2 days agoEmpathy at a distanceI’ll be in more trouble with this than I got into for publishing my thoughts on gender ideology. I don’t particularly like the word empathy. It has a self-help psychobabble vibe to it, and it covers too much ground. Pity works in one situation, compassion in another, care in another…Empathy12 min read
Jun 23A public call to go quietIn Harriet Arnow’s The Dollmaker, her rural protagonist, Gertie Nevels, uses a folding knife to perform an emergency tracheotomy to save her son’s life. Later in the novel, she and her husband have been forced by war and economic circumstance into slums and urban factory work, and her husband uses…Power7 min read
Jun 18Truth, trust, and rulesa trail run through MacIntyre and conservatism in our time of manifold crisis “I was born for this, and for this I have come into the cosmos: that I might testify to the truth; everyone who belongs to the truth hearkens to my voice.” Pilate says to him, “What is…Alasdair Macintyre53 min read
May 17Tucker is a racist asshole, but . . .The Buffalo massacre was a horror for the victims and their families. For the nation, it’s become a media event. One that’s bound to go a bit sideways as many factions wrestle for control over the narrative. …Tucker Carlson5 min read
May 16BuffaloPostman talked about the speed of “the news cycle” as “broken time and broken attention.” The mass shooting perpetrated by 18-year-old Payton S. Gendron two days ago at the Tops Supermarket in Buffalo, NY, will get co-billing with escalation rhetoric about Ukraine for a week or so, until its milked…Buffalo Shooting5 min read
May 9What’s in a name? (bit of a rant)I can find in my own memory of acquaintances fifty people who, if confronted with this diagram, would tell you what’s wrong with it. Among those fifty, I’d expect to find at least a dozen different and thoroughly incommensurate interpretations of why the diagram is wrong. In each of those…Political Labels13 min read
May 6RoeBefore I wade into this stream of consciousness with all its crocodiles, I’ll just summarize my own thoughts on “the abortion issue.” First of all, I think calling it an “issue” and dividing up the teams as “pro-choice” and “pro-life” is, and always has been, a case of dueling propagandas…Roe V Wade5 min read
May 5Speed killsHistory progresses at the speed of its weapons systems. -Paul Virilio In Mammon’s Ecology, I wrote about general-purpose money as a accelerant. Nothing deep here — money accelerates the rates of exchange. I need a cow, you need a carpet, she needs a three-wheeled bike with a basket. If we…Paul Virilio23 min read
Apr 30A good word for Jacques — loose reflections on mythThis blog (or whatever you call it) is not intended as a loaf to consume, but as grains of yeast you can put into the flour of your own thinking. In that spirit, then, I’d like to encourage readers who aren’t familiar with Jacques Ellul to check him out, and…Jacques Ellul21 min read
Apr 26Postliberal(ism) and straw-menA response to Bias Magazine’s recent articles on postliberalism I was for a very brief period asked to contribute to Bias Magazine when its parent committee, the Institute for Christian Socialism, was first forming. In a short time, I quietly ended my flirtation for a number of reasons that will…Post Liberalism29 min read
