Pomocon ponderings continued: 1. On one end you have a profound way of life , rooted and grounded in a robust and declarative embodiment of the whole . On the other end you have a superficial lifestyle , one option among many chosen for no more and no less than idiosyncratic, contingent, partial . . . . Continue Reading »
Prof. Deneen has a nice summary at Front Porch of the state of play in our Great American Renegade Right Throwdown. Any critique of that summary is far above my pay grade! So, Pomocon being a dogma-free zone, I’m inspired simply to throw out my own take on the issues and what’s at . . . . Continue Reading »
Over at The Atlantic, I give a synopsis of what I’m on about when talking of the ‘pink police state’ — Orwell’s ‘Big Brother’ meets the big brother who drives a Camaro, goes to community college, and bounces at the local strip club. . . . . Continue Reading »
In part two of my Atlantic interview , I say a few words on a subject that brings pomocons and front porchers together (for a bench-clearing brawl or a bout of hope and healing)? . . . . Continue Reading »
I take the first of several laps around the track with Conor Friedersdorf, who’s doing interviews on Big Ideas for The Atlantic . I’m especially delighted to be able to speak with some coherence about a few concepts that I’ve been kicking around for a while now. First up, our bad . . . . Continue Reading »
Here are a couple of excerpts from a brilliant decoding of Balzac’s esotericism, accomplished by Scott Sprenger, a colleague of mine at BYU. Consider the applications to the analysis of Straussianism, and to a post-Straussian postmodern critique of modernity: The fundamental problem that . . . . Continue Reading »
The skill in desire and aversion is knowing how to preserve the practical self from dissolution. — OAKESHOTT As will one day be elaborated in a dissertation, Machiavelli’s eponymous Prince lived — and killed — by surfeit of this virtu ; Shakespeare’s Prince Hamlet . . . . Continue Reading »
David Brooks’ recent column on genius , which offered a portrait of the Mozart who excelled by logging his ten thousand hours of rote practice to get on sooner to the good stuff, seemed to gibe poorly with not only our romantic understanding of unique human excellence but our practical . . . . Continue Reading »
The latest issue of Modern Age (Winter 2009) is now available for general consumption and features a symposium on Remi Brague’s amazingly erudite book The Law of God . Besides a very fine lead contribution from Mark Shiffman (who blogs over at Front Porch Republic ) you’ll also find short . . . . Continue Reading »
It is generally accepted by both the left and the right that science itself is a morally neutral enterprise, since it merely creates the mechanisms of power that can be used for moral and immoral purposes alike. In a public speech a few years ago, President Bush expressed this commonly-held view, . . . . Continue Reading »
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