Nature and the Nation

In this episode, I look at Nietzsche's first book, The Birth of Tragedy. I take care to examine his impressions of Apollo and Dionysus as potentially political archetypes of social, aesthetic, behavioral and ontological experiences. More at natureandthenation.com.

In this episode I look at the most fundamental components of the Basic Writings of Carl Jung including empiricism, the unconscious especially the collective unconscious, and the archetype. More at natureandthenation.com

In this episode I look at Carl Jung's Modern Man in Search of a Soul, where Jung details the relationship of the unconscious and the psyche to religion. I talk about the evolution of the collective unconscious and it's role as a carrier of intergenerational wisdom, and the plurality of forces that play upon the psyche, holding each other in balance and keeping any part of the psyche from dominatin...

In this episode, I look at Alain de Benoist's On Being a Pagan. De Benoist makes a comprehensive comparison between paganism and Christianity, and I focus in the value comparisons that echo Nietzsche, the criticisms of duality, and the effect of original sin and innocence at birth on the two ethical systems and senses of guilt. More at natureandthenation.com

In this episode I look at Larry Arnhart's Darwinian Conservatism, a great book that explores many of the same themes I've been spotlighting elsewhere, but all in one spot and finally putting the tail on the donkey and labeling the evolutionary premise behind Burke's and Hayek's ideas: Darwinian Conservatism. Arnhart talks about spontaneous order and the natural order, customary order, and rational...

In this episode, I explore James Burnham description of liberalism as an ideology founded on an unsound notion of the pliability of human nature. I also look at his notion of guilt as the driving emotion of liberal activity. More at natureandthenation.com

In this episode I look at What is Conservatism, Frank Meyer's collection of essays by mid-20th century conservative thinkers. The essays I focus on give a deeper analysis of the ways in which the state is dependent upon the particular traditions of a people, and the traditions of the people are dependent on a transcendent shared appraisal of reality. The authors I focus on include Russell Kirk, Ga...

In this episode I explore Viktor Frankl's moving exploration into the meaning of life, Man's Search for Meaning. I focus on virtuous behavior in the face of suffering, the importance of having tasks to fulfill, obligations, and the need for love.

In this episode I explore the 'master' and 'slave' morality proposed by Friedrich Nietzsche in The Genealogy of Morals, with a particular focus of how the master morality may relate to Aristotle and the ancient Greeks, and how it relates to modern conservatism and progressivism. More at www.natureandthenation.com

In this episode I explore Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics. I look at eudaimonia and the mean between defect and excess in virtuous behavior. I also examine Aristotle's work on courage and pride, two natural virtues he describes. More at natureandthenation.com.

In this episode I continue the exploration of the evolutionary roots of morality with Jonathan Haidt's fantastic book, The Righteous Mind. In this book, Haidt delivers the killing blow to the rationalist delusion that I've been discussing since the early episodes. In addition, I examine the broad array of virtues encompassed by Haidt's moral foundations theory. This theory, and its political ramif...

In this episode, we explore Daniel Kahneman's Thinking Fast and Slow, in which he explains his research in the two modes of thought: System 1, the fast, intuitive, unconscious thought of associations and heuristics, and System 2, the slow, deliberate, calculative, resource-depleting conscious thought. More at natureandthenation.com

In this episode I look at Matt Ridley's The Origins of Virtue. In particular I look at the prisoner's dilemna and potential strategies to achieve cooperation and reciprocity among evolving selfish genes. I also examine the sexual division of labor in early humans, with males doing most of the hunting and women doing most of the gathering. More at natureandthenation.com

Richard Dawkins' best-selling book, The Selfish Gene, examines the fundamental nature of the replicating gene in a competitive environment, and all of the consequences thereof. I look specifically at the origins of life and DNA, and the evolutionarily stable strategy of behavior development in a game theory context. More at www.natureandthenation.com

In Suicide, Emile Durkheim explores the sociological factors that lead a society toward greater or lesser rates of suicide. I specifically explore his analysis of egoistic suicide, or suicide driven by the breakdown of integrated social institutions and the dominance of individualism in a culture. I also touch on anomie, the disappearance of social norms that, in a healthy society, provide the str...

In this episode I look at Michael Anton's After the Flight 93 Election, a discussion of the danger, both to conservatism and the nation as a whole, posed by the post 1960s left. Anton's famous essay explains the need to elect Trump and to hold the left at bay at all costs, and the failure of conservatives to do so for decades. I also explore Anton' explanation for the the basis of republican gover...

In this episode I explore Bronze Age Mindset, the independently produced exhoration that calls for a renewed dedication to the pursuit of vitality, beauty, and excellence in our ugly modern bug world. I look at Bronze Age Pervert's recommendations for political and social action. More at www.natureandthenation.com

In this episode I look at the functions of myth and ritual, and the challenge that is posed by science to the enduring viability of mythology. I also look at the premise of the Jungian archetype. This is all in Joseph Campbell's classic, Myths to Live By. More at www.neofusionist.com

In this episode I look at the concepts of wholeness and arate (excellence) as envisioned by the ancient Greeks, through H. D. F. Kitto's superb overview, The Greeks. I look at the polis and how it impacted the life and thought of the Greeks. More at neofusionist.com

In this episode I examine Ben Shapiro's theory of Athens and Jerusalem as the twin roots of Western civilization, as presented in The Right Side of History. I look at his prerequisites for a flourishing society, and the connection between the Enlightenment and Western values. More at www.neofusionist.com

In this episode I look an array of Julius Evola's essays collected after his death into A Handbook for Right-Wing Youth. I explore the need to have a positive doctrine as opposed to a negative critique, democracy vs monarchy, and the modern world's fascination with the young. more at www.neofusionist.com

In this episode, I look at Russian philosopher and geopolitical strategist Alexander Dugin's vision of a new political order to replace both liberalism and its natural culmination, post-liberalism. I mention the need to differentiate a specifically American version of the fourth political theory, moving toward a position of pragmatic eclecticism that can absorb some of the disjointed remnants of l...

In this episode, we look at Why Liberalism Failed by Patrick Deneen. In particular, we examine Deneen's claim that fundamental to liberalism is a rejection of the constraints imposed upon us by nature, and the attempt to overcome those constraints through science, technology, and the destruction of culture's symbiosis with nature. We also examine Deneen's ideas about what comes after liberalism. m...

In 'The Virtue of Nationalism' Yoram Hazony describes the benefits of a political order based on a multiplicity of nation-states. This order is compared to the state of anarchy and the imperial drive toward conquest. We look at those components of Hazony's theory that most closely support a philosophically naturalistic approach to nationalism. more at www.neofusionist.com

Edited by Joseph Scotchie, The Paleoconservatives: A New Voice for the Old Right is a collection of essays that explores many aspects of paleoconservatism, as envisioned by writers from both the old right era and the 1990s paleoconservative revival. I discuss Russell Kirk's essay on traditionalism, William Hawkins on protectionism, Clyde Wilson on populism, and Sam Francis on nationalism. more at...