Posts

Tales From My Grandfather: 80th Anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge

By -
Image
Both of my grandfathers fought in the Second World War, entering combat in 1944 and staying in Europe throughout the duration of the War in Europe and its aftermath. Both resided from small towns in lakes area, rural Minnesota. My maternal grandfather fought in the 94th Infantry Division, and my paternal grandfather fought in the 10th Armored Division. Both belonged to General George S. Patton's Third Army, the same Third Army that exists to this day and my unit was under nearly six and a half decades later. One grandfather told many stories of the War, but his eyes closed about nine months before mine opened, so those stories have traveled through my father. And the grandfather I did know well never told stories of the War to his family, except to his two grandsons (myself included) who fought in the Global War on Terror era. There are many stories I could tell that have traveled through my father to me about Ernest M. Olson , Combat Command B (CCB), 10th Armored Division .  This...
Post a Comment
Read more

Brain Rot: An Unfortunate Word of the Year

By -
Image
The 2024 Oxford Word of the Year is “brain rot.” It is defined as “the supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as the result of overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be trivial or unchallenging. Also: something characterized as likely to lead to such deterioration.” Although this term is meant as a humorous commentary on excessive technology use and hints at its potential harms, the definition itself is incorrect—or at best, incomplete. Brain rot is not just “supposed,” it’s real, and it’s harmful, especially for minors whose brains are still developing.  Several studies have shown that certain kinds of technology use negatively affect the brain, particularly in minors. One study found that frequent use of mobile devices “may displace their opportunities for learning emotion-regulation strategies over time,” meaning that kids do not develop healthy ways to deal with stress and adversity. Another fou...
Post a Comment
Read more

Education by Numbers

By -
Image
  The human soul is inimitable; Artificial Intelligence, while wildly impressive, will always fall short. We individual beings are idiosyncratic in a way that is incomputable to machines.  Many, however, fail to appreciate this indisputable fact and look at humans, not as God's inexplicable creations, but as product-maximizing homo-economici : faceless units whose value is measured by their outputs.   Schools, in particular, are overly output-driven. In an article for First Things , S. A. Dance writes that education is "a spiritual pursuit." The spirit is not quantifiable, but rather, something that is cultivated through leisure. Leisure, Dance recognizes, has become something of a pejorative. Today, leisureliness is seen as indolence.  Dance and others, however, see leisure as a meditative and reflective practice. A school's goal, he writes, ought to be to "refine our capacities to think rationally, contemplate reality, appreciate beauty, and feel gratitude....
Post a Comment
Read more

Disrupting Isolation

By -
Image
  Breaking old habits is hard.   I say that because most of us city-dwellers are in the nasty habit of insulating ourselves from our neighbors and communities. As I wrote for National Review a few months ago, "When we walk down the street, we turn off our peripheral vision and focus only on the destination, never the journey." We have become overly-utilitarian, socially-averse and stuck in rigid routines.  I always feel the need to admit: I, too, have insulated myself. I could be far more involved in my community. I could learn more of my neighbor's names. I need to do better. We all do.  Some, recognizing that a life of atomization and loneliness is fundamentally unhealthy, have taken the plunge into community engagement.  In Front Porch Republic , Dennis Uhlman writes about a chili cook-off that he spearheaded in his new South Carolina neighborhood. From the article: By late afternoon, to my surprise, a steady stream of neighbors started to show up. ...
1 comment
Read more

Why I Support a No-Recline Policy on Airplanes

By -
Image
  We are not wholly-individualized beings living in our own orbit; our actions can have negative externalities for those around us.  In a new survey conducted by The Harris Poll , a shocking 41% of Americans said that they supported a ban on reclining seats on airplanes.  I am, proudly, one of the 41%.  Seat-reclination does not happen in a vacuum. It was, in fact, Kamala Harris who in 2023 remarked that "None of us just live in a silo. Everything is in context."  (Read my post about "coconut-conservatism" here .) So, being that we live in a context and are not, as Amitai Etzioni would say , "individual, free-standing agents," why do we care so little for our fellow travelers?  I, being a 6 ft 3 in male, have a special disdain for airplane seat reclination. It is already a tight squeeze in there; to have the person in front of you recline their seat can make sitting comfortably nearly impossible.  I recall one particularly awful flight from Arizona t...
Post a Comment
Read more

How Do You Dress?

By -
Image
  You'll find varying degrees of dress - or dressiness, if you like - on the political Right.  Claremont fellow, Michael Anton, I am told, is a fastidious dresser. This is evidenced, not just by anecdotes I've heard from colleagues, but by pictures of the man himself. He looks more a member of the Dave Brubeck Quartet, than a conservative academic.  Similarly, Roger Stone, a beyond-eccentric fellow, with his rather unsettling back tattoo of Richard Nixon, has always been something of a men's fashion influencer. His - what looks to be defunct - fashion blog, Stone on Style , used to feature an annual "Best and Worst Dressed" list, wherein Stone, with what appears to be a well-trained eye for classy dress, celebrates and lambastes the looks of contemporary stars and television personalities.  Some on the Right, however, prefer a more relaxed, or rather, shabby look. I was intrigued by one of Jude Russo's blog posts for The Lamp titled New Pants. In it, Russo ...
2 comments
Read more

Do You Believe in Life After the Election?

By -
Image
  We can't let this election - or any subsequent elections, for that matter - tear us apart.  Our great nation has endured for nearly 250 years, and we will endure past this election, whether Trump or Kamala wins.  Don't fall for the hyperbole that "democracy is on the ballot," That is utter nonsense.  Everyone take a deep breath.  I am, however, very much concerned by the unwillingness of people with disparate ideological perspectives to converse civilly with each other. Political division can, sadly, be our country's death knell. But only if we let it... We must make a concerted effort to see the humanity in everyone, from the MAGA hat-wearing Trumper, to the pro-Kamala, liberal Democrat. Even the Zionist waving the flag of Israel must, at some point, see the good in the student protestor donning her watermelon pin and keffiyeh.  All of this may seem radical, utopian, and naive, but I don't care. If we cannot treat each other with love and grace, we will ...
2 comments
Read more

Fundamental Values

By -
Image
Don't let politics ruin good things.  With the Presidential election just two weeks away, this is especially salient advice.  Over the years, I've lost many friends due to ideological differences. Many of my right-of-center friends have also encountered this.  I refuse, however, to give into toxic polarization; if we let trivial political differences fracture good relationships, we will, ultimately, come apart as a country.  Remember: we have, in some capacity, always been politically pluralistic. The Jeffersonians and the Hamiltonians; Whigs and Democrats; Democrats and Republicans; libertarian-oriented Republicans and their paleo-conservative counterparts. I can go on and on...  One's own politics - which, if you are anything like me, are constantly evolving - should be of little import. There is only one thing that we should take into consideration when it comes to relationships: fundamental values.  Earlier today, I read a beautiful piece by David Sper...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Need for High-Quality Public Spaces

By -
Image
  The importance of robust public spaces cannot be overstated.  I've always believed that the quest for social connection was, first and foremost, something that had to come about through a sort of internal spiritual awakening. That is, a collective understanding that we can not go it alone as purely self-maximizing individuals; we need each other. While I still believe that to be true, I do think that, in the past, I've downplayed the vital role of external environment and the affects it can have on us as social creatures.  People-friendly spaces, as opposed to sterile spaces devoid of engaging amenities, can facilitate social connection and much-needed weak-tie relationships .  It's pretty intuitive, actually: if people are not physically around each other, their prospects for social connection are not very good.  Public places in and of themselves, however, are not enough to combat our current plague of social atomization.  As Shawn McCaney writes for Go...
1 comment
Read more

The Appeal of Neo-Luddism

By -
Image
  I, like you, have a smartphone. Sometimes, though, I wish I didn't.  Up until my sophomore year of college, I used a Verizon Octane, a neat little flip-phone with a horizontal keyboard.  Verizon Octane Being a student in 2016, however, required me to use certain apps which I was unable to access on my clunky dumb-phone. So, out of necessity, I caved and purchased an iPhone SE. I was soon addicted. I downloaded every app from Instagram and Facebook, to games like Plants v. Zombies and The Sims. I have, like so many other people my age, become tethered to my phone.  But not everyone has capitulated. In an article for The Lamp , a thoughtful Catholic publication, Peter Tonguette describes himself as a "proud, almost-exclusive user of landline phone-service." It is mystifying to think that, in 2024, people can function without a smartphone. Peter doesn't disdain our contemporary smartphone culture; he just finds no need to abandon what is tried and true: the ole landl...
Post a Comment
Read more

Loneliness v. Solitude

By -
Image
  It is important that we do not conflate loneliness and solitude; while the former connotes a sense of yearning and discontent, the latter describes a much-needed time of introspection and recombobulation.  A good communitarian will strike a healthy balance between extroversion and self-reflection. Without ample time to engage in solitude, we deprive ourselves of essential cognitive development. Before we express our outward-facing selves to others in the realm of civil society, we must first work to better understand and enhance our inner-beings. While the practice of solitude may seem simplistic, it can actually be quite arduous, requiring the self to, at times, drift into boredom and embrace that boredom as a naturally-occurring and integral component of being happily alone.  Sherry Turkle - in her important book, Reclaiming Conversation - writes that, "children can't develop the capacity for solitude if they don't have the experience of being 'bored' and then...
3 comments
Read more

Caring for Our Fellow Citizens, Just Like Hamilton Did

By -
Image
  How can we truly become, as the late Amitai Etzioni put it, a "community of communities?" Or, put differently, how can we reclaim a kind of patriotism that engenders feelings of togetherness and societal cohesion?  In an essay  for the September/October issue of Foreign Affairs , Walter Russell Mead extols the virtues of a Hamiltonian-inspired patriotism. "Then, as now," Mead writes, "Americans must embrace a duty of care toward one another... And just as individual Americans have duties and ties to their family members that they do not have to the public at large, they have obligations to their fellow citizens that do not extend to all humankind."  Conservatism today, in contrast to the kind of small-c conservatism embraced by Hamilton, is too often conflated with a obligation-free libertarianism. While the former puts emphasis on responsibility and duty, the latter jettisons all of that in favor of maximum autonomy and un-ordered liberty.  A country of...
2 comments
Read more

Raj Chetty and Economic Mobility

By -
Image
  Raj Chetty is an unsung hero.  When it comes to the area of social capital, his exhaustive and trailblazing research is unmatched.  My first article for National Review, Conservatives for Community , written in August of 2022, was inspired by Chetty's study on social capital and economic mobility in Nature.  To quote myself: The study, which breaks down social capital into three categories — economic connectedness, social cohesion, and civic engagement — found that children have a much greater chance of being upwardly mobile if they reside in communities with high levels of “economic connectedness.” Economic connectedness (EC) refers to the integration of people from different economic backgrounds. The study concludes that levels of EC vary depending on one’s geographical residence. Impoverished inner-city areas, for example, have remarkably low levels of EC, since most residents occupy the same socioeconomic stratum. Conversely, an area with a healthy combination...
Post a Comment
Read more

Coconut Conservatism and Communitarianism

By -
Image
  Is Kamala Harris channeling her inner-Amatai Etzioni? Let's take a closer look... Harris is known for being a rather confounding orator. Often times, it does appear as if she is trying her hand at a sort of avant-garde slam poetry. Former President Donald Trump - whose name I don't believe I have written before for this blog - quipped in an interview with Tucker Carlson that Harris "speaks in rhyme." This, I think, is an apt descriptor of her unorthodox rhetorical style.  But perhaps we ought to give her some credit. Maybe she is actually saying something ? Andrew Day, a staff writer for Robert Wright's Nonzero Newsletter ,   has pioneered a new term that I think beautifully encapsulates Harris's elusive ideological disposition: Coconut Conservatism.  Day explained , rather convincingly, that Harris's now-viral remarks about falling from a coconut tree are oddly reminiscent of a Burkean, small-c conservatism, or, put another way, communitarianism.  Craz...
Post a Comment
Read more

Why America Needs The Ten Commandments to Return to the Public Sphere

By -
Image
To any casual observer of contemporary American politics, it is clear that the United States is at a serious cultural crossroads. In the figurative sense, America today is like a ship without a sail or a vessel without a destination. Historically founded upon Enlightenment-Era principles rooted in Judeo-Christian values, the country prospered socially and fiscally primarily due to the virtuous characteristics of many communities comprised of families and individuals who sacrificed and contributed for the greater good. While changes have been gradually occurring in American society over the last six or more decades, the realities of social decline within the nation are today arguably at their most glaring point in history. This deterioration is, at root, most visible at the "micro" level- in family units and individual households, communities and states. Make no mistake: these various "micro" spheres of social composition are not small in relevance or weight- in fact...
Post a Comment
Read more