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Emma Spence is on page 203 of 366

“The point, as ever, is spiritual. If our nations seem hollowed-out, if our countries seem to be prey for the Machine, surely it is because they have no soul. If people, place, prayer and he past are the ground upon which real culture is built, many of us today would have to look at our own countries and conclude that they have no real connection to any of these.”

— Jan 22, 2026 07:21AM

Against the Machine: On the Unmaking of Humanity

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Emma Spence is on page 229 of 366

“The rushing power that runs beneath the age of Progress…where is it taking us? We know the answer. Humans cannot live for very long without a glimpse of the transcendent, or an aspiration, dimly understood, to become one with it. Denied this path, we will make our own. Denied a glimpse of heaven, we will try to build it here.”

— Jan 22, 2026 02:56PM

Emma Spence is on page 148 of 366

“In times of conflict, whether our weapons are pikes or words, the temptation is always towards total war. But war is the Giant’s work, and like the Giant it will consume us all if it can. ‘The inexhaustible energies of the cosmos,’ wrote Robert Bly, ‘cannot be called down by anger. They are called by extremely elaborate practice—a stories.’”

— Jan 18, 2026 02:37PM

Emma Spence is on page 125 of 366

“It is easy for me to imagine,” wrote Wendell Berry in his extended essay Life Is a Miracle, “that the next great division of the world will be between people who wish to live as creatures and people who wish to live as machines.” Berry wrote those words twenty years ago, and the great vision he foresaw is now upon us: Life versus the Machine. (p. 122)

— Jan 16, 2026 11:59AM

Emma Spence is on page 53 of 366

“Across the spectrum, from conservatives to liberals, Marxists to fascists, believers to atheists, very little serious criticism of the entwined myths of progress, growth and materialism will ever be heard in the public sphere. Ultimately, most of us accede to our sovereign, happily or otherwise.”

— Jan 02, 2026 08:44AM