Conservatives, Race, and a New Party?

Last updated on: October 18, 2016 at 3:47 pm By John Mark N. Reynolds

Do we need a new conservative party? At the time of Barry Goldwater, the Party of Lincoln doubled down on her conservative roots, but also alienated African-American voters. Some of this was accidental and some was intentional in a cynical ploy that culminated in the “Southern Strategy” of the Richard Nixon campaign. Millions of mainstream Republicans who were conservative and also supported civil rights did not notice the change, but millions of others did and left the Party of their... Read more

Not a Timber Wolf. . . It was a Fox. Sigh

Last updated on: October 18, 2016 at 8:56 am By John Mark N. Reynolds

Papaw Earl was hard to beat. He would appear broke in Monopoly and my hopes would rise and from somewhere the money would appear. I never won. Once I played more than thirteen games of checkers with him to beat him once when he grew distracted. I would like to tell you I was ashamed, but I was not. Since he never lied, when he told me a story about a visit to a grave yard, I believed him. He... Read more

Microsoft: Breaking Up Is Easy To Do

Last updated on: October 15, 2016 at 3:08 pm By John Mark N. Reynolds

Dear Microsoft, The Surface Book is a beautiful piece of hardware. The ability to function as a tablet and a laptop is marvelous and the hinge that allows me to use the extra battery in tablet mode is great. The beauty of the hardware tempted me to go back on a decision I made five years ago, but like the Damsel without Pity, your beauty hid a fatal flaw. This is my story. Five years ago when I said “good-bye”... Read more

The Bees Came . . .

Last updated on: October 15, 2016 at 9:13 am By John Mark N. Reynolds

Imagine an entire project turning on the appearance of bees. So it was when The Saint Constantine School defied history and planted a garden. Government schools show and tell, we decided to plant and grow. The theory is simple: we have too much show and too little do. We have too much tell and too little listen. What if college and kindergarten were all based on doing? Instead of borrowing money so you could pay someone for organized cheer, our goal was... Read more

Ways to Win: Five Things to Avoid and Five Things to Do to Avoid Cultural Collapse and Have a Jolly Time (5/5)

Last updated on: October 15, 2016 at 11:00 am By John Mark N. Reynolds

Final Preface: the Constantine Strategy The World War II generation inherited the good and the bad of what the Civil War generation did. They made the nation better, but they too left problems in the renewed republic they created. Now the World War II generation is passing from the scene and change is coming. Change will come to the church and to the nation, because the World War II generation shaped both profoundly. Our goal is modest: do more good... Read more

Ways to Win: Five Things to Avoid and Five Things to Do to Avoid Cultural Collapse and Have a Jolly Time (4/5)

Last updated on: October 14, 2016 at 9:45 am By John Mark N. Reynolds

It can get worse. Preface for those not reading Parts I, II, III Cultures die quickly when they die. Great Britain was Christian until in a single decade it was not. Unlike the metaphorical frogs in hot water, but very much like the real ones, a society recognizes building problems and reacts well. “High” (complex) cultures have many resources to respond and decay is never even. We are more sexually confused and rotten than in some periods of the past... Read more

Ways to Win: Five Things to Avoid and Five Things to Do to Avoid Cultural Collapse and Have a Jolly Time (3/5)

Last updated on: October 13, 2016 at 12:44 pm By John Mark N. Reynolds

Preface for Those Not Reading Part I and II Cultures must adapt to change or they die and the good news is that “high” (complex) cultures adapt well. Chinese culture has gone hundreds of years at a time without a major failure. But Chinese history also teaches us that sometimes the system collapses and one ends up with Mao. Moral errors, sins in the Biblical language, debase a nation and righteousness exalts it. Usually a culture or nation is a... Read more

Ways to Win: Five Things to Avoid and Five Thing to Do to Prevent Cultural Collapse and Have a Jolly Time (2/5)

Last updated on: October 12, 2016 at 4:33 pm By John Mark N. Reynolds

Preface for Those Not Reading Part I Cultures generally muddle through their problems. If righteousness exalts a nation, injustice will debase the culture. Fortunately, advanced cultures generally balance out: decay in one area, improvement in another. Sometimes a culture blows it and ends up in a reboot situation. This is particularly true when in a period of rapid change combined with the passing of the founding generation. The American Civil War was one such era, the World War II... Read more

Ways to Win: Five Things to Avoid and Five to Do to Prevent Cultural Collapse and Have a Jolly Time (1/5)

Last updated on: October 11, 2016 at 10:34 am By John Mark N. Reynolds

Of Frogs and Muddling Through Don’t put frogs in pots and turn up the heat. It is cruel, doesn’t say anything about cultural destruction, and is no way to produce tasty frog legs. Growing up, people said to me that cultures die because they slowly turn up the heat (a symbol for some kind of moral rot) until it is too late. Perhaps this image works for some culture somewhere, but I am hard pressed to name one. If one... Read more

What happens if you are right?

Last updated on: October 10, 2016 at 3:23 pm By John Mark N. Reynolds

My dad once told me (as dads should) that it was harder to be a good winner than a good loser. This was hard to believe since winning was so much more pleasant that losing. I started to understand what he meant the first soccer game I played in junior high school. We were a new school playing an established power. We were bad and they were good. They did not just beat us, they crushed us and kept scoring... Read more

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