I’m working my way through Eric Hoffer’s, The True Believer. It’s a marvelous book, full of cagy, common man wisdom on the nature of mass movements. His directness and clearness give his writing an almost scientific authority, without all the clutter-jargon one usually must kick through with actual social science these days. Here are a few samples, pretty much taken at random from the first third of the book. Where a mass movement finds the corporate pattern of family life,... Read more
J. R. R. Tolkien in his famous essay, On Fairy Stories noted that a story is a spell, it has the magic to take you out of yourself and transport you somewhere else. He even pointed out that the gospel, etymologically speaking, is God’s spell. (The folks on Broadway picked up on that, if you recall.) But a good deal of the preaching I hear leaves hearers where they are, trapped in themselves. Most preaching feels more like literary criticism... Read more
Probably the thing that bugs me most about those tender sprouts who have grown up in the hermetically sealed safe-spaces of the upper-middle class is the paradoxical blend of blithe knowingness and naiveté. Here are people who’ve spent their entire lives in controlled environments. Even those programs designed to provide exposure to the world outside the bubble suffer from being what they are–programs–with oversight, learning outcomes, itineraries, daily schedules, matching water bottles, and plenty of liability insurance. And yet, for... Read more
Yes, I am a gun owner. (Actually, I own more than one gun.) And, yes, I am a member of the National Rifle Association. I’m also a minister of the gospel. I’ve never thought of gun ownership, or membership in the NRA, as somehow conflicting with my standing as a minister. And I’m not the only one. I’ve known several ministers who’ve owned guns. But I understand this makes some people uncomfortable. And some of these people do perceive a... Read more
A household is a small, multipurpose institution. It binds men and women to each other even as it ties together the generations. It is the great integrator, promoting mutual dependence within the routines of domestic life. Households don’t stand alone though. Isolated, they die. But when they exist in clusters they multiply. When two households come together, a third emerges. Historically households have been productive. It is only with the rise of the corporate economy that households have been striped... Read more
When I talk about recovering home economics, and especially the centrality of productive property to it, I get puzzled looks. My first resort is to take people to the Bible, especially to Genesis, to show them how the command to cultivate the Garden is still in effect, and how the first household (you know, Adam and Eve) was established to do just that. If that fails, I turn to reality television. Some of the most popular “reality” shows actually illustrate... Read more
It’s a classic science fiction trope, the old brain in a vat schtick. You see it in H. P. Lovecraft’s weird fiction; the Matrix is actually a brain in a vat story with a twist–the whole body is in a vat, but only to keep the brain alive; then there’s classic Star Trek and the episode entitled, Spock’s Brain. But the whole thing actually has its origin in modern philosophy. (Modern philosophy is its own horror story, you could say.... Read more
“I don’t think I was ever that naive.” I’ve been saying that to myself more and more recently. Some of the young men I’ve spoken with are so wide-eyed and wonder-bread they’re painful to talk to. My life has been so different from the lives they’ve known. As a kid I had almost no parental supervision, and by the time I was eleven, I was pretty much on my own. My father was long gone, my mother was in and... Read more
This weekend the Wall Street Journal confirmed what we pretty much know intuitively, stronger-looking men enjoy higher social status than other people. (R & D: Daniel Akst, Flex the Muscles Of Leadership— sorry about the pay wall.) The article reported the findings of this study. It comes with a couple of interesting caveats. First, this doesn’t work for women (sorry ladies), and second, it only works for a man if his strength is believed to serve the interests of others–so,... Read more
If you follow this blog you know that I believe that productive property is the material basis of a household economy. Without it a household falls into servitude, either through wage-slavery to another institution, or to the welfare state by depending upon its largess. Most of the people I talk to understand this. But there remains the problem of manumission–how do you purchase your freedom? Just like slaves in antiquity, purchasing your freedom will cost you a great deal, and... Read more
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