The critical doctor comments on the passing of Pope Francis and takes issue with the positive bias for the modern in his latest piece at Takimag.
There is also something odiously complacent about the use of the word “modernization.” It assumes that what is modern is best, and therefore that we, the moderns, have reached an unprecedented state of enlightenment.
Over at The Epoch Times, the skeptical doctor delivers a scathing critique of the dastardly DEI regime and even notes the commonalities with Stalin’s Soviet bureaucracy.
You cannot, after all, discriminate in favor of some without discriminating against others.
This is not a very difficult thought. On the contrary, it is obvious. The question then becomes: Why do so many people seem to take no notice of it when they claim to be offended by discrimination against people of any kind?
Theodore Dalrymple appears on The Thinking Class podcast with host John Gillam for a typically interesting and engaging discussion about some classic Dalrymple topics, which are outlined below.
In this episode, Theodore and I think out loud about the state of Britain, the influences that have led to increased crime and moral degradation in the country, the impact of widespread skepticism on our culture, why non-judgmentalism is not a worthy moral position to take and how it has become so prevalent, why we should beware of promoting pauperism in society, the importance of emphasizing moral agency in people’s lives and why each of us needs to take responsibility for our actions and avoid adopting a victim mentality, why poverty is not an unbreakable state, and much, much more.
In this week’s Takimag, our gloomy doctor considers the preparation required for various potential crises and disasters.
Reading the news can drive you mad; we are never more than an extrapolation or two away from madness.
Our favorite doctor delivers a cracking book review about the spread of the woke mind virus over at Law & Liberty.
We wish our readers a happy and blessed Easter.
One important source of misery, at least among the educated or those who have spent many years in educational establishments (not quite the same thing, alas), is the miserabilist historiography peddled by narrow ideologues which have achieved hegemony in their minds.
In the April issue of The Critic, the doubting doctor sounds off on some corporate green virtue signaling after receiving an online order of printed labels.
My wife ordered a few printed labels online, and they arrived a week later through the post. I have known election propaganda less hectoring than the envelope in which they came.
In this week’s Takimag column, our philatelistic doctor reminisces about his childhood days collecting stamps and how much the hobby taught him about the wide world out there.
Postage stamps are almost relics of the past, and I have long reached the age when relics of the past are more precious to me than hopes for the future. I derive almost as much pleasure from the stamps as from the books; and almost as much pleasure also as from receiving a handwritten letter, a rare occurrence indeed.
Over at City Journal, our distinguished doctor reports on the possible fallout from a French court ban on Marine Le Pen’s participation in political life for five years. It is conceivable that the consequences may be completely different than what is generally expected.
Will her conviction have a practical political effect? Possibly—but it may be the opposite of what was intended. If framed cleverly, in a way that encourages the public to forget or overlook her actual guilt, it could cast her as a martyr.
In the April issue of New English Review, our demanding doctor pens a mildly favorable review of a book by Philip Pilkington that critiques liberalism.
If you don’t want outer constraint, you must be prepared for inner restraint; but for inner restraint not to be experienced as a straitjacket, there must be some moral philosophy to justify it. As Edmund Burke put it, without such restraint, appetites serve to forge chains.