Ideas

The Freedom Paradox

In contemporary Libertarian America, freedom is a question mainly of multiplying choices, the more the better. Freedom is a question of being unshackled from any restriction. Liberation is understood as the unrestricted pursuit of any compulsion, so long as it does not harm others. From the Christian point of view, nothing could be cruder or
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The Historical Norm

I think that one of the key differences that distinguish Americans on the right from moderates and liberals lies in that the mentality of the right is closer to the way most people throughout history have thought. They think tribally, and they believe that it's either kill or be killed, that either you're with us
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Worst-Case; Best Case

I've started several posts in the last couple of weeks, but I've not finished them. They didn't really seem to add much, or they seem to be my repeating things I've written about so often. In any event, I'm swearing off getting frustrated with Obama or the Democrats. They are what they are, and regardless
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At the Movies with Spencer Tracy

I love TCM. In the past week they’ve had some Spencer Tracy movies, and the two I watched were Judgment at Nurmeberg and Pat & Mike. There’s something about Tracy, a kind of magnetism that he has that has hardly anything to do with his lumpy looks. He’s a mensch. He’s the Walter Cronkite of
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Commonplace Thinking

In classical rhetoric the terms 'commonplace' and 'ethos' are essential factors that if well understood and handled shape the construction and delivery of any message that is persuasive. It's never enough to be just right, you have to communicate what is right in your thinking in terms that "feel" right to the audience. Rhetoric is
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More Post-Secularist Thoughts

Modernity is, among other things, the story of the collapse of meaning that is related to the gradual shriveling up of a taken-for-granted sense of the “sacred” as a given in human experience. The word 'sacred' is still in our vocabulary, but we moderns have hardly any sense of the awe and often terror that
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The Post-Secularist Age

I've believed for some time that the religious right is fighting an enemy in secularism that is now a paper tiger. The culture war between the religious right and the secular left has more to do with the past than the future–it was a modern battle, and we are no longer moderns. It seems to
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Dying Traditions IIIb: A Dissent & Response

Mike McG, a long-time ATF reader, from time to time sends me thoughtful dissents. I deeply appreciate that he takes the time and makes the effort to do it. I got this one last night as a comment in response Dying Traditions IIIb with a message that the site wouldn't let him post it there.
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Dying Traditions IIIb

The past is an abusive spouse that cultural conservatives have to divorce and then befriend for the sake of the children. Let me explain. A couple of weeks ago I posted Dying Traditions II which argued that Southerners who are trying to maintain their Southern Heritage are fundamentally mistaken, and then in a short post
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The “Lost” Sensibility

Heather Havrileski at Salon doesn't have it: Damn you, "Lost"! We went and jumped on your bandwagon way back in the first season, got sucked into your endless jungley maze and suspenseful chords, and waited breathlessly for the next shoe to drop, over and over again. Remember when that was still fun? Remember? Henry Gale's
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