Luke Lea

@Peter_Turchin There are alternative counter elites waiting to be born.

As expected, we are now seeing the rise of counter-elites from the left. I won't be surprised if one of those "little Mamdanis" becomes the Democratic presidential candidate if not in 2028, then in 2032.

@PoncedeLeon_Isr Zion is not just a place. It is the name of an ideal, of the New Jerusalem, of a time when justice shall reign for all humankind, Jews and Gentiles alike. We should all be Zionists and work for that end.

@HusseinAboubak The liberal ideal of liberty and justice for all is biblical in origin. Even secular liberals of the Steven Pinker stripe must acknowledge this. There is no going from is to ought.

The defense of Western Civilization is back. A decade ago, the phrase was a minor embarrassment in educated company. It was the sort of thing a thoughtful person might believe but would not say at a faculty dinner, a sentiment confined to conservative magazines, Catholic intellectuals, and the diminishing population of Great Books enthusiasts who remembered what the curriculum had been before it was deconstructed. The intervening years have changed this. The sustained assault on the liberal arts from within the universities, conducted under various banners — CRT, decolonization, intersectionality, the whole apparatus that its opponents have learned to call ‘wokeness’ — has produced a counter-mobilization that now extends well beyond the conservative magazines where the concern was usually articulated. The rise of China as a competitor with no intention of adopting Western political norms, the importation of mass Islamist movements whose rejection of Western culture is their only identity, the realization, whether with joy or with tears, that the post-1945 liberal international order is collapsing from within — all of this has returned the question of Western civilization to the center of public argument with an urgency it has not possessed since the early Cold War or the publishing of Orientalism, and has generated a new library of books, manifestos, and institutional initiatives devoted to its defense, its redefinition, or its obsequies. But the defense, as it has taken shape, is starting to be riven by an internal contradiction that is likely to become another civil culture war between religious-cultural conservatives and Enlightenment liberals within the defense-of-the-West coalition. On one side stand the conservatives, the religious traditionalists, natural-law theorists, Catholic, Jewish, and Protestant intellectuals, and a growing number of secular thinkers who have arrived at religious conclusions by cultural rather than devotional routes and for whom Western civilization is fundamentally the civilization of the Bible and Athens, the long tradition of moral and metaphysical reflection that runs from Genesis and Homer through Augustine and Aquinas to the American founding, and for whom the Enlightenment, the scientific revolution, and the political achievements of modernity are intelligible only as fruits of this tradition, derivative accomplishments that cannot be sustained once they have been severed from the root that produced them. For these defenders, the crisis of the West is at bottom a spiritual crisis, a consequence of the abandonment of the theological and philosophical foundations on which the entire edifice was built, and the remedy is a recovery of the tradition’s deepest resources. On the other side stand the liberals — the heirs of the Enlightenment who have been mugged by the long revolution through the institutions they thought were theirs, thinkers like Steven Pinker, Francis Fukuyama, perhaps Jonathan Haidt, and the broader team of anti-woke classical liberals who watched in dismay as the institutions they had built and trusted turned against the principles of open inquiry, free speech, and rational discourse that they understood to be the core of the Western achievement. For these defenders, Western civilization is fundamentally the civilization of the Enlightenment — the tradition of critical reason, empirical science, individual liberty, and institutional self-correction that emerged in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and whose greatest accomplishment was precisely the liberation of the human mind from the authority of tradition, scripture, and ecclesiastical power. The religious inheritance is, in this account, not the root but the darkness that the Enlightenment outgrew — historically important, perhaps even indispensable as a precondition, but not the thing itself, and certainly not something to which the civilization should return. For these defenders, the crisis of the West is a crisis of nerve and institutional capture, a failure to uphold the Enlightenment’s own standards against both the woke left that has abandoned reason for identity and the religious right that would replace one form of authority with another. If anything, the crisis is exactly the return of the darkness of religious dogmatism that the Bible-loving conservative wants to recover. The two camps, on occasion, cooperate tactically — they share enemies, they share platforms, they may co-sign letters — but their visions of what they are defending are not merely different but, at a fundamental level, incompatible, and the incompatibility becomes manifest at the point where the defense must move from opposition to affirmation, from what we are against to what we are for. The conservative cannot accept a definition of Western civilization that treats its theological foundations as outgrown scaffolding; the liberal cannot accept a definition that treats the Bible as a serious book. Each suspects the other of defending a truncated version of the whole, and each is right — though not in equal measure, and not for the reasons either supposes.

@newstart_2024 A culture--any culture--that is not transmitted from one generation to the next will quickly disappear. Old truths are at least as important as new truths.

Helen Andrews made a point that really stuck with me: Universities exist to discover and transmit truth. And truth only moves forward because of those eccentric weirdos willing to stand up first and say, “I disagree — and here’s why.” If you create an environment where new or uncomfortable ideas get shut down just to keep everyone feeling safe and included, you’re actually destroying the whole purpose of the university. She notes that the same social style can work great in fields like veterinary medicine (now ~80% female), but can be harmful in places that need friction, debate, and bold thinking. Different institutions have different purposes. What promotes harmony in one can quietly stifle progress in another. I’ve always found this a useful lens when thinking about culture and how it shapes different fields. What do you think — should universities prioritize making everyone feel comfortable, or protecting space for uncomfortable, dissenting ideas?

Subscribe to Construction Physics construction-physics.com/?r=fdw&utm_cam…

@JacobAShell Careers open to talent: lukelea.substack.com

Public uni students read literature. Ivy League students read political theory (with something of an anti-nation-state spin). Even when Ivy League students read novels it's always through some political-ideological lens (and probably an anti-nation-state lens). The public system looks more liberating in terms of growing one's consciousness. The Ivies think they are "training elites" and have to supply the "elite trainees" with an "elite ideology." This crowds a lot of other fundamental goals of education, such as helping students develop a mature relationship with dilemmas of consciousness, spirit, "being." Then, for reasons Peter Turchin describes, a lot of the Ivy graduates discover there aren't actually anywhere near enough elite slots of absorb them. And it turns out that, no, they are not going to be elites; nor did they spend college learning practical skills to be well-paid workers in some hot industry (e.g. tech); nor did they just relax and read novels and look at paintings and reflect upon feelings and sensations from those things (which in my opinion is the best thing to do when you're that age). The experience of Ivy L students, of passing through this haze of illusions ("you have to read Benedict Anderson because you yourself will become a powerful Davos Man who will dismantle several nation-states") and then suddenly being told that "no there are no slots for you and you have the wrong look, if you know what I mean, so nevermind lol"...this is radicalizing for many of that stratum.

I love this plan for a one acre homestead. Could you possibly do one for a three-generation family (parents, children, and grandparents) living under two roofs at opposite ends of the garden. I propose such a homestead in the first chapge of my book, A Part-time Job in the Country, which you might enjoy: amazon.com/dp/B00U0C9HKW

How To Layout A 1-Acre Homestead

@sfmcguire79 What about undergraduate general education? A culture--any culture--that is not transmitted from one generation to the next will quickly disappear. Time for a return to Western Civ.

Some faculty think there’s nothing wrong with current hiring practices. Some even think ideological uniformity is a sign that academia is getting closer to truth. John Tomasi of Heterodox Academy discusses the need for humility and viewpoint diversity in academic hiring:

@HdxAcademy A comparative history of world civilizations would be one way to meet this committment.

@HdxAcademy Viewpoint diversity, while necessary, is not enough. Also required is a grounding in the liberal ideals and institutions that distinguish the West, keeping in mind that a culture—any culture—which is not transmitted from one generation to the next will quickly disappear.

🎓 Where academia went wrong, in under 60 seconds. Vanderbilt Chancellor Daniel Diermeier keynote address set the tone at HxA's recent conference:

What is missing from Yale's revised mission statement is a recommitment to the history of the liberal ideals and institutions that distinguish West. Its authors seem to be overlooking the fact that a culture—any culture—that is not transmitted from one generation to the next will quickly disappear.

Yale’s new report suggests shrinking the university's mission back to the dissemination of knowledge. Read @mroth78's take on the matter: archive.md/mcEl2

@ezchill70 @EYakoby The falsity of charging Israel with genocide, which is well-documented, is bigotry of the worst kind. You should be ashamed

@EYakoby A genocide that was well documented is not "Hamas lies and hate" The BBC did a fantastic job covering the genocide in Gaza. It was their journalistic duty. I repeat again: YOU @EYakoby is a racist bigot

Where is the outrage?

@interintellect_ @jennfrey So well put.

Less than 7% of Harvard freshmen major in the humanities. Philosopher @jennfrey thinks that says a lot about how we've misunderstood what education is for, a true liberal education isn't yoked to a trade, it's the education that makes you free. From our SuperSalon "Can the Humanities Be Saved?" with host @a_n_a_berg. Watch the full conversation here → youtube.com/watch?v=75rNKu…

@sciencegirl Except in slow motion, right? I've read that the real speed of interactions between the various elements in a cell can be on the order of a billion times a second.

This is also an animation of a Cellular landscape cross-section through a eukaryotic cell model by by Evan Ingersoll & Gael McGill

The most detailed image of human cell For perspective, the human body contains approximately 37 trillion cells, Life is a miracle

@michaelxpettis About China's state-owned banking system: will it be capable of an efficient allocation of capital? If not, will the Chinese working people's life savings be there for them when they retire?

2/5 Or, as Charles Calomiris and Stephen Haber wrote in another book, “A country does not ‘choose’ its banking system: rather it gets a banking system that is consistent with the institutions that govern its distribution of political power.”

1/5 "Instead of seeing financial crises as arising from an unavoidable vulnerability to external shocks they are better seen as a mirror of the societies in which they occur, reflecting their political structures, vying constituencies, and blind spots." nber.org/papers/w35101

Viewpoint Diversity The kind of viewpoint diversity we really need, and not just in the law schools but throughout the liberal arts faculty, is the kind that stands up for Western civilization. In fact they should be the majority, with the naysayers in the minority. Is that too much to ask? open.substack.com/pub/casssunste…

@matthewschmitz When it comes to Judeo-Christianity in a post-Christian society, I think understanding may be even more important than belief. I discuss that here, in chapter 4: amazon.com/dp/B00U0C9HKW

We need less skepticism and more belief, Christopher Beha argues. washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/…

@AdamMossoff Regretfully, I've come to call it "the disgraceful New York Times." DNYT for short.

The NY Times has just compelled me to update my X post from April 18 on the intellectual and moral collapse of the NY Times as "the paper of record." A play now in THREE acts: Act 1: In 2020, more than 800 reporters, editors, and staff at NY Times revolt and protest the publication of op-ed by Senator Tom Cotton arguing that troops should be deployed, like they were in the 1960s, to quell nationwide riots that summer. The newspaper apologizes to the world for publishing the op-ed and the editor of the op-ed page is forced to resign (James Bennett). Act 2: On April 18, 2026, NY Times publishes a massive puff piece *news article* (not op-ed) about "progressive" Hasan Piker, who has called for assassination of a U.S. Senator, says Hamas is "1,000 times better than Israel," says "America deserved 9/11," supports Islamic regime of Iran, and mourns the collapse of the Soviet Union. When elites at the NY Times bemoan the loss of trust and respect for institutions like the media, they should take a long look in the mirror to discover the real reasons for this loss of trust. Act 3: On April 22, 2026, NY Times now publishes an *op-ed* co-authored by Hasan Piker, advocating theft, and in follow-on interview, Piker justifies the assassination of a company CEO in NYC in 2024, because he said the CEO was guilty of "social murder." This is truly Orwellian rationalization for mass murder on par with the words and murderous actions of Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Pol Pot, and other bloody tyrants. The NY Times platforms and glazes a nihilist, collectivist, bigot, and antisemite who advocates assassinations, theft, and who even tortures his own dog solely for the benefit of his podcast viewers, but it fires a top editor and faces a massive staff revolt when it publishes a mainstream op-ed by a U.S. Senator. Elites today often bemoan the loss of trust in our social institutions like the press. When the elites at the NY Times think about the causes of this loss of trust in the Old Gray Lady, they should take a long look in the mirror.

@mboudry @elsvandoesburg @Bart_DeWever @UAntwerpen Thanks for reporting. Zion isn't just a place, it's an ideal.

Dear Antwerp Mayor @elsvandoesburg Dear PM @Bart_DeWever This week, I had another long and disheartening conversation with a Jewish student at @UAntwerpen who is considering leaving the university altogether because the environment has become increasingly hostile toward Jews. As I posted previously, one of the few Jewish professors has already decided to leave both the university and the city after decades of academic life in your city. This person is terrified of being identified, but has given permission to share their testimony anonymously: "After fifty years living in Antwerp and forty years at the University of Antwerp as student, assistant and professor, I’m leaving. I no longer feel at home in the city and feel completely estranged from my university that has become a hotbed of radicalism. My son who was born and raised in Antwerp and who wears a kippa, has been called a child murderer on the street by a Flemish person and was told to “get out of here”. At the university the students are shouting that Jews should get out of Palestine. He and his family are leaving too. It just became a bad place for Jews." A Jewish PhD student researching rare genes—work that depends on collaboration with Tel Aviv University, one of the few centers in her field—asked the new rector, with a trembling voice, how she is supposed to continue. The response was blunt: that’s too bad for you, but our virtue-signalling boycotts take priority—met with loud applause from the activist crowd. drive.google.com/file/d/1AjazjM… Yet another professor associated with the Institute of Jewish Studies told me about PhD students breaking down in tears in the hallway due to aggressive intimidation by self-described “pro-Palestinian” activists (quotation marks intentional) who have completely taken over the campus. x.com/mboudry/status… The honorary of PhD for a mendacious ideologue like Francesca Albanese was a foolish attempt of the university to appease the activists, in the hope of preserving limited collaboration with Israeli universities. Predictably, it had the opposite effect and only emboldened them. vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2026… Eighty-five years after the Nazi occupation, Antwerp is again becoming an unsafe place for Jews. If nothing changes, Jews will leave the city, taking with them their knowledge, learning, and cultural contributions. Please act. The rector and university administration don't seem to care. Kind regards MB

Repairing the Ruins: Why AI Can’t Replace Education | National Catholic Register "He warned against mistaking command of words for possession of the solid things those words are meant to disclose." ncregister.com/commentaries/s…