James Bryson

Philosopher, Writer & Teacher | Love, Plato, Literature & the History of Ideas | Forthcoming "Love in the Platonic Tradition" @CambridgeUP | @EpochTimes

[James Bryson @JamesBryson_]

“When the greatest poet of the modern world first laid his eyes on the St. Columba altarpiece, he fell into a deep silence. Later that day Goethe is reported to have said that he had now seen an image that was more valuable than any verse he himself had ever composed.”

My latest for @EpochOpinion

Cosmic Beauty: The St. Columba Altarpiece
https://t.co/TBcVqsBhj4

[The Epoch Times - Opinion @EpochOpinion]

In Search of a Scapegoat

"When things are not going according to plan—when there is a virus spreading, a bad harvest, or some terrible act of injustice done that has gone unpunished—every culture we know begins to countenance violence," writes @JamesBryson_.

Read more:
https://t.co/YvzXvonZA3

[James Bryson @JamesBryson_]

*what* a girl says

[James Bryson @JamesBryson_]

“You can’t go by with a girl says, when she’s giving you the devil for making a chump of yourself. It’s like Shakespeare. Sounds well, but it doesn’t mean anything.”

P.G. Wodehouse teaching us, the mystified, how to understand women and poetry in one fell swoop.

[James Bryson @JamesBryson_]

How does a trial of a mother murdering her children transform into a story about the juror who thought she was guilty?

René Girard would answer that is our nature as both violent and religious creatures to seek out a scapegoat.

[The Epoch Times - Opinion @EpochOpinion]

In Search of a Scapegoat

"When things are not going according to plan—when there is a virus spreading, a bad harvest, or some terrible act of injustice done that has gone unpunished—every culture we know begins to countenance violence," writes @JamesBryson_.

Read more:
https://t.co/YvzXvonZA3

[James Bryson @JamesBryson_]

@MikhailaFuller @christopherrufo @avidseries Took the words right out of my mouth.

[James Bryson @JamesBryson_]

@xmuse_ They must’ve moved it. They never used to share the same space.

[James Bryson @JamesBryson_]

Follow up poll: ask how that’s working out.

[Jake Kozloski @jakozloski]

Pew asked Americans what's essential to a fulfilling life:
Career: 71%
Friends: 61%
Kids: 26%
Marriage: 23%

Fifty years of data say that marriage is the biggest happiness differentiator ever measured. Americans have this backwards.

[James Bryson @JamesBryson_]

@Ayaan The church does, in fact, remain sacred. The word we are searching for here, therefore, is “desecration”.

[James Bryson @JamesBryson_]

@mimisnotebook_ Outrageous

[James Bryson @JamesBryson_]

@christiwhittem Indeed! Some kind of correlation, it would seem.

[James Bryson @JamesBryson_]

Jeeves is waxing lyrical about the stars, but Bertie’s having none of it. 😂

[James Bryson @JamesBryson_]

@Kin_Loch Glittering and unbroken!

[James Bryson @JamesBryson_]

@MarioNawfal Why would his Catholicism cloud his judgement?

[James Bryson @JamesBryson_]

@jordanbpeterson This is Peterson getting back to basics. He is at his best when he speaks on religious subjects. Just electric.

[James Bryson @JamesBryson_]

Scapegoating the holdout juror: a tale as old as time, if René Girard is to be believed.

https://t.co/0hkOnvQHXl

[James Bryson @JamesBryson_]

It’s Hegel’s world. The rest of us are just living in it.

[Hegelian News @HegelianNews]

New book: Twilight of the Dons: British Intellectuals from World War II to Thatcherism. Colin Kidd. Princeton: UP, 2026. "Both Marxism & the distinctive conservatism of the Cambridge Right shared an acknowledged common ancestor in the thought of... Hegel." https://t.co/OPCCAefCp2

[James Bryson @JamesBryson_]

@vegadelsur Everyone does them for a reason, no?The only useful addition on this list that’s a potential fixture is the second language.

[James Bryson @JamesBryson_]

This weekend I consider our perennial need for a scapegoat:

“Gods do not accept an offering that is impure, something or someone we ourselves want rid of. No, God wants Issac, not Cain; Christ, not Barabbas.”

https://t.co/0hkOnvQHXl