The last three weeks have been awfully busy! Thankfully the busy time at my work is coming to an end and I will be able to spend more time on MCC projects.
I wanted to begin with some gratitude. A big wave of new subscribers joined us in the last couple of weeks and that is in large part due to the recommendations of:
I’m grateful for every substack that recommends Montana Classical College, but these gentlemen’s recommendations have had an outsized benefit. It is fitting then, that REN has written about unlikelihood of a Christian-Vitalist synthesis and Johann Kurtz has himself written on the need to, at the fundamental level, boldly choose one or the other as the basis upon which one rests. You probably already read both of them, but if you don’t, now is the time!
Phocaean Dionysus has returned as a regular contributor to MCC and you can check out his latests efforts here:
His next installment will be a commentary on the “Preface” of Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil, that places it within the broader context of the history of political philosophy in addition to showing how it can help us think through conflicting moral opinions today.
What else is next?
I’m working on a longer essay for Man’s World Magazine on academics who cover so-called “far-Right” thinkers and how progressives are finding themselves in an awkwardly conservative position. They are the beneficiaries of what we could call shifting concepts of liberty and now that there is growing public skepticism over what we might call positive identity liberty, these academics want to ossify what liberty means and are calling anyone that thinks of liberty differently a fascist, etc. I draw a lot on ideas I discussed with Phocaean in our short course on Understanding Modern Liberty.
As I move into summer mode I’ll continue delivering lectures on the two greatest literary giants of the Western world for our Homer and Shakespeare courses. I also have five guests lined up for another mini season of Classical Conversations. There are other irons in the fire for possible guest contributors but I won’t say anything about that until those eggs have hatched (to mix metaphors).
I’ll see you soon and I’ll leave this list of previous Classical Conversations here:
Ancient Gardener on classical education—both ancient and modern—as well as how to understand Aristotle’s notion of “equipment” in a broad sense.
Arthur Powell on his poetry chapbook Skirmishes in the Atrium, the poet’s relationship to technology, and timeless / timely poetry.
Kruptos on building a parallel polity, the enframing of thinking by technology, and the loss of virtue.
Nobody on the core differences between ancient and modern poets, poetry vs. philosophy, and possibilities for the contemporary poet.
Lance Legion on contemporary military officer education, Romans vs. Greeks, Agamemnon, Julius Caesar, and the relation between Christianity / Vitalism.
Jeremy Carl on Hungary, right wing environmentalism, immigration, and Christian nationalism.
Space Age Maximalist on engineers as aristocrats of the future, technological optimism, and how to merge scientific and humanistic thinking.
William Wheelwright on agriculture preceding culture, a vision for a new school, and Homer’s Iliad.
Phocaean Dionsyius on Aristocratical Christianity (our second conversation on this)
David Azerrad on the American founding, a diagnostic account of the contemporary situation, and thoughts about how to move forward.
Very much looking forward to what you’ve got cooking up, MCC. Excited for the summertime!