As the author of the book, Return to Order, I am constantly looking for examples of organic solutions for today’s complicated problems. It is one way I can practically illustrate so many of the ideas found in the book. I look for spontaneous expressions of culture that are often destroyed by today’s mass standardization. I … Read more
Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos is a book I wanted to like. I wanted so much to favor someone who proposes rules in our times of unrestraint. I see so clearly the need for an antidote to chaos. The fact that his book is on the top of many bestseller … Read more
In the book, Return to Order, there is a description of a legal order that came from Christendom. This order was tied to a higher natural law found in God’s law and to which all, rulers and ruled, were subject. This legal order, based on morality, favored order in society and prevented the unleashing of … Read more
The right to keep and bear arms is enshrined in our American Constitution and culture to the point that many think this right is uniquely American. However, the historical evidence is quite surprising. Pre-modern and pre-industrial cultures also promoted arms ownership. Organic Christian society recognized the natural-law right of the family to defend itself from … Read more
How does one stand out these days? Write a thank-you note. No, not a thank-you email, text message or tweet. Banish the multiple exclamation marks (!!!!!) or the CAPITAL letters and silly emoticons that attract attention but fail to convey meaning. All these things tend to get lost in the whirling and hectic schedules of … Read more
In face of a recession that never recedes, the assumption of a broad and growing prosperity for the middle class is in doubt. Gone are the heady days of the post-Cold War triumphalism of the nineties when optimistic observers believed that we might live forever in a kind of glorious consumerism. Instead, there is a … Read more
On April 12, Return to Order author John Horvat II visited at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas to address students on topics related to the book. Mr. Horvat spoke to one of the business school’s graduate classes that uses his book as a textbook. The students took advantage of the occasion for a question and answer session … Read more
Many authors have compared a living being with a machine to show the contrast between an organic society and an individualistic or mechanistic society. Indeed, compare the two. A living being grows and develops at its own speed according to its own inner dynamism and force that comes from the life of each cell. A … Read more
A review of Catholicism and the Shaping of Nineteenth Century America by John Gjerde, edited by S. Deborah Kang, Cambridge University Press, New York, 2012. Part of the fascination of history is its ability to explain why things are the way they are. History goes beneath the surface of events and manages to unearth all … Read more
Education and religion are often seen to be incompatible. There is an underlying notion inside the liberal education establishment that religious belief is backwards and contrary to enlightenment. Schools have long been viewed as gateways to a glorious secular and technological future, free of religious superstition. After all, the purpose of education is to make … Read more
