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Starting to Understand the Reactionary Mind
My Brooklyn College colleague Corey Robin‘s new book, The Reactionary Mind, has, thanks to its provocative thesis (and its brilliant prose, a rare quality in an academic book), sparked a great deal of...
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Provincialism’s Easy Allure Or, Writing Outward From The American Academy
In The Reactionary Mind, Corey Robin writes, As sophisticated as the recent literature about conservatism is, however it suffers from three weaknesses. The first is a lack of comparative perspective....
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Ann Althouse on Rush Limbaugh: ‘Smart People’ Offer Weak Tea
Some nineteen years ago, I was working at Bell Laboratories in New Jersey, surrounded by a host of seemingly very intelligent men and women. Name the best technical schools in the country and the...
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Arendt and Sontag on Conservatism, Romanticism, and ‘Interesting’ Politics
Last week at Brooklyn College, the Wolfe Institute‘s Spring 2012 Faculty Study Group met to discuss Corey Robin‘s The Reactionary Mind, which aims to identify substantive theses central to that...
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Miguel De Unamuno: Conservative War-Lover?
My philosophical education, just like everyone else’s, is far from complete, and of course, never shall be. One omission from my readings has been the work of Miguel De Unamuno, whose The Tragic Sense...
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Groundhog Day: The US Government Shutdown Version
One of the most bizarrely naïve expressions of hope in the aftermath of the 2013 US Government Shutdown Fiasco has been a variant of ‘perhaps the Republican Party’s extremist faction will learn from...
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No Atheists In Foxholes? Plenty of Atheists In Cancer Wards
In writing about Brittany Maynard, the twenty-nine year old cancer patient who has scheduled herself for a physician-assisted suicide on November 1, Ross Douthat asks: Why, in a society where...
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Step This Way For The Deunionized American Workplace
American unions look headed for another legal beating in the US Supreme Court. Pretty soon, we’ll be able to drop all pretense and just advocate beatings until the morale–of American workers–improves....
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Antonin Scalia And His Incoherent, Hierarchy-Loving, Theory Of Constitutional...
I taught Antonin Scalia‘s writings–as found in his court opinions–on three occasions in my philosophy of law class. His theory of constitutional interpretation–originalism–was incoherent. His...
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GK Chesterton On Conservatism’s Necessary Changes
In Orthodoxy (Image Books, 1959) G. K. Chesterton writes: Conservatism is based upon the idea that if you leave things alone you leave them as they are. But you do not. If you leave a thing alone you...
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Paul Ryan Wants A Fig Leaf From Donald Trump
Over at The Nation John Nichols makes note of Paul Ryan’s undignified ‘dance’ with Donald Trump: Ryan says he is “not ready” to formally endorse Trump’s unpopular presidential candidacy. Trump says he...
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‘Conservatives, Immigrants, and the Romantic Imagination’ Up At Three Quarks...
My essay ‘Conservatives, Immigrants, and the Romantic Imagination‘ is up at Three Quarks Daily. The following is an abstract of sorts: American immigrants, especially the first and second generations,...
View ArticleMitchell Langbert, An Advocate For Sexual Assault, Desperately Needs Attention
Mitchell Langbert is a professor of Business at Brooklyn College. Here is what he has to say about the Kavanaugh hearings: If someone did not commit sexual assault in high school, then he is not a...
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