Turnabout Culture, politics, tradition and Catholicism

Introduction

Welcome to the Traditionalist Conservatism Page!

This page presents an accumulation of materials that are related in one way or another to traditionalist conservatism. The collection is intended to be comprehensive, and covers tendencies from the American Old Republic to the European New Right, from Catholic traditionalism to neo-Sufism, on out to the anarchist and fascist fringes.

No one could possibly agree with everything presented here. The key for inclusion is that the item in some way provides relief from the superficiality and sameness of public discourse today. Some links thus relate to materials that are neither traditionalist or conservative but draw attention to issues that the utopian liberal rationalism now dominant finds hard to digest. Such materials, in their own way, bring into focus the impossibility of a rationalized social order and the need for tradition and a transcendent reference point.

I hope you find something that interests you. If you do, the issues presented can be discussed in our forum. Your participation is welcome. If you want, you can start with a spoken introduction to the issues (requiring RealPlayer).

The various aspects of the topic -- political, cultural, moral and religious -- are hard to separate, but I attempt to distinguish categories:

• Political and Social Conservatism,
• High Culture,
• Religion, and
• "Counterrevolution and Beyond",

including

• Counterrevolution,
• Particularism,
• European New Right,
• Monarchism,
• Libertarianism,
• Cultural retrieval,
• Biological Considerations,
• Farther Reaches, and
• Activism.

Political and Social Conservatism

• My own publications generally take a point of view consistent with traditionalist conservatism.
• For tradition-based thought at its best, see the works of Confucius included in Chinese Culture: Texts and Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France. If interested you may also read my essay on "Confucius Today."
• For a variety of materials on traditionalist and other streams of conservatism, see the Intercollegiate Studies institute website.
• The Michael Oakeshott Association presents the thought of an Englishman whom some consider the most important conservative thinker since Burke.
• And for 19th century English opposition to revolutionary ideals, from Virginia Woolf's uncle, see Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, by James Fitzjames Stephen.
• Conservatives typically believe that our access to the universal is through the particular, in opposition to ideologues who want to take the universal straight and relativists who believe only in contingent particulars. For a discussion of how to find the absolute in the personal and the historical, see Grammar of Assent and Development of Doctrine by John Henry Newman, another 19th century Englishman.
• For a more radical appeal to tradition and authority, consider Joseph de Maistre.
• And see Richard Weaver's Ideas Have Consequences for more on the relation between the universal and the particular and its relevance to conservative concerns.
• For where the tendencies Weaver discusses have landed us, see Eugene (Fr. Seraphim) Rose's Nihilism: The Root of the Revolution of the Modern Age .
• A twentieth century Brazilian work, in somewhat the same tradition: Revolution and Counterrevolution, by Plinio Corrˆa de Oliveira (also see his other online books).
• Tocqueville's Democracy in America isn't specifically traditionalist but is necessary background for understanding American tradition and anti-traditionalism.
• Orestes A. Brownson, The American Republic. How can it be set within a classical and Christian conception of order? Also see the pages of the The Orestes Brownson Society, which is attempting to make all Brownson's works available on the web.
• The Center for Constitutional Studies. More on the American political tradition.
• And a discussion of where the actual political tradition of the west stands now: "A World Split Apart," 1978 Commencement Address at Harvard by A. I. Solzhenitsyn.
• Peter Kreeft on "Darkness at Noon": The Eclipse of "The Permanent Things". What the modern world looks like from the standpoint of tradition.
• What man becomes without tradition: C.S. Lewis on The Abolition of Man.
• Hayek on Tradition. It's a good essay on tradition, although I think it makes Hayek out to be more traditionalist than he really was.
• For a discussion of the relation between conservatism and conformity, see Peter Viereck's "The Unadjusted Man."
• Internet Modern History Sourcebook: Conservative Order. Selections chosen for undergraduate readings.
• A list of conservative books recommended by Russell Kirk.
• The alt.society.conservatism Booklist is a compilation of suggestions from a.s.c. participants.
• A rather quirky introduction to Tage Lindbom, a Swedish traditionalist thinker and former leading Social Democrat.
• Olavo de Carvalho -- Sapientiam Autem Non Vincit Malitia. The Brazilian philosopher, mostly in Portuguese, but some material is in English and more is coming.
• Nicolas Gomez Davila (1913-1994) and "Annotations on an Implicit Text": the work of Nicolas Gomez Davila: two selections from the aphorisms of the Colombian philosopher.
• Chronicles -- A Magazine of American Culture. The leading paleoconservative publication. Their website is continuously updated with news and commentary that don't make it into the printed publication.
• Lawrence Auster: A Voice for Traditionalist Conservatism. An unofficial site.
• Paul Gottfried: Scholar, writer, thinker. Another unofficial site.
• Taki's Magazine. "The online magazine for independent conservatives"--that is, for those who haven't been altogether assimilated.
• The Canadian Conservative Forum. Some intelligent articles generally tending somewhat to the moderate and mainstream.
• Conservative Central provides intelligent conservative thought and commentary from Down Under.
• Various Rants I've picked up on the net.
• Now is not the first time issues of cultural decline have seemed troubling.

High Culture

Traditionalist conservatives usually think of politics as an aspect of culture, and so recognize the mutual relevance of the two. So here are things relating more particularly to literary and philosophical culture:

• National Humanities Institute. Something for all you Irving Babbitt fans.
• Babbitt's Rousseau and Romanticism, a basic text in conservative thought. Also see his books at Google Books.
• Writings of Paul Elmer More, like Babbitt a "New Humanist" critic.
• G. K. Chesterton Page, with links to etexts of many of his works. Also see his books at Google Books.
• The Google directory on Hilaire Belloc, the other half of Chesterbelloc. Also see his online books page and his books at Google books.
• Samuel Johnson page.
• Praesidium, The quarterly journal of the Center for Literate Values.
• Animus. Philosophizing about the traditions of the West.

Religion

While some have argued that non-religious conservatism is possible, most traditionalist conservatives think of politics and culture as necessarily connected to religion. Certainly it is hard to think of conservatives, other than a few skeptical and comfortably-situated intellectuals, who decisively reject the existence of some power for good transcending mankind. So here are resources relating to traditional religious orthodoxy of one sort or another, some with a political slant:

General:

• Internet Sacred Text Archive Home.
• Biblical, Jewish, and Early Christian Texts.

Roman Catholic:

• In general, see my page of tradish Catholic links.
• Catechism of the Catholic Church.
• EWTN Global Catholic Network. Mother Angelica's site. Includes library of thousands of documents and articles relevant to orthodox Catholicism.
• Second Spring: a journal of faith and culture. Includes an extensive list of links and much else.
• Biblical Evidence for Catholicism. A very extensive collection of links -- goes far beyond the name.
• James Schall on Political Philosophy. Also see James V. Schall, S.J -- Another Sort of Learning. Philosophy and humane learning generally as well as Catholicism.
• The Roman Forum. A sort of informal think tank dedicated to the broad defense of Catholic doctrine and Catholic culture. Also see the website of their director, Professor John C. Rao.
• E. Michael Jones' Culture Wars magazine. Particularly worth reading is their recent feature article Conservatism in Extremis at Hillsdale College.
• New Oxford Review. You've seen the ads, now look at the magazine.
• First Things magazine. Some might call them mere neocons, but today any gesture at all toward orthodoxy puts you altogether off the bus. See below for "theocracy" flap.
• Inside Catholic. The successor to Crisis. Tries to combine orthodoxy and mainstream intellectual respectability.
• Frequently Asked Questions about the Inquisition. Casting light on one of many Black Legends about the Church.

Eastern Orthodox:

Traditionalism seems more clearly constitutive of Eastern Orthodoxy than other branches of Christianity.

• The Orthodox Christian Foundation.
• The Orthodox Christian Information Center. Includes materials of interest to Protestants and Anglicans considering making the move to Orthodoxy.
• The Fundamental Difference Between the "East" and "West". Orthodoxy and the West: how do they differ?
• Comments on Anglicanism and Eastern Orthodoxy, in support of the latter.

Anglican:

The church of T.S. Eliot, C.S. Lewis and Dorothy Sayers seems rather a mess, but some struggle on:

• Classical Anglican Net News.
• Forward in Faith North America Home Page. The successor to the Episcopal Synod of America.
• Anglocatholic Central Home Page.
• The Prayer Book Society of the Episcopal Church (US).
• The Prayer Book Society of Canada Home Page. Many essays and articles.
• Project Canterbury -- Classical Anglican and Anglo-Catholic Texts.
• Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry -- Writings from Faculty and Friends. Includes essays, articles and publications.
• The Church's Crisis of Identity, by Stephen M. Smith.
• "Continuing" and similar Anglican Churches.

Protestant:

Protestantism often has an uneasy relation to traditionalism. Nonetheless, it is not monolithic and one should distinguish cases:

• Contra Mundum, a journal of religion and society from a conservative Reform perspective. The site also has hundreds of other files, including lists of publications and organizations, back issues of a defunct magazine called Antithesis with a lot of Reconstructionist and Libertarian associations, and the essays of Dr. Thomas Schirrmacher.
• Center for the Advancement of Paleo-Orthodoxy. Another conservative Reform group.
• Christianity & Liberalism by J. Gresham Machen. An online book contrasting modernism and supernaturalism.
• Concerned Methodists Homepage.

Jewish

• Varieties of Orthodox Judaism.
• FAQ on Hasidism (Chassidism).
• An Internet Guide to Chabad Literature.
• Lubavitcher Page.
• Likutey Eitzot/Advice.
• The Institute for American Values. Jews and Christians (mostly Jews) together.

Muslim:

• Reflections on Islam and Modern Life by Seyyed Hossein Nasr.
• Naqshbandi Sufi Order. On sufism.
• Al-Islam Subject Index. A very extensive collection of materials.
• The Ahl as-Sunnah Homepage. For the restoration of classical Islam.
• as-Sunnah Foundation. An American group that has assembled scholars and professors to teach, write, and translate from traditional sources of Islamic knowledge.
• Al-Tawhid journal. A quarterly journal of Islamic thought and culture from Iran.
• General Principles of Imam Khumayni's Political Thought.

Christianity, Conservatism, and the Polity:

• Our Questions and Answers on the Establishment of Religion consider some of the issues. Also see my page of tradish Catholic links.
• The symposium on the end of democracy in the November, 1996 issue of First Things is thought to raise the spectre of theocracy and led to the resignation of Gertrude Himmelfarb, Peter Berger and Walter Berns from their editorial board. Seems mild as such things go.
• Christianity in Nineteenth Century American Law and Christianity, Our Early State Constitutions, and American Federalism, two discussions of the place of Christianity in the American polity as originally understood.
• Common Law Review. Original understandings writ large: the common law tradition as pan-European and specifically Christian.
• Tolerance: Two Kinds is a review of The Long Truce: How Toleration Made the World Safe for Power and Profit, by A. J. Conyers (2001). The tyranny of tolerance is older than you think!
• Theologian Jaques Ellul on government and anarchy. Also see the Jacques Ellul page.
• The Kuyper Foundation -- Home Page.
• Google Web Directory on Church-State Relations/Pro-Integration.
• Per una politica dei valori.
• In difesa della verit storica.
• The Bankruptcy of Conservatism. A critique from a religious perspective.

Counterrevolution and Beyond

The following are resources that are out of the mainstream and in some way relevant to the concerns of traditionalist conservatives. I have sorted them into categories, but not without arbitrariness. These listings are more in the nature of a bibliography than a statement of position, so I do not stand behind what these pages say. I assume adult readers.

Counterrevolutionary and general

• The alt.revolution.counter Resource Lists compile a very great variety of materials on various strands of right-wing thought from the alt.revolution.counter newsgroup. Also see the alt.revolution.counter FAQ, which set forth the nature, origin, and goals of the newsgroup.
• rustymason.com, "The best of what's out there" on traditional conservatism.
• Sam Francis--articles and links.
• "Vilfredo Pareto -- An Overview" by Fr. James Thornton.
• Anthony M. Ludovici Home Page. A collection of works by the right-wing Nietzschean author.
• New York Eagle Forum (with links to national and affiliated organizations).
• Council of Conservative Citizens.
• Buchanan Brigade Home Page. Includes an accumulations of materials.
• The New Totalitarians -- a page put together by some former military officers who provide their own take on trends in American life.
• Original Dissent Forum. "Traditional Conservatism for and from the Common Man."
• Conservapedia. Internet conservatives unchained.

Particularism

• Jihad Vs. McWorld, an interesting analysis from a basically left/liberal perspective of the opposing tendencies today toward particularism and abstract economic universalism. For more Establishment gloom and doom from the Atlantic Monthly, see The Coming Anarchy , "Was Democracy Just a Moment?", and "Must It Be the Rest Against the West?".
• New World Order Rising? Thoughts on the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development. A good introduction to the movement that opposes particularism most radically.
• Nation Planet by Paul Treanor. Includes nationalism links.
• A Practicing Catholic Considers Why "The Church" Is Wrong About Immigration.
• Also see my Anti-Inclusiveness FAQ with appended links.

Secession

• Google Web Directory -- Secession Links.
• Donald W. Livingston's essay on Secession and the Modern State.
• For less theoretical efforts, see www.secession.net, which aims to create a worldwide Secession Network, and Wikipedia's List of active autonomist and secessionist movements.

Neo-Confederate and Southern

• Dixie Net: The Web Site of the League of the South.

Anti-Immigration and Related

• American Patrol Illegal Immigration. Opponents of immigration.
• Discussions of Immigration from the Atlantic Monthly.
• VDARE. An online journal named for Virginia Dare (the first English child born in America) and devoted to ethnic American nationalism.
• Paul Fromm's Canada First Immigration Reform Committee.
• Antiwar.com and Americans Against Bombing, right-wing opponents of American imperialism.

Non-American

• British National Party Home Page. "Fighting Anti-White Racism." Lots of articles.
• Ironbark Resources. Rebellion Down Under.
• Australian Nationalist Ideological, Historical, and Legal Archive. More rebellion. Includes scholarly discussion relating to the nationalist Australian Right.
• "What is the EU?". Written by an American (the editor of this page) but about Europe.

European New Right and related

• Groupement de Recherche et d'Etudes sur la Civilisation Europeene (G.R.E.C.E.). The leading organization of the European New Right.
• Nouvelle Droite - New Right - English Articles.
• The Scorpion, the leading publication in English associated with the European New Right.
• The Alain De Benoist Collection, English translations of the writings of the leading figure of the ENR. Also see Les Amis d'Alain de Benoist. Includes many of his writings, some in English.
• Junge Freiheit. A weekly magazine in German that publishes de Benoist and other ENR writers.
• Nueva Derecha. A large collection of materials in Spanish and other languages, including English.
• The Essence of Archaism, by Guillaume Faye, one of the principle organizers of the European New Right.
• Arctogaia. The thought of Alexander Dugin, mostly.
• Conservative Revolution. Maintained by a Russian apparently associated with Dugin.
• Eurasian Movement. An alliance of Europe and Asia (identified with tradition) against America (identified with modernism and the NWO).
• Archivio Eurasia. Eurasia archive.
• Campo Hobbit. A variety of European links, mostly not in English.

Integral Traditionalist and Related

• Traditionalists.org. Comprehensive resources on traditionalism and traditionalists by a (non-traditionalist) scholar at the American University in Cairo. In particular, see the Catalog of Contemporary Traditionalism (this site is said to be the leading political traditionalist site in America).
• Kshatriya gegen die moderne Welt. Materials on tradition, philosophy and counterrevolution, including a great deal of material on Julius Evola in several languages including English. Also see this archive of Evola texts.
• Tradition. English-Language Traditionalist Material on the Internet.
• REACTIO -- Tradition and Metaphysics. Lots of links.
• Integral Tradition.
• Guide to Websites about Julius Evola.
• Sophia Perennis. A site for Frithjof Schuon fans.
• The Divine Conception and the Crisis of the Modern World.
• The Feminine Universe and Encyclopaedia Aristasiana. A separatist feminine riff on Integral Traditionalism.
• Centro Studi La Runa. Italian traditionalists. Some things in English.
• The Catholic criticism of Integral Traditionalism: the Incarnation means that Christ cannot be assimilated to something more comprehensive. There are also criticisms of Integral Traditionalist writers on John Reilly's Homepage.

Distributist and Related

• "What is Distributism?" by David M. Deane.
• What is distributism? by Thomas Storck.
• A Distributivism Page.
• Distributism.org. Another one.
• Distributism; Ownership of the Means of Production and Economics. Yet more.
• The Open Directory section on distributism.
• The Caelum Et Terra Homepage. Catholics sympathetic to distributism and agrarianism.
• A Distributism How To: A Parallel Economy, by Dr. Peter Chojnowski.
• Third Way, a UK political party with distributist ideals.
• Australian League of Rights.
• PoliticalSoldier.net and Final Conflict. A mixture of distributism and the European New Right.

Monarchist

• Monarchy.net. A site hosting the home pages of the International Monarchist League and the Constitutional Monarchy Association. Includes a directory of hundreds of monarchist groups.
• Theodore's Royalty & Monarchy Page. Links, news and whatnot, frequently updated.
• Catholique et Royaliste. French monarchists, these inspired by Charles Maurras.
• Charles Coulombe on Catholic traditionalism and monarchy. Includes monarchist links and FAQ.
• CRCLinks -- Catholic, royal and communitarian.

Libertarianism and related

Many, especially in Europe, believe libertarianism wholly at odds with conservatism and traditionalism. However, at least in America there is considerable overlap because the American state tends strongly toward secular universalism and because the enormous expansion of the state has tended to crowd out all other authorities.

• The Online Library of Liberty. "Provided to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals by making freely available on the internet the classic texts in the classical liberal and free market traditions." The selection is very broad and goes well beyond those traditions.
• Freedom, Tradition, Conservatism, by Frank S. Meyer. An explaination of his famous "fusionism," combining traditionalist conservatism and libertarianism.
• Free-Market.Net, billed as "The Most Comprehensive Source for Information on Liberty, Laissez-Faire Economics, Free Enterprise, Capitalism, Libertarianism and Individual Freedom."
• The Freeman Index has a number of articles from The Freeman, published by the The Foundation for Economic Education (FEE).
• LewRockwell.com, Lew Rockwell's page, with lots of links and its own content as well. Stands for paleolibertarianism, a tendency that attempts to bridge the gaps among libertarianism, traditionalism, particularism, and Southern thought.
• The Last Ditch, a newsletter on issues of Liberty and Civility. Another paleolibertarian publication.
• Constitution Society Home Page.
• Separation of School & State Alliance web site.
• The Kossor Education Newsletter.
• The State (1985), by Anthony de Jasay. Complete text. What would you do if you were the state?
• Papers by John Lott, a legal scholar now at Yale Law School. Cover a variety of topics, including gun control and consequences of abortion, from a perspective generally consistent with libertarianism.
• "A Nation of Cowards." An article on gun control from The Public Interest.
• David Friedman on Medieval Iceland, libertarian paradise. For more, see my essay on "The Icelandic Sagas and Social Order," which discusses Medieval Iceland from a less market-based perspective, and the Guide to Classical Liberal Scholarship, Polycentric Law.
• Bryan Caplan's Anarchist Theory FAQ. Very well done. Also, see his homepage, which includes his "Museum of Communism" and his useful "Museum of Communism FAQ."
• FAME -- Foundation for the Advancement of Monetary Education. Sound money restricts state power.
• For help fighting the modern managerial state, it's worth looking at libertarian booklists like this and this.
• And for online texts, see Front Page: The Online Library of Liberty. The site includes many classic texts that are not specifically libertarian but are thought helpful in understanding the Western tradition of ordered liberty.

Culural retrieval

• More books:
  • PSU's Electronic Classics Site, a huge collection of literary classics.
  • The Online Books Page
  • The Internet Archive: Texts
  • Google book search. Many pre-1922 books are available for download in full text.
  • E-texts Christianity at hinduwebsite.com.
• The Institute of Classical Architecture

The biological connection

• See the Access Research Network Home Page for an introduction to current attacks on neodarwinism and scientific materialism.
• Or if you do like Darwin, see Stalking the Wild Taboo -- Home Page for materials on issues people like to avoid, like group differences. Somewhat of an academic orientation.
• For considerations related to eugenics, see Future Generations (useful for discussions of the biological aspects of human life and attempts to suppress such discussions).
• And for a very different view of matters related to biology, see the Pro-Life Activist's Encyclopedia.

Farther and farther

• Groups Promoting Oppression or Right-Wing Agendas and The Hate Directory, collections of materials and links compiled by non-fans.
• Bibliography of fascism.
• The Jewish Defense League. More an ethnic nationalist than a religious organization, it seems.
• Nation of Islam Online: (Black Nationalism and Repatriation).
• Unabomber's Manifesto.
• Survival & Self Reliance Studies Institute. What to do if things get really bad.

Take on the World!

If you want to call the Evil Hegemons personally to account, why not send your rants to the national and local media? For evidence of their overbearing mendacity, see Liberal Media Bias.