There is a sort of mystery to kitsch. When did it begin? If it is just simply another name for faking emotions, it ought to have been a permanent part of the human condition.
Roger ScrutonModernism in architecture went hand in hand with socialist and fascist projects to rid old Europe of its hierarchical past
Roger ScrutonState solutions are imposed from above; they are often without corrective devices, and cannot easily be reversed on the proof of failure. Their inflexibility goes hand in hand with their planned and goal-directed nature, and when they fail the efforts of the state are directed not to changing them but to changing peopleโs belief that they have failed.
Roger ScrutonThe abstract, unreal freedom of the liberal intellect was really nothing more than childish disobedience, amplified into anarchy.
Roger ScrutonA writer who says that there are no truths, or that all truth is โmerely relative,โ is asking you not to believe him. So donโt.
Roger ScrutonThereโs a real question as to what beauty is and why itโs important to us. Many pseudo-philosophers try to answer these questions and tell us theyโre not really answerable. I draw on art and literature, and music in particular, because music is a wonderful example of something thatโs in this world but not of this world. Great works of music speak to us from another realm even though they speak to us in ordinary physical sounds.
Roger Scruton