Leadership and Machiavelli
Scholars, practitioners, and more casual observers of leadership often talk about Niccolo Machiavelli in the context of leadership practices. Substantially fewer seem to be well read on…
A Libertarian Error
According to Wikipedia, libertarianism is described as follows: "The term libertarianism originally referred to a philosophical belief in free will but later became associated with anti-state socialism…
The Limits of Identity Politics
After the election, a student came into my office and asked me, “What is my major good for?”[1] The quote perfectly captured the post-election state of my…
Our Big Picture Problem
Cultures show their substance by what they make easier and what they make more difficult. A true, illustrative story: Me: “Hey, Siri, find me a Catholic Mass…
Relativists Get Their Favorite Movie Wrong
Final grades were due a few days ago, and for those of us who teach, grading season has just come to a close. With visions of student…
The Decline of the Western
Tired of rants about how awful capitalism is? Here’s a fun trick: ask the people you’re discussing it with not to use the term “capitalism.” Politely suggest:…
The American Political System: What We Can Be Thankful For
With another presidential election when there was no mandate to do anything, one would be excused to be cynical and jaded about the state of our politics.…
Moderately Marginalized
Sure, as a teenager, I experimented a little—rock, but also blues, jazz, standards, alt country. Never pop—that cesspool of cheap, predictable noise shunned by all who take…
The Quest(ion) of Literary Form
In his final writings, Eric Voegelin was preoccupied with paradox as an irreducible aspect of his study of participation, the classical symbol of man’s identity in light…
Elizabeth Bishop and the Metaxy
Voegelin’s exposition of the metaxy (between) in In Search of Order could be summarized this way: the metaxy emerges from the writer’s search for order in experience. …
Chasing Monsters
The X-Files at its best celebrates that “the truth is out there”—objective, weird, and always slipping from our complete grasp. At its worst, the show makes heroes…
Geoffrey Hill and the Metaxy
If I hadn’t been introduced to the metaxy by reading Voegelin in the 80s and William Desmond more recently I would have had to invent it to…
Czeslaw Milosz and the Metaxy
Czeslaw Milosz once told an interviewer that during his long life he had experienced two conditions of terror: the first in Poland under the Nazi and Communist…
Obama’s Paradoxical Legacy
As we are about to elect a new president, President Obama only has a few months left in office. What will his legacy be? Although it is…
