When we look honestly at the state of our political landscape today, it becomes clear that the system is fundamentally broken. But rather than seeing it as an unfortunate aberration from history, we should understand that it is the predictable consequence of abandoning the “Mixed Constitution” the Ancients believed was indispensable to stability of the state. The Greeks and Romans despised democracy because they understood human nature. They believed that if tolerated, democracy could survive only when strict and immovable safeguards were maintained, but we have dismantled them all. It is one of the tragic flaws of modern man to discard thousands of years of inherited wisdom without understanding why those safeguards existed in the first place — such is the sin of Modernism. This is why our societies feel fragile, divided, and directionless — because they are. We are no longer anchored to anything that restrains our excesses. The people are governed by passion rather than reason, and these passions are increasingly disordinate, immoderate, and impulsive, seeking instant gratification, and our states have tragically followed suit. In an age ruled by liberalism, radical individualism, and the deification of human rights, we no longer live under a political system that balances monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy. Instead, the democratic element has grown disproportionately beyond its proper limits which has destabilised the political order. The people can vote for everything and anything, often without cultivating civic and political virtue, to citizens without training, formation, or loyalty, and the result is exactly what Polybius warned 2,150 years ago. If these democratic safeguards are not restored, our states will slide toward ochlocracy — or mob rule — which immediately precedes total collapse. If we want to avoid the final stage of Polybius’ cycle, we must recover these safeguards — not out of nostalgia, but because our survival depends on it. But perhaps the collapse is what we need. Perhaps we must “degenerate again into perfect savages and find once more a master and monarch”.

Why have billions of human beings, across different civilizations and centuries, believed in God? One reason begins with existence itself: if everything around us depends on something else, what ultimately explains why anything exists at all? A second comes from the remarkable order of the universe, whose physical laws allow stars, planets, complex chemistry, life, and eventually human beings to exist. Then there is consciousness: science can map what happens in your brain when you feel pain, remember your childhood, or hear an old song, yet we still struggle to explain why those physical processes produce an inner experience. Our sense of morality raises another question, because we often speak about certain acts as objectively wrong even when a society accepts them. Millions of people also believe because they have experienced what they understand as the presence of God through prayer, worship, mystical experiences, or moments that permanently changed their lives. And for most people, belief first reaches them through family, sacred texts, rituals, and communities that have carried religious traditions across generations. In my latest Culture Explorer article, I examine these six reasons, the evidence behind them, and the strongest arguments against them. Read the full article and decide which, if any, gives you the strongest reason to believe in God. newsletter.thecultureexplore…

Man is by nature a religious animal.

Love of family, love of truth, love of justice. — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (Meditations)

When we look honestly at the state of our political landscape today, it becomes clear that the system is fundamentally broken. But rather than seeing it as an unfortunate aberration from history, we should understand that it is the predictable consequence of abandoning the “Mixed Constitution” the Ancients believed was indispensable to stability of the state. The Greeks and Romans despised democracy because they understood human nature. They believed that if tolerated, democracy could survive only when strict and immovable safeguards were maintained, but we have dismantled them all. It is one of the tragic flaws of modern man to discard thousands of years of inherited wisdom without understanding why those safeguards existed in the first place — such is the sin of Modernism. This is why our societies feel fragile, divided, and directionless — because they are. We are no longer anchored to anything that restrains our excesses. The people are governed by passion rather than reason, and these passions are increasingly disordinate, immoderate, and impulsive, seeking instant gratification, and our states have tragically followed suit. In an age ruled by liberalism, radical individualism, and the deification of human rights, we no longer live under a political system that balances monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy. Instead, the democratic element has grown disproportionately beyond its proper limits which has destabilised the political order. The people can vote for everything and anything, often without cultivating civic and political virtue, to citizens without training, formation, or loyalty, and the result is exactly what Polybius warned 2,150 years ago. If these democratic safeguards are not restored, our states will slide toward ochlocracy — or mob rule — which immediately precedes total collapse. If we want to avoid the final stage of Polybius’ cycle, we must recover these safeguards — not out of nostalgia, but because our survival depends on it. But perhaps the collapse is what we need. Perhaps we must “degenerate again into perfect savages and find once more a master and monarch”.

The true contempt of an invader is shown by deeds of valour in the field. — Thucydides (History of the Peloponnesian War)

When I say "tradition is the future", I don't mean returning to feudal life and living like it's the 1400s. Tradition is a mindset — a philosophical and religious orientation. For everything else, we need progress. We need to be builders, artists, innovators, and conquerors.

Man is by nature a religious animal.

AVE, PONTIFEX MAXIMVS

Every man or woman on X who cares about Western Civilisation MUST follow the Athenaeum Book Club.

Prayer is not asking God to remove your suffering but for the grace to endure it.

The ruler's character is the fate of the state. — Lucius Annaeus Seneca (De Clementia)

Christianity is the soul of Western Civilisation. Christ or collapse. Return or ruin.