April Diary

Hello,

Obligatory shilling. I wrote at THE ZONE about the Quiet Revival, morality, making money as a writer, snuff films on social media, Hungary, communism, Tarnowskie Góry and being open.

I wrote for The Critic about The Information State, Tisza, Ant & Dec, anonymity, Unite the Kingdom and the tyranny of memes.

I wrote for The American Conservative about Hungary.

When the Music Fades. My sister’s first book has been published today! Here is the blurb:

A generation was told to surrender everything for Jesus. A generation were told they were history makers and could change the world. But what happens when the music fades? In this powerful reflection, Lucy Sixsmith revisits the experience of growing up in the Soul Survivor generation. From the euphoric highs of worship tents and passionate songs to the quiet reckoning of adulthood, Sixsmith traces her journey through the charismatic culture of Soul Survivor, a movement that promised transformation, belonging, and divine purpose. With clarity, compassion, and wit, she explores the longing for purpose, the dangers of power, and the cost of unquestioning faith. When the Music Fades offers a vital reckoning with the past, and a search for grace in what remains.

Even if you aren’t interested in the theme, Lucy is such a good writer that you should buy this book. Do it now!

Spring has sprung. Truly, this is the most beautiful time of year. I can only assume that I have been taking few photos of spring scenes because I have been enjoying them. As Philip Larkin wrote in “The Trees” (not without ambivalence but with some genuine optimism:

Still the unresting castles thresh
In fullgrown thickness every May.
Last year is dead, they seem to say,
Begin afresh, afresh, afresh.

I hope spring looks beautiful where you are too.

Save the pigs. I rarely give opinions on the object-level politics of distant nations but I felt compelled to register my disgust towards the “Save Our Bacon Act” — an attempt to cripple minimum space requirements in livestock farming, which could massively set back farm animal protection laws in the USA and, in doing so, enable the systematic torture of intelligent animals. To attempt to direct people’s interest away from the systematic torture of intelligent animals back towards their fried breakfast is the height of well-fed barbarism.

Failing state. Ed West reflects on many levels of state failure around crime, political correctness and mental health:

On June 13, 2023, a mentally ill man named Valdo Calocane went on a rampage in Nottingham, murdering 65-year-old caretaker Ian Coates and two 19-year-old students, Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar. All three victims were clearly much loved by families and friends, and warm tributes poured out; O’Malley-Kumar had died trying to protect her friend and was posthumously awarded the George Medal for bravery. It was a senseless waste of life, all the more so because the killer had a long history of violence and just six weeks before the murders had attacked two people. The police failed to act.

An island within an island. Wessie du Toit asks whether London is meaningfully English:

In Khan’s short video addressing the question “What does it mean to be English?”, he does of course imply that the capital is part of England. But on closer inspection, his idea of Englishness is defined by London rather than vice-versa. After nodding to the usual clichés — “fish and chips and a Sunday roast… our love of queuing, our incessant apologising”— he moves onto “a tapestry made up of different cultures, faiths, histories and ideas, woven together to tell one story”. He concludes that being English means “we stand up for what we believe in” (at which point the video shows a “Refugees Welcome” sign). The event in Trafalgar Square suggests that he views Englishness like any other identity in his scheme of managed diversity, whereby the authorities, like a nursery teacher negotiating with tired toddlers, ensure that every group gets its moment at the centre of attention, flying its flags and performing its rituals in public space.

The pathologies of outdated ideologies. Will Solfiac considers elites who woke up too late:

One of the most bizarre characteristics of those who struggle to maintain what’s left of the liberal international order is their refusal to accept reforms that might head off its destruction.

Indigenous ways of knowing. Jonathan Salem-Wiseman mounts a qualified defence:

In his recent book Rationality, Steven Pinker discusses the work of Louis Liebenberg, a tracking scientist who has studied the hunting practices of the Indigenous San people in southern Africa. Despite their harsh environment, the San have survived for thousands of years by employing “logic, critical thinking, statistical reasoning, causal inference, and game theory.”

While they may not have heard of Bayes’ theorem, their hunters use Bayesian reasoning to determine the likelihood that an ambiguous track belongs to one species of game or another, based on prior probabilities. In other words, they employ the same basic tools of rationality as Westerners.

Aesthetics and environments. Freddie deBoer ponders beauty and authenticity in architecture:

The real question isn’t whether we can build beautifully, it’s whether we’re willing to admit what we actually want, which is to be surrounded by things that feel old and storied and earned, even when they aren’t.

The case for Israelorealism. Michael Murphy takes on right-wing foreign policy idealism:

Israel is vying for regional hegemony, and America seems to be helping it get there in the erroneous belief this is a civilisational war in which America has an equal stake. There appears to be no bridge Trump and Israel’s allies are unwilling to burn to bring this about.

Dancing with death. Clarissa Hard reflects on the tragic consequences of rushing to judgement:

Not only had Liam killed himself, never to create a work of art again, but access to his existing material had apparently been limited. Like many other balletomanes, I felt bereft. To this day, Sweet Violets only lingers in my memory.

Liam Scarlett was an artist of rare imaginative power who had decades ahead of him. It is heartrending to think of the ballets he would have gone on to create, which will now never see the light of day.

Self-goretraits. Zachary Ginsberg writes on Picasso:

As Picasso approached middle age, he started to show an awareness that his behavior was wrong, even if he didn’t want or know how to stop it. But he could portray it. As with almost any artist, his drawings and prints offer a uniquely intimate entrée into his psyche. They are smaller and more quotidian than his works on canvas—less monumental, less committal—and often devoted to trying out ideas before solidifying them in oil. Hung behind glass in a museum, his drawings and prints seem like confessional artifacts. In these diaristic works, Picasso exhibits an unflinching willingness to stare down his dark side and put it on display. In doing so, he performs the almost impossible task, at once earnest and provocative, of transporting viewers into the mind of a monster, preserving his baseness and allowing us to empathize with him.

Have a lovely month,

Ben