Why Too Many Choices Drive You Crazy. Prudence is the Solution!

Many claim the inebriating idea of unlimited choice is an expression of a marvelous consumer culture. They might even say that the frenetic intemperance of having endless possibilities is the essence of freedom. It does not matter if people cannot exercise even a fraction of these options as long as the choices are there. In … Read more

There’s Special Magic in a God Centered Thanksgiving

For many, Thanksgiving is one of the favorite holidays of the year. In a culture which has lost much of its sense of family, it is a time for families to get together. It remains largely unsullied by the commercialization that has infected Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Halloween and even Mothers’ Day. Everything about it – … Read more

The Suicide of the West: A Tale of Two Miracles

Return to Order The Suicide of the West: A Tale of Two Miracles 4

“There is no God in this book.” Thus reads the provocative first sentence of Jonah Goldberg’s latest release, The Suicide of the West: How the Rebirth of Tribalism, Populism, Nationalism, and Identity Politics is Destroying American Democracy. This declaration is perhaps an unintended summary of the book about the crisis in the West. From it, … Read more

What Happens When Money Becomes the Primary Concern

Return to Order What Happens When Money Becomes the Primary Concern

When money becomes the primary concern, it creates a dynamism of its own by empowering banks and other financial institutions to expand the money supply.1 This rule encourages many financial institutions to develop complex new financial products, credit innovations, and speculative instruments that enable them to profit from a tense climate of boom or bust. … Read more

Freedom Is Not Choice

Return to Order Saint Albert the Great: Why Property is Needed 1

There are those who confuse freedom with choice. They do not realize that freedom is the ability to choose the means to a determined end perceived as good and in accordance with our nature. It is not the choice itself. When a person makes a bad choice or chooses a bad end, the result is … Read more

Doing Business Differently: A Free Market Fable

Return to Order Local Production Also Involves Relationships 2

A review of Nothing is Free: The Price Only Business Leaders Can Pay to Protect Free Markets by Dave Geenens (Atchison, Kans.: Inhance Press, 2013). * * * Modern economics tends to reduce what happens in business to numbers and formulas. The human element is taken out, and all is left dry and lifeless. It … Read more

‘Ye Gods’: Taking on Modernity’s Pantheon

Return to Order ‘Ye Gods’: Taking on Modernity’s Pantheon

Occasionally one comes upon a book that presents simple truths in a plain and delightful way. Such books are commentaries based on the experience of life that ring true to the reader. One such book is a slim collection of essays titled simply Ye gods. Originally written and illustrated by Ed Willock in 1948, the … Read more

The Modern Enemy of Our Brains

Return to Order The Modern Enemy of Our Brains

by Jacob Weymier What is the problem with the Internet and how can it hurt you? Nicholas Carr provides the answer in his book called The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains. He talks about how the brain works and how the Internet makes the brain have shallower thoughts rather than deep concentration. … Read more

How Did Law Come to Subvert Order?

Return to Order How Did Law Come to Subvert Order? 2

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 Apples-and-Oranges Debate over Tariffs

Return to Order The Apples-and-Oranges Debate over Tariffs 8

As I watch the debate over tariffs, I can’t help but feel the two sides are not speaking the same language. They are talking apples and oranges. One side is concerned only about money while the other side deals with social impact. I don’t think this apples and oranges debate can be reduced to which … Read more