We are starving for beauty & stories.
Music industry exile. Building arts infrastructure. Singing & writing for those who want something beautiful & better:
This is wonderful. And he’s so relaxed too. It’s remarkable to watch.
I still can’t believe he did what he did. Incredible.
If we are ever to build anything good, evil must be contained as a first order of business. This used to be obvious.
Beauty still matters.
They take it away from you because it discourages you. Don't let them.
Doesn't have to be a cathedral, but make sure there is beauty in your life. It will keep you hopeful and strong.
There are few people as deeply loved as Roger Scruton. He wrote me a kind, personal, handwritten letter once I still have somewhere at home in Canada. Such a kind, good man. Such a good example of quiet, dignified courage. I'll tell my small story of him here.
“Conservatism starts from a sentiment that all mature people can readily share: the sentiment that good things are easily destroyed, but not easily created."
- Sir Roger Scruton
"In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful."
- C. S. Lewis, The
Feminism can only exist, perhaps ironically, in the brief afterglow of a patriarchy. This isn’t me making an ideological point but an immensely practical one.
There is a convicted but now released rapist living within 10 mins of me. Already has new restraining orders on him.
@Classical_Ali
The compulsion to romanticize ancient cultures is pathological. They were almost universally brutal beyond our imagination. We take any sense of ‘civilization’ completely for granted.
Your life is not over if you messed up in your earlier life, even in dramatic ways. You're not trash, or "run through," or damaged goods. Your story can become not just an "in spite of" but a "because of"--in and through the disaster, and often also in a mysterious way even
Bella Hadid deleted her Balenciaga campaign on IG after enormous pushback.
Turning tables. Our outrage matters.
If the innocence of children isn’t worth fighting for, nothing is.
I think one of the most beautiful things about Catholicism that a lot of people don’t know about it is the concept of spiritual motherhood (and fatherhood). Points to this essential nature in us to take care of others according to our nature, even if we are not mothers and
The butch or tomboy-ish singer-songwriters from the 90s were more feminine than the “feminine” pop stars of today.
Above everything now is just harshness. Everything is so harsh. The sexuality especially. Complete disconnect from the honest, delicate, vulnerable, sensual.
Almost 100k people have seen what I shared yesterday about Roger Scruton. I rejoice because it is ultimately his original kindness to me that has allowed him to speak to so many again the last couple of days. Feels like a great honour.
May we never forget him.
I've said before but I realize we need to remind ourselves daily:
Our job now is to build--aggressively. Beautiful things. Good things. Community. Art. Good food. Better tech. New independent industries.
I don’t have babies. Didn’t think this would be my life — but sometimes life just unfolds a certain way.
This is horrid. The benefit of being single a little later in life is availability to love in other ways and build things that benefit other people. It’s the freedom to love
"Childfree people will never experience the joy of watching their child touch grass for the first time" okay but do parents know the joy of being 37 and sleeping in and drinking coffee in silence and then leaving the house on a moment's notice whenever TF I want?
“People who pride themselves on their "complexity" and deride others for being "simplistic" should realize that the truth is often not very complicated. What gets complex is evading the truth.”
― Thomas Sowell
"It is bad enough that so many people believe things without any evidence. What is worse is that some people have no conception of evidence and regard facts as just someone else's opinion."
- Thomas Sowell
I had been in contact with him intermittently for a few years, having emailed on a whim, stunned to receive a response. In the years since, I have learned that the best, brightest giants are more likely to respond, not less. Magnanimity is often correlated with excellence.
“Conservatism starts from the sentiment that all mature people can readily share: the sentiment that good things are easily destroyed, but not easily created.”
- Sir Roger Scruton
"In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them enterprise and virtue. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful."
- C. S. Lewis
I’m going to say it like it is:
Men, when you approve of smutty content with your likes and approbation, you betray the women who are trying to live our dignity and honour out, often largely to honour you.
We see. And it cuts. Deeply.
Things have to change. Are we so far gone?
Physical books really shouldn’t exist anymore except as decor/collectibles.
Once you understand the magic of reading everything in browser/ as a pdf, you’ll never go back.
In 2011, on a quick visit to Rome during a grad school break, I spent 6 hours in one day in front of the Pieta, making notes & contemplating it.
It changed me. Beauty does that.
I also watched people only look at it through their camera lens for a photo & move on.
In many emergency rooms they literally call them “organ donors.”
My dad nearly died on one. I know a girl who lost her fiancé this way. Super common. Objectively dangerous.
Motorcycle deaths are 14% of traffic deaths.
Now calculate what percentage of motorists are cyclists.
Then you can assess relative risk.
Lmao do you even statistic.
I love stepping away and recalibrating, and it’s important. But it really is amazing here if you curate well. Endlessly interesting — tapping some of the most incredible minds on the planet, any time of day.
Recently did 4 days no Twitter as “digital detox,” (people worried i was kidnapped). We are also doing other time off. Life is better with Twitter. Twitter is spectacular if you use it right. Twitter haters don’t know how to curate. Probably their real lives are a mess, too.
Hi to everyone new here after the Scruton posts blew up.
PSA: we are rebuilding the culture, from poetry to pop music.
Excellence, beauty, intelligence, vigour, truth. Take it all back.
Get involved:
The rising popularity of beauty in the last few years is something I think Scruton would be thrilled if pleasantly shocked by. May we all come to remember again, perhaps in the Platonic sense more than any — that recognition of the soul in an encounter. It’s in us to be called
I forget how much living in Europe changed me & continues to inform me. I went to school in a literal summer castle, wandered around every gorgeous church, attended the opera, studied the classics.
Sounds romantic & I guess in many ways it was. In my blood. Grateful.
There are few people as deeply loved as Roger Scruton. He wrote me a kind, personal, handwritten letter once I still have somewhere at home in Canada. Such a kind, good man. Such a good example of quiet, dignified courage. I'll tell my small story of him here.
It’s incredible thinking of the mind being enkindled like this at such a young age.
Besides a couple of incredible teachers, my high school education felt nearly brain dead. I was bored to tears in almost everything humanities related and much of everything else as well. Even
If you are hesitant to embrace a firm pro-life position, but consider yourself to be a open, critical thinker, I recommend
@LiveAction
as a great resource for your consideration.
Strong, factual, reasonable approach to the realities of abortion worth your time.
We’re a culture of promiscuous hearts—never putting roots in, thinking little of loyalty, fearing commitment & focus—& yes, also promiscuous in the primary, less poetic sense. But that’s the final symptom.
Mostly, people lack belonging & now also fear it.
Choose real love.
For whatever it's worth to someone out there, I used to struggle with pretty debilitating melancholy throughout a lot of my life (lots of traumatic things in childhood, chronic health issues, classic artist/poet/bleeding heart), and praying a daily Rosary basically quit that.
The sincerity of his mission to try to preserve what was good in the world was proven especially in the last few years of his life when the woke mob starting coming after him with all of its Alinskian brutality. His attestation to the strength of character
Idiotic. She’s objectively beautiful, and remarkable in these times for not making sure her pictures are all perfect. I don’t even understand why this is bad? Legitimately bizarre.
@MrHWM
I think it’s not just sex but all of the things that make up the reality of human life. Catholics aren’t afraid of the intensity of existence, and either consciously or unconsciously understand that everything has a “sacramental” quality. We live and breathe symbol. Because of
Our human need for beauty & peace isn't negotiable. We die without it.
Lots of different ways of integrating this into your life. Food, flowers, creating, cleaning, community, walks outside, a bit of quiet prayer, reading, music, candles. Small things can make a big difference.
This is bang on. We must build - aggressively, passionately.
Our new arts movement is now starting to move. Join us! For artists and art-lovers alike who want a better world and culture:
Today it hit me: I am past the point of "waiting for things to change." The Woke aren't waking up. The arts have been swallowed whole by the cult of mediocrity. Reality, if it isn't twisted, is an offense. When will we leave the rot behind and begin on our own terms?
Very sweet kid went walking around at the airport at his gate, quietly waving at everyone, and no one even looked up or smiled.
I waved back. Such a little sweetie. But when did we all get so weird?
We ignore the sunshine we need and wonder why we are so miserable.
I’ve found people who can’t appreciate music and beauty are affectively underdeveloped to an atrocious and embarrassing degree. Barely half alive in the most important way.
Someone built a house like this in bland, grey suburbia at home in Saskatchewan and I felt my heart leave my chest when I saw it. Couldn’t believe the guts, frankly. And something beautiful was the foil that made the materialist version of concrete blocks clearly what they were.
Everything in our society is being hollowed out and collapsing through both malice and incompetency.
It's an immense opportunity for good, new things, and it means we have to be ready to rebuild.
There is a growing vacuum; we need to be the leaders who rush in and fill it.
I'd love to share his documentary here on Why Beauty Matters, which has been so formative and transformative for so many artists and thinkers. Absolutely worth one hour of your time if you haven't seen it yet:
This is America: Jim Finch drove 30 mins with a grill, food, and water to help people affected by the tornado in Mayfield, Kentucky. "I know they don't have no electricity...I just figured I'd do what I can do." (via
@TODAYshow
)
A man devoid of love.
Only to be pitied.
Art, religion, beauty — still command a prominent place in Western society. These things remind us that we are inherently valuable, made for love, and capable of joy.
Fight this nonsense with generosity, creativity, and goodness.
@goinggodward
From my experience in schools, I think a lot of boys diagnosed with ADHD are actually just super smart and bored to tears.
So this checks out..!
The more time goes on, the more I just think that life is phenomenally hard for most people.
Worth noting this doesn't have to mean you are deprived of joy and laughter and meaning, but most people carry very heavy crosses. Worth remembering often.
The sound quality of the album is terrible, but Roger Scruton enjoyed it and wrote that it "brought him hope" in a time when there was little of that coming out of Canada. In some ways, I knew that was maybe the apex of my life as a musician and writer.
Almost died of beauty the first time I saw this interior.
I would facilitate that same experience exactly as it happened for me for every person alive if I could. Changed me forever.
To end, I'll republish my tributes to him today for a while from 2 years ago after he passed away
(I joke here about how the conviction to always focus on non-compromising beauty may have ruined my music career)
Making bone broth.
Thinking about the propaganda that said mothers at home didn't matter.
Now the vast majority of people in the West have messed up guts, chronic health issues, and persistent mental/emotional misery.
Ripping moms out of the home was so destructive.
St. Nicholas started the gift-giving tradition:
By giving money so young women could afford a dowry to marry and not be sold into prostitution.
Perspective.
“Conservatism starts from a sentiment that all mature people can readily share: the sentiment that good things are easily destroyed, but not easily created.”
― Roger Scruton, How to Be a Conservative
One of the most important truths of our time.
The sad and little spoken of flipside to sexualizing everything is that all friendships and human affection start to become suspect of being tainted. Really messes us up.
Friendship is real. Affection can be and often is pure and
And I don’t have simplistic answers. Life is quite violent and frightening off the cliff of civilization, but also within it. The darkness of the human heart ravages everything. Wisdom fights hard to at least mitigate this as much as possible.
Our society lacks sincere warmth, and the effects of this are devastating.
I live in a different world, but am acutely aware that many, many people go through life without this. How do people survive?
Want things to change? Support good things.
If you don't - please stop complaining. There are so many working so hard to deliver the alternatives that we need. They need your attention and support.
I love that
@countyhwy
is actively supporting real writers and talented
@RRR0BYN
I think this often. Eastern Euros are some of my very favorite people, but precisely because they are not delicate flowers. American men have no idea 😂
The future belongs to the monasteries. Low time preference like you have probably not yet imagined. Quiet, thousand year battles, literally and symbolically.
The best life advice I can give you is to go and find one.