All Systems Go, by Anthony Esolen

By Anthony Esolen, The Catholic Thing, June 9, 2021

Anthony Esolen is a lecturer, translator, and writer. Among his books are Out of the Ashes: Rebuilding American Culture, and Nostalgia: Going Home in a Homeless World, and most recently The Hundredfold: Songs for the Lord. He is a professor and writer in residence at Magdalen College of the Liberal Arts, in Warner, New Hampshire.

It appears that I am doomed to hear the word “systemic” for the rest of my life. Properly used, it should describe the workings of a system, and a system is such by virtue of reasonably identifiable parts that work in concert to produce a foreseeable result. The system does not have to have been established as such from its inception, with either good or ill will. Man is a creature of habit, and, though he does not reason very well, still in his practice if he does one thing, he will end up doing the nearby thing that it implies.

So you want a system? Let me give you a system.

Let us call it systematic family destruction, subheading inguinal. 

Every single important statutory law, federal regulation, and constitutional invention in my lifetime that has borne upon the structure, the promotion, and the protection of the natural family – married father and mother, with children – has been destructive. Along with them have come the ceaseless assaults mounted by schools at all levels, mass entertainment, and the mass media. …

Continue reading >>>>