrninsolent. When he reported this tornSherman he was told, “We don’t haverntime for court martials and such.” DuringrnSherman’s progress blacks,...

Old ProgressivesrnDon’t Diernby Justus D. DoeneckernForgotten Lessons: SelectedrnEssays of John T. FlynnrnEdited by Gregory P. PavlikrnIrvington-on-Hudson, New York:rnFoundation for Economic Education;rn199 pp., $14.95rnSurprisingly enough, in many waysrnjournalist and commentator John T.rnFlynn was a typical progressive. Long arnfigure of prominence on the Americanrnright, he was not politically active in therntime of Woodrow Wilson, whose domesticrnpolicies he...

CORRESPONDENCErnLetter FromrnInner Israelrnby Jacob NeusnerrnState-Sponsored PrayerrnFor practicing Christians, Judaists, andrnMuslims, what is at stake in state-sponsoredrnprayer in public schools is whetherrnthe particularities that make us what wernare make a difference. Constitutional issuesrnaside, there are strong theologicalrnarguments against legislating prayer forrnyoung people. Specifically, nonsectarianrnprayer speaks for no one in particular andrnaddresses Whom it may concern. ButrnChristianity,...

VITAL SIGNSrnJ O U R N A L I S MrnThe Rise and Fall ofrna Paleoconservativernat the WashingtonrnTimes (Part I)rnby Samuel FrancisrnAfter nearly a decade of workingrnfor the Washington Times, I wasrnfired last September. Technieally, I “resigned,”rnbut Wes Pruden, the Times’ editor-rnin-chief, asked me for a letter of resignation,rnand I had no real choice but...

Rock who was the leader of the segregationistrnCitizen’s Couneil during therncity’s 1957 desegregation crisis, Prudenrnwrites a regular column for the paperrnthat often defends the Confederate Flagrnand the Southern heritage and displavs arntaste for ethnic rabbit punches (only arnfew days after he fired me for expressingrnviews he claimed to find “racially insensitive”rnand “offensive,” he published a...

accept. But even as I left his office I wasrndetermined to quit the paper as soon asrnpossible.rnLater in the day I got to see the wizardrnhimself and had a little chat with Wes. Arnstolid man by habit, Wes tried to musterrnsome anger with me. He asked me if Irndidn’t know that we live in a...

and you . . . ‘ ” So Our Lord and the welfarernstate are on the same side. Funny, Irndon’t recall Him telling the Roman authoritiesrnto extend the grain dole tornJudea, or Zacheus to go and eoUeet morerntaxes to make it possible.rnToday, the soeial democracy gospelrnis not only the mainstream opinionrnamong the ecclesiastical elites. It...

above doctrinal truth, the second stagernwith the denial of doctrinal truth altogetherrnfor achieving political goals.rnRichard John Neuhaus provided usrnwith a classic example last year. His magazinernFirst Things printed a long manifestornsigned by prominent Protestantsrnand Catholics. In page after page, itrnchronicled our troubles with familyrnbreakup, crime, declining respect for authority,rngrowing permissiveness towardrnsexual deviance, the public schools,...

pear to be about as far apart as NewtrnGingrich and Hillary Clinton.rnJames Davison Hunter, for instance,rnargues that evangelicals are a large part ofrnthe orthodox constituency which defendsrnthe traditional family, opposes politicalrncorrectness and multiculturalismrnin the academy, and supports efforts torncut federal funding for objectionable art.rnThis explains why they have lined up inrnbookstores across the land to...

in worship to recover the Psalm singingrnof the Puritans, the simple and spontaneousrnmeetings of Quakers, thernhymnody of German pietism, the folkrntraditions of the Amish, the revival songsrnof Ira Sankey and Dwight L. Moody,rnor the spirituals of African-AmericanrnProtestants? The answer, of course, is no.rnFor these expressions of Protestant piety,rneven though originating from somerngroups which would hardly...

planning at one of the dominant megachurchesrnsays, for instance, on a videorndocumenting a P&W service, that shernis always looking for new ways to orderrnthe midweek believer’s service so thatrnchurch members will not fall into a rut.rnShe goes on to say that people are oftenrntired, having worked all day (an argumentrnfor worshiping on Sunday) andrnneed something...

salvation. It is the story of the weddingrnof Cana all over again but with this difference.rnAt the crucial moment whenrnthe wine failed, we took matters into ourrnown hands and used those five stone jarsrnto mix up a batch of Kool-Aid instead.”rnSuch is the state of affairs in contemporaryrnevangelical worship. The thin andrnartihcial juice of popular...

ness, Jesus was not setting up a rule thatrnevery Apostle mmt carry a sword (or arnpurse or a bag). For the eleven, twornswords were “enough.”rnMore importantly, Jesus may not havernbeen issuing an actual command thatrnanybody carry swords, or purses, or bags.rnThe broader, metaphorical point beingrnmade by Jesus was that the Apostlesrnwould, after Jesus was gone,...

with a handgun to make the mercenariesrnleave town. The saint pointed out to thernmercenaries a lizard which was runningrnacross the road. Possenti shot the lizardrnright through the head, at which pointrnthe mercenaries decided that discretionrnwas the better part of valor; the) obeyedrnPossenti’s orders to extinguish the firernthey had started and to return the propertyrnthey had...

epic depicted a Russian Golden Age inrnthe pre-Christian era, complete with fabricatedrnheroes Skoten and Igor the Elder.rnThe Russians, according to the paganrnpriests who allegedly authored Vlas, werernthe first Indo-Aryan people, and hadrnspread Aryan culture to Europe. Theirrnenemies the non-Aryans, especially thernJews, had contrived to subjugate therntorchbearers of Aryanism, the Russians,rnsince time immemorial. The subtext ofrnSkurlatov’s...

thing one has a “right” to do might notrnbe right to do fell on deaf ears; and asrnthe pressure mounted, the board consideredrnasking the college president tornissue a “cease-and-desist” order againstrnFather Anthony Ugolnik, professor ofrnEnglish.rnA small group of faculty members unpackedrnthe problem in the pages of ourrncollege’s newspaper, urging that studentsrnthink about the implications of...

in Orthodox Eastern Europe at the endrnof World War II led to the communistrnsubjugation of Poland, Czechoslovakia,rnHungary, and East Germany.rnThe West is repeating the error.rnDrawn in by the secularism of Bosnia’srncultured elite, Western diplomats arerncertain that it is the Bosnian Serbs whornare fighting for a return to the Dark Agesrnand against “modernity” and “progress.”rnWestern diplomats...

The Hundredth Meridianrnby Chilton Williamson, Ji.rnZiarnThere is a point along New MexicornRoute 6, on the edge of the West Mesarnof the Rio Grande, from which as yournlook east the whole of the river valleyrnbetween Albucjuerque and Socorro—arndistance of about 120 miles—appears,rnbacked by the Sandia, the Manzanos,rnand the Pinos mountains. Obscured byrnthe bosquc that accompanies it...

employed by Intel, a manufacturer ofrnmicrochips based in California whichrnhas recently built the world’s largestrnmanufacturing plant on the edge of thernWest Mesa across the river from Albuquerque.rnArriving from everywhere, thernretired build retirement communities forrnthemselves and settle into them behindrnthe adobe walls, palm trees, cedars, andrncypresses protecting their country clubs,rngolf courses, and tennis courts. Theyrnkeep to...

Why does this differ fromrnevery other handl)oolcrnon our government?rnClarmce Caison pulls no punches as he explains why:rn”It would be a considerable fiaud to do a book on American governmentrnwhich talked as if die Constitution were still being substantially observed,rnthat pretended that when Presidents took die oath of office diey intendedrnto observe the bounds set by...

ui( ini(M Inioic llicir l/lr, I I Ir”^ ^^M m II W |#—*I i I uii ))ittl In/ow Ihrn- l/lnalini:rnOUULllCHl. Collectionrn””naiss m&&rnThe Golden Christmas, fiction, 1852rnby William Gilmore Simms, 176 pagjrnIntroduction by Dr. Di” •”rnCharleston Sot’rnUniversityrnr^;rn.^^w__ iicrft^’rnl|A«A^rn^li-*–*rnAlso Available: jrn/ s Davis A Traitor? rnnon-fiction, 1866 {,rnby Albeit Taylor BIcc§rnIntroduction byrnDr. Clyde N. Wilson .rnUniversity ol...

EDITORrnThomas FlemingrnMANAGING EDITORrnTheodore PappusrnSENIOR EDITOR, BOOKSrnChilton Williamson, jr.rnEDITORIAL ASSISTANTrnMichael WashburnrnART DIREGTORrnAnna Mycek-WodeckirnCONTRIBUTING EDITORSrnHarold O./. Brown, Katherine Dalton,rnSamuel Francis, George Garrett,rnChristine Haynes, E. Christian Kopff,rnj.O. Tate, Clyde WilsonrnGORRESPONDING EDITORSrnBill Kauffman, William Mills,rnJacob Neusner, John Shelton Reed,rnMomcilo SelicrnEDITORIAL SECRETARYrnLeann DobbsrnPUBLISHERrnAllan C. CarlsonrnPUBLICATION DIRECTORrnGuy C. ReffettrnPRODUCTION SECRET’RYrnAnita CandyrnCIRCULATION MANAGERrnRochelle FrankrnA publication of The Rockford Institute.rnEditorial and Advertising Offices:rn934...

Utopian immigration policies, it makesrnme wish that Mr. Wilhamson wouldrnspend a little less time outside on horsebackrnand a bit more time inside readingrnhis own publication.rn—Tom AndresrnSanta Barbara, CArnChilton WilliamsonrnReplies:rnCalifornia was a mess long before therncurrent invasion of immigrants, legal andrnillegal, completed the process of destruction.rnThat does not mean, however, thatrnI lack sympathy for Mr. Andres’...

whose own letter, printed immediatehrnbelow Taylor’s, asserted that “the worstrnpart . . . is that Mr. D’Souza, baeked byrnhis boss Christopher DeMuth, labels asrn’bigots’ and ‘white snpremaeists’ peoplernvho honestly believe what Mr. D’Souzarnhimself evidently believes but doesn’trnwant to admit.”rnSam Francis has forthrightly stated hisrnbelief that “there arc racial differences,rnthere are natural differences between thernraces.” Less...

must ha’e, those cases of arrested developmentrntliat staff the State Departmentrnbureaucrae, plaing at empire as if tlicvrnwere grown-ups who eould grow beardsrnand father ciiildren.rn—Thomas FlemingrnA N D R E W LYTLE died on his eouclirnat liis log cabin home on December 12,rn199T. Such a passing was and will bernknown as it can onK be known...

PERSPECTIVErnFrom Bryan to Buchananrnby Thomas FlemingrnIt is an unwritten law of American politics that the politiciansrnwho devote themselves to the single-minded pursuit of powerrnand wealth must pretend to be men of the people. The 1996rnpresidential campaign might have been scripted by FrankrnCapra, since virtually every candidate is a would-be John Doernor Jefferson Smith, taking on...

nomic matters but strong social control in matters of traditionalrnmorality; liberals are the opposite. Populists, according tornthis theory, favor economic control and traditional morality,rnwhile the purist libertarians support minimal governmentrnacross the board. There is some descriptive validity to such anrnapproach, but like so many views taken from 30,000 feet, it isrnentirely detached from ground-level politics.rnIdo...

liad a right to protect the students from the evolutionary hypothesisrnbut was in duty bound to do so.” For Bryan, what matteredrnmost was not the facts of Darwinism or the economic interestsrnserved by a monetarv policy; what counted was therncharacter of the people—both individually, when it came tornsalvation, and nationally, when it was a question...

tion. McKinley, Roosevelt, and Hanna represented the rise ofrnmodern America.'”rnSetting aside the potted history—caHing Mark Hanna arnstrategist is like calling Al Capone a businessman—one has tornconcede the Speaker’s point. The battle lines in 1896 wererncleariv drawn: McKinley and Hanna represented the forces ofrn”modernization”—big business linked to big government, thernmasters of war and the builders of...

organization of those forces into a coherent political coalition.rnThat coalition includes the remnants of the “Old Right,” asrnwell as various single-issue constituencies (pro-lifers, antiimmigrationrnactivists, protectionists) to which Buchanan is onernof the few voices to speak. But it would be a serious error tornsqueeze Buchanan into an orthodox conservative pigeonholernfrom which he is merely trying to...

doctrine could never become firm, “^fet, at the same time, thernRuling Class proved unable to uproot the social, cultural, andrnnational identities and loyalties of the Middle American proletariat,rnand Middle Americans found themselves increasinglyrnalienated from the political left and its embrace of antinationalrnpolicies and countcrcultural manners and morals.rnThus, there emerged a chronic Middle American politicalrndilemma: while...

would abolish and to “insulate the wages of U.S. workers fromrnforeign laborers who must work for Si an hour or less,” followsrnfrom his economie nationalism, reflecting the economic interestsrnand identity of the nation, just as a defense and foreign polie-rnfollows from his political nationalism, reflecting the politicalrninterests and identit- of the nation. So, for that...

of the state as it is presently structured derive from its controlrnand exploitation by the Ruling Class, that the elites themselvesrnare the real enemy and that the state, while far too large and intrusive,rnis simply their instrument. Control of the state by a socialrnforce or elite different from the forces that now control itrncould shape...