C S Lewis’ book The Abolition of Man is presented as three lectures examining the ultimate outcome of a philosophy which seeks to abandon the Tao: the body of natural law. In his first lecture, Lewis illustrates the trend of his time to disregard values and emotions: to dismiss them, […]
Read MorePost Tagged with: "Responsibility"
We’re in danger of entering a new Dark Age – Telegraph
As I was saying to Beth only the other day after reading Roche*: Distracted by celebrity, softened up by the education system, we have also succumbed to what you could call intellectual relativism. We have reached a state of affairs whereby people believe that the validity of their views is […]
Read MoreFreedom, responsibility and the “New Left”
Many who are in power on the New Left today were students when this was written in Education in America: Meaningful freedom has always implied responsibility, and responsibility demands self-control. Self-control presupposes guidelines within which the individual attempts to live in accord with accepted and acceptable standards. The denial of […]
Read MoreRight, wrong and education
Consider these news stories: Pupils will no longer have to be taught the difference between “right and wrong” under draft plans put forward by England’s exams regulator. via BBC NEWS | Education | ‘Right and wrong’ lessons to end. Parents should avoid telling their children what is “right and wrong” […]
Read MoreDavid Cameron: “It is not enough for Labour to lose this election”
David Cameron lays out the Conservatives’ radical ideas for giving people the power and responsibility to help themselves and one another: That’s what we mean by the post-bureaucratic age: the satisfying clunk-click of political philosophy matching contemporary reality to produce a genuinely historic shift in how we organise our affairs. […]
Read MoreLt Gen Lamb speaks for all of us in the Armed Forces
Reported by the Army Rumour Service as “the full speech by Lt Gen Sir Graeme Lamb at the announcement of gallantry awards in Colchester”: Welcome to this day, particularly the families and friends. We in uniform know only too well the silent burden that you carry for those of us […]
Read MoreYes, we can (Reagan remix)
Via ToryRadio: It is time for us to realise that we are too great a nation to limit ourselves to small dreams. Those who say that we are in a time when there are no heroes… they just don’t know where to look. See also his farewell address, the address […]
Read MoreOn-the-spot points for careless driving
The Assault on Liberty continues: Thousands more motorists will lose their licences under plans to give police the power to issue penalty points for careless driving without evidence being heard in court. … Unlike existing fixed-penalty offences, such as speeding and using a hand-held mobile phone at the wheel, the […]
Read MoreFair Trade, bananas and feeding the poor
A rainy Sunday game of Trivial Pursuit provided the claim that bananas are the fourth most important food commodity after rice, wheat and maize in terms of production value. This UN report confirms the fact. And that reminded me of an article in the Journal of The Institute of Economic Affairs, Fair […]
Read MoreSome Costs of the Great War: Nationalizing Private Life
Following comments on the immediate astronomical human cost of the Great War: Yet this essay has to do less with numbers of ended lives than it has to do with altered lives, or rather, with changes in the status of the private life of the modern individual, the modern family, […]
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