Author: Stephen Heiner

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FF / Heiner

13 Apr, 2016

Book Review: Return to Order

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Part of restoring the best of what has passed is understanding where we came from.  Only then can we start to put together commonsense solutions for how to go forward.  Few books in today’s publishing world do this better than John Horvat II’s Return to Order: From a Frenzied Economy to an Organic Christian Society. I’m a bit embarrassed to say that I only read this book recently, even though it has been in print since 2013.  The impetus?  I recently traveled to the United States to visit my parents and there were two books they had bought and sent me since...

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FF / Heiner

13 Apr, 2016

Palio

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On an intercontinental flight these days one has dozens of options.  Not only do they have the most recent movies available for your enjoyment, but classics as well.  They even have classic television.  I pulled up an episode from the original Man from U.N.C.L.E. (I gave it at least 15 minutes of my time). There was a documentary section that offered a film that I was particularly interested in: Palio.  It’s shot mostly in Italian (with subtitles, of course) and is about the annual horse races that occur in Siena during July and August.  It’s beautifully filmed and follows two different riders...

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FF / Heiner

12 Apr, 2016

Why you should go to South Carolina this summer

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I recently described  Dr. Clyde Wilson as one of the most important figures in my intellectual formation about true American history.  While I met him first at a Rockford Institute event, it was at four different Abbeville Institute events that I got to hear his lectures and have many more conversations and meals with him and other unrepentant unreconstructeds.  I think you might enjoy not just his company, but that of our namesake, Dr. Thomas Fleming, this summer in South Carolina. Dr. Donald Livingston, the creator and driving force  behind the Abbeville Institute, has put together a great series of talks this year,...

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Feature / FF / Heiner

9 Apr, 2016

The indefatigable Dr. Clyde Wilson

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I was in my late 20s when I first met Dr. Clyde Wilson at a Rockford Institute event.  If you’ve ever had the privilege of meeting Dr. Wilson and listening to that singular gravelly voice, you’ve known learning and gentility bound together with a ready smile, no matter how curmudgeonly he might be in other fora. I remember sitting on a porch with him on Johns Island, South Carolina, at my first Abbeville Institute event (I would go on to attend four more).  I had a question related to what I then referred to as the “Battle of Antietam” (my yankee-addled...

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FF / Heiner

1 Mar, 2016

The leaders we deserve

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I’m heading back to the United States this month to spend some time with my family, and I’m headed back to an America whipped up into a political frenzy. Europeans do not mistake an accent for an ideology, but when they hear my accent these days they do want to know what I think of the Trump juggernaut. Before I focus on the electorate I should note that democracy, a form of government I’m not particularly fond of, necessarily requires a virtuous and informed electorate in order to thrive (it will survive and subsist on much less).  It’s also important...

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FF / Heiner

23 Feb, 2016

Boris and Brexit

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I was in the Metro.  I looked down at the newspaper the man on my left was reading.  It featured three characters.  One, a Boris Johnson jumping up and screaming “F*#% Europe!”  To his right a flustered and disturbed David Cameron wheels around, saying, “Trump?”  To his right a French footman bows and says, in French, “No, it’s the Mayor of London…” Later that same day I was writing in a cafe and four tables over I heard snippets of a conversation in French in which the words “Boris” and “Brexit” featured prominently. It was the day after Boris had delivered...

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FF / Heiner

16 Feb, 2016

Sickness and Technology

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Dear Readers Technology is supposed to be a tool we use.  If it’s reliable, sometimes we can be shocked at its letting us down.  Last week Dr. Fleming and I spent 45 minutes trying to get him properly and digitally into our virtual studio so we could record a podcast.  We had performed the exact same actions just a few days earlier with absolutely zero trouble.  Ah, the idiosyncrasies of our digital masters. Dr. Fleming showed remarkable patience throughout and while we could have persevered on that afternoon to try for a makeshift solution, he wisely relented, and planned a...

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FF / Heiner

10 Dec, 2015

A word from our sponsors

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Dear Readers Many of you by now have experienced our new “walled garden” subscriber format, and I hope you have come to understand and appreciate why we are doing it and how we are setting up the Foundation on a firm footing for a future that will outlast its namesake (though we hope that he will last for some time yet!). Our Charter Subscribers receive a mug and notebook, in addition to some yet-to-be disclosed benefits, but should you wish to purchase these for yourself or for friends or family this month, in solidarity with our cause or simply to...

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FF / Heiner

3 Dec, 2015

The Last Sunday after Pentecost

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“This would be a great target to hit.”  It was Tuesday, and I closed my eyes and pictured an explosion ripping through the Eurostar that was taking me from Paris to London.  Done at the right time, with the proper amount of explosives, such an act could destroy or severely cripple the Chunnel, kill hundreds of travelers of dozens of nationalities, and chill rail travel for months, if not years.  I opened my eyes again, and gazed at the lovely French countryside. I’m not morbid by nature, but wars, and rumors of wars, have been on my mind since November 13th....

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FF / Heiner

17 Nov, 2015

Branding Disaster

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Earlier this year, after the Charlie Hebdo shootings, I reflected on the conversations that may or may not ensue from the changing of a facebook profile picture.  As my facebook news feed in the last few days has changed into a wash of the modern French flag (the tricolor) I’ve reflected further on our need, as a consumer-driven culture, to “brand” disaster. Clearly the French didn’t start the #prayforparis trend – as it’s an English phrase.  #jesuischarlie started up so quickly because the attack was directed at a specific target for a specific reason.  The French reacted, in their own...