
Recently, I’ve been meditating on the place that reading holds, both in my own life and in our modern society as a whole. Personally, I like to read. I wish I had more time to do it but sadly find such time increasingly lacking (especially given the way “real life” has been over the past few months). Yet, I try to squeeze it in when I can. Over the years, I’ve seen my reading preferences change as I’ve moved to the Real Right. Less “general” history and fiction, more “deeper” history, philosophy, etc. I view reading not only as enjoyable, but also as a conscious work of personal improvement. Books (and articles and substacks and…) are a means of gathering knowledge, which may then be further analysed, broken down, and rebuilt into an ever-deepening worldview supported by this evolving knowledge base.
It’s troubling to me to contemplate the general decline of intellectualism in the United States and across the western world that has obtained for over sixty years. By this, I do not refer to education of whatever type – if anything that has increased to absurd proportions. But more education does not equal more intellectual capacity. Even as the number of degrees multiplies, the actual ability of a larger and larger share of the population to actual consider ideas has diminished. And that is really at the root of genuine intellectualism – ideas, understanding them, applying them, generating them. It goes far beyond just memorising some facts or names or whatever and regurgitating them on command.








