Happy Birthday, New Criterion
I’m often frustrated by the way in which leftism manages to position itself as the default mode of high culture. People still quote the New Yorker to me as if it were something other than a left-wing attack rag. And even I listen to NPR sometimes or watch PBS, choking back my disdain for their government-funded statism in order to enjoy their coverage of the arts.
But right-wing high culture – or let’s just call it non-relativistic high culture or culture based on the idea of truth – is out there, you just have to look a little harder to find it. Charlie Rose may be able to sell his droning bias on TV’s everywhere, but Peter Robinson is still delivering sprightly and fascinating Uncommon Knowledge online. The New York Review of Books may still be rabbiting on about things of deep importance to everyone from 57th Street all the way to 49th but The Claremont Review of Books is much, much better, if you can manage to get your hands on a copy.
Then, of course, there’s the Mac Daddy of them all: The New Criterion which John O’Sullivan called “Quite simply, the best cultural review in the world.” It’s run by PJ Media’s own Roger Kimball, a man so brilliant no one will dare tell him that bow ties have gone out of fashion. The special 30th Anniversary issue is out, and it’s unbelievably good, with an article on Chesterton by Roger himself, as well as a wonderful piece on the role of the positive in fiction by bestselling mystery writer Alexander McCall Smith.
I hate to do commercials, but this one is from the heart. Go to the website. Celebrate NC’s 30th with a subscription or contribution. Help keep this vital source of high culture alive. We are winning the culture war, in case you hadn’t noticed. This is no time to leave the leaders of the fight behind.






Thanks, Klavan-
I’m grateful for your pointing me to valuable websites like these. I use NPR and PBS as well on occasion because their programming is consistently high in quality although often very hard to choke down.
Referring back to your previous post, there are people like author Joel Rosenberg- wunderkind aide to Benjamin Netanyahu and others, and now best-selling writer of political thrillers- who look at the whole Muslim-Western conflict through a religious prism. Rosenberg suspects that the political turmoil we see in the Middle East and elsewhere is the result of many, many underreported conversions of Muslims to Christianity, which is causing a great disturbance in the spiritual world. Another man born Jewish and now a Christian, Lance Lambert, looks at all of this as sort of the last gasp of Islam. These things may sound far-fetched to those unsure of where they stand religiously, but I at least find them worthy of consideration.
Dear Andrew, Agree completely about New Criterion. I would add New Oxford Review and First Things.