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Front Royal, Virginia —The most obvious thing about this new collection of the writings of Canadian scholar Harley Price is that he has no use, none at all, for nonsense. This book is covers a lot of ground from capitalism, sex (the acts and the two sexes of people) journalism, despotism, abortion, conformity, education, tradition, liberty, and more.
In Canada, Dr. Price faces a worse situation than we do in the United States. Indeed, many Canadians take pride in their lack of freedom of speech and freedom of the press.
About thirty years ago, Canada adopted a Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It was ridiculously called a Charter no doubt to make it sound like something as important such as the Magna Carta. Unlike the Magna Carta, the English Bill of Rights and the American Bill of Rights, Canada’s Charter restricts, not expands, liberty. Canadians brag that American scholars would quickly be imprisoned in Canada for “hate speech” if they said something offensive. Canadians now divide their nation’s history into “Pre-Charter” and “Post Charter.”
Dr. Price is part of a modern Conservative movement that is now over sixty years old. In the earliest days of this movement, L. Brent Bozell spoke to a packed Madison Square Garden and said that the contemporary liberal orthodoxy was a part of Gnosticism. In this book, Dr. Price returns to this theme and says that the current dominant orthodoxy, like Gnosticism, claims that it does not have to establish its ideas with reason because it has some kind of mysterious knowledge that justifies it. The conservatism of Bozell in 1962 and the conservatism of Dr. Price today are the same.
Conservatism is both traditional and liberal in that it recognizes the democracy of the dead, and the superiority of economic freedom. Dr. Price argues for both with great knowledge. An interesting example of his vast erudition is his citation of Aesop for the proposition “It could be worse.”
Dr. Price follows Aristotle, Cicero, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Sir William Blackstone, and Thomas Jefferson in recognizing the subordination of human-made law to God-given law. He devotes about twenty pages to refuting the current glorification of abortion. Abortion has become a challenging subject because so many have insisted on denying the humanity of the unborn baby because they insist on treating the non-existent rights of the abortionist as rights of the mother. If they had to admit that laws on abortion simply forbid abortionists to kill pre-born people, they would have to admit defeat.
Dr. Price tackles many subjects about sexual perversions, the destruction of the meaning of marriage, and similar topics. He deals with many long disproved economic theories now being rehashed. He deals with the appalling ignorance of today’s left, the suppression of sensible ideals, the restoration of Notre Dame, deconstructionism, and other similar subjects.
When we look North at Canada from the United States we can say with Shakespeare as quoted by Dr. Price, “The worst is not, so long as we can say, ‘this is the worst.’” King Lear, IV, ii.
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The Confederate Lawyer column is copyright @ 2022 by Charles G. Mills and the Fitzgerald Griffin Foundation, www.fgfBooks.com. All rights reserved.
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Charles G. Mills is the Judge Advocate Emeritus for the New York State American Legion. He has forty years of experience in many trial and appellate courts and has published many articles and essays about the law and other subjects.
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