Just ran into this as I started my short vacation the other day. So many questions. The first that comes to mind: Did some TSA worker have an experience with snow globes similar to The Anchoress’ experience with fruit ? . . . . Continue Reading »
1. A couple of readers suggested that I drop the pointy headed Strauss stuff and comment on the trendy localism posts of the Porchers, the (First) Thingers, and all that. My real experience is that most of them were kind of boring—no offense. 2. It goes without saying that I’m against . . . . Continue Reading »
The Anchoress has posted this beautiful video of the Nashville Dominicans, whose postulant classes, like those of the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist in Ann Arbor, have been overflowing in recent years. Meanwhile, we — our parish, that is — were visited recently by . . . . Continue Reading »
We started this discussion of localism when I mentioned that I had been reading William Cobbett’s Rural Rides . I meant only to offer our literary friends a suggestion that the beginning of Rural Rides may have influenced the beginning of Dickens’ Bleak House , but, along the way, I . . . . Continue Reading »
Out by the highway this week a big sign has appeared, advertising our town’s Fourth of July celebration. Of course, by the time I’m close enough to read anything smaller than “HISTORIC DOWNTOWN FOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATION,” I’ve already passed it, so I can’t say . . . . Continue Reading »
I’m glad Jody drew attention to Caleb Stegall’s intervention. Stegall is surely right that love is the “existential engine” of localism . Indeed, by my reckoning, love is the existential engine of any thick and substantial cultural identity. Yes, of course love is jealous. The . . . . Continue Reading »
Inspired by Patrick Deenan’s outstanding essay about sociologist and cultural philosopher Robert Nisbet, I’d like to define a term that appears as a theme in his work and was popularized by Russell Kirk: the moral imagination. It can be defined as a uniquely human ability to conceive of . . . . Continue Reading »
Since the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, Republicans have been wondering how to challenge her without it backfiring on them. Hadley Arkes proposes a novel solution : Let Sotomayor talk—and get on the record what the Democrats don’t want explained about the law: . . . . Continue Reading »
Rusty, I don’t think it is quite accurate to explain German anti-Semitism as a localist reaction to Jewish assimilation. You commented yesterday that Germans didn’t think assimilation “was possible, not because they denied that a stranger’s children and grand-children could . . . . Continue Reading »
You’re right, Rusty, when you speak of the multiple ironies of the appearances and disappearances of localist claims in the modern world. As I said, my problem with your localism is the Jews—by which I meant the way the Jews, perceived somehow as a threat for both their lack of group . . . . Continue Reading »
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