Latest in Culture

Has Peterson contributed ideas worthy of consideration and practice to a world burdened with cynicism, despair and sorrow? Absolutely. Did his tussle with 20 atheists enhance those ideas and practices? Absolutely not. 

As outdated as many people probably think they are, Aristotle and the medievals were actually right.

In case we’ve forgotten, the chaos spreading from the Los Angeles riots to other cities around the nation shows once again that we live in a divided culture.

In the proverbial garage scene, the father is doing more than just working on the car. He is working on a car that was made by engineers who actually wanted it to work for him and his family.

This fight between Donald Trump and Elon Musk is just one more example of the rudeness, tantrums and unreason governing our digital age.

Authority and constraints are part of everyday life. The best path forward, then, is to accept the fact that we are limited and find ways to thrive under those limits.

The story of Nehemiah and his cohorts rebuilding the foundations of their city in record time should give us hope that all is not lost for our own nation.

Few among our politicians or tech entrepreneurs seem interested in such talk about the issues more AI will bring. But the rest of us need to be shaken awake and have light thrown on the dark path we’re already traveling.

In our urbanized culture, many consumers have little concept of where their food comes from or what went into making and processing it. But such a situation is simply another knock against our personal freedom.

Most of us will not die as accomplished as Julius Caesar or Mike Tyson, but all of us are going to be remembered, for better or worse, at least by the people whose lives we touched over our lifetime, many of whom we may not even realize we have impacted.

The reason that Pride Month looks so different this year, even for massive corporations that can afford the dip in sales, is that normal people refused to be tricked twice.

When we do these things in a right and cheerful spirit – breaking bread together, setting aside some family time, bringing worship into the living room or kitchen – we make our homes brighter and warmer, and strengthen the family.

Some of us still believe in the sacrament of the shared table.

When schools fail to teach students to do something useful with their minds and bodies, creating beautiful things, they deprive the next generation of a joy-filled life.

We soon forget natural disasters, but the community and camaraderie that they bring continues long after.

A virtual robot will never replace the human companionship. But a “relationship” with a perfect AI boyfriend or girlfriend or friend is much easier to maintain, making the lure of such hollow companionship all the more dangerous.

Love is not the absence of breaking but the promise to keep building and believing that something can be made whole even after it has shattered.

Across the ages, young boys and men have looked to glory in war. Audie Murphy, like me, was a boy without a father (his deserted him, mine died). His story resonated.

When it comes to children, we're quick to acknowledge screens are detrimental. But when it comes to screens and adults, we’re less willing to acknowledge our problems. 

What do our kids miss when we give them a digital childhood rather than a screen-free one? Here are a few observations I gleaned from the kids in my classroom over the years.

Now that the school year has receded into the hazy distance, our household has turned its attention to the languid pleasures of baseball, particularly the Atlanta Braves.

Memorials themselves – the graveyards, the monuments – are of vital importance for the rest of us far beyond individual names. 

The study lists the stereotypical masculine characteristics – “competitive, daring, adventurous, dominant, aggressive, courageous and standing up to pressure” – as positive traits, and fathers who demonstrated these were “rated as showing good parenting behavior.”

The Instagram trends must be treated as an aesthetic in service of a traditional lifestyle, not a traditional lifestyle in service of an aesthetic. 

The family is a small nation, and the more we have of these tiny nations, functioning properly and refusing to break apart, the more we as a large nation are able to resist tyranny, government overreach, and other breaches of our freedom.

As our society inevitably becomes ever more the captive of technology, let’s fight for our humanity by embracing and practicing the useless things.

Teach your children to know and love truth. Your children will thank you, and so will your countrymen.