Stephen R.C. Hicks's Blog, page 38

How Populists become Tyrants — classic examples

A strong observation from Numa Denis Fustel de Coulanges’s The Ancient City: “It is a general fact, and almost without exception in the history of Greece and of Italy, that the tyrants sprang from the popular party, and had the aristocracy as enemies. ‘The mission of the tyrant,’ says Aristotle, ‘is to protect the people […]

The Politician’s Funeral [Humor]

Poem by Anonymous: Here, richly, with ridiculous display, The Politician’s corpse was laid away. While all of his acquaintance sneered and slanged, I wept: for I had longed to see him hanged.

*King Leopold’s Ghost* — slavery in the Congo

[Reposting from July, 2012.] One of the most outrageous evils of the 19th and early 20th centuries was Leopold II of Belgium’s rape of the Congo. The story is well told by Adam Hochschild in King Leopold’s Ghost. King Leopold was effective at using state power to achieve his ends. His position as king enabled […]

What is the best art medium? — Sculpture version

Carrying on the fun Renaissance debate about which art form is the best. Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1571) was a goldsmith, sculptor, revenge-killer, likely a rapist, and party animal. Check out his Autobiography for all the energetic and sordid true-confessions details. It was he who did the bronze Perseus with the Head of Medusa, now in the […]

Galt’s Gulch conference, Washington DC — my four lectures and panels

I’ll be participating in four sessions during the three-day conference in downtown Washington, speaking on the state of the culture, Woke, moral philosophy, and applied epistemology. Are We Doomed—Or on the Edge of a New Golden Age? State of the Culture panel w/ Stephen Hicks, Ph.D., Richard M. Salsman, Ph.D., & Robert Tracinski A look […]

British culture as 80% Greco-Roman — another datum

A spot more cultural history following up on my “80%” comment about British culture–in response to a line from Nigel Farage saying “everything in our country and culture is based on Judeo-Christian values.” Consider the education of future British leaders from the 1600s through the 1800s, the formative years for modern British culture. In modern […]

British culture as 80% based on Greco-Roman — another datum

A spot more cultural history following up on my “80%” comment about British culture–in response to a line from Nigel Farage saying “everything in our country and culture is based on Judeo-Christian values.” Consider the education of future British leaders from the 1600s through the 1800s, the formative years for modern British culture. In modern […]

Double insult — Rousseau and the French

Hugh Trevor-Roper was known for his biting polemical style. In a youthful essay he described Rousseau’s Confessions this way: “a lucid journal of a life so utterly degraded that it has been a bestseller in France ever since.“[1] Of course, Confessions has also sold well in the English-speaking world (I see at least eight editions […]

Was Manifest Destiny Oppressive or Progressive? [Open College podcast]

Power, imperialism, and justice in the US’s becoming a coast-to-coast nation. My podcast on Manifest Destiny:

Gardening

A favorite quotation, from Abraham Cowley in the year 1688: “Gardening is one of the best-natured delights of all others, for a man to look about him, and see nothing but the effects and improvements of his own art and diligence; to be always gathering some fruits of it, and at the same time to […]