The first principles

This work looks critically at modernism, tracing where its assurances fall short, and considers whether traditionalism offers a better path forward. The author argues that the deepest tension of the present era lies in choosing between these two outlooks as a guide for living.

The author suggests that many modern disputes seem impossible to resolve because they are skirmishes within a broader standoff between fundamentally different ways of understanding the world. Progress, he contends, depends on first identifying those underlying frameworks and examining them closely. The central contrast is between a human will placed at the center and a will submitted to a higher order: modernism locates the source of value within the individual's subjective inner life and appeals to the ego, while traditionalism locates it in an external, objective source, which it calls God or gods. Traditionalism, as described here, is less about maintaining customs or rituals and more about devoting oneself to the plan of an objective reality.