of objective truth and absolute value imposes political correctness as absolutely binding, and cultural relativism as objectively true." Monarchy Scruton was a supporter of constitutional monarchy arguing it is "the light above politics, which shines down on the human bustle from a calmer and more exalted sphere." In a 1991 column for the Los Angeles Times, he argued that monarchy helped create peace in Central Europe and "the loss of it that precipitated 70 years of conflict on the Continent." Religion Scruton was an Anglican. His book Our Church: A Personal History of the Church of England (2013) defended the relevance of the Church of England. He contends, following Immanuel Kant, that human beings have a transcendental dimension, a sacred core exhibited in their capacity for self-reflection. He argues that we are in an era of secularization without precedent in the history of the world; writers and artists such as Rainer Maria Rilke, T. S. Eliot, Edward Hopper and Arnold Schoenberg "devoted much energy to recuperating the experience of the sacred — but as a private rather than a public form of consciousness." Because these thinkers directed their art at the few, he writes, it has never appealed to the many. On the matter of evidence of God's existence, Scruton said: "Rational argument can get us just so far… It can help us to understand the real difference between a faith that commands us to forgive our enemies, and one that commands us to slaughter them. But the leap of faith itself — this placing of your life at God's service — is a leap over reason's edge. This does not make it irrational, any more than falling in love is irrational." However, despite claiming that belief alone is sufficiently rational, he advocated a form of the argument from beauty: he said that when we take the beauty in the natural world around us as a gift, we are able to openly understand God. The beauty speaks to us, he claims, and from it we can understand God's presence around us. Totalitarianism Scruton defined totalitarianism as the absence of any constraint on central authority, with every aspect of life the concern of government. Advocates of totalitarianism feed on resentment, Scruton argues, and having seized power they proceed to abolish institutions — such as the law, property, and religion — that create authorities: "To the resentful it is these institutions that