“Wendell Berry’s Works are a Multi-Plattered Feast.” Nick Offerman praises Wendell Berry’s writing:
Here in these stories, you will find a great entertainment. Laced throughout, however, will also be a set of instructions: thoughts on how to treat one another no matter where you live, and how to treat the great gifts of creation amongst which we live and by which we are able to sustain ourselves. If, perhaps, human nature will always turn our heads away from these responsibilities and towards the glitter of a billboard or smartphone, then let these necessary works of fiction serve as our reminders that before we sit down in that rocking chair on the porch of an evening, we best be sure that the chores and the dishes have been satisfactorily done.
“Beyond Liberalism.” At a recent Bruderhof gathering, Patrick Deneen and Bill Kauffman talk about liberalism and its ills. They also reflect on FPR’s history.
“Walker Percy’s Funny and Frightening Prophecy.” Ralph Wood thinks Walker Percy’s Love in the Ruins is a novel for our time.
“Roger Scruton’s Britain.” Bradley Anderson reviews Scruton’s latest book.
“What Happens When a Small-Town Family Goes Corporate?” Gracy Olmstead wonders whether the Gaines’ can limit the dangers of celebrity.
“The Tale of Carlos.” Bill Kauffman remembers an old friend: “On occasion Carlos used to ask me—a Pollyanna, he thought—to give him ‘one good reason why I shouldn’t kill myself.’ I assumed he was joking. I guess I never gave him a good reason.”
“A Design Lab Is Making Rituals for Secular People.” Uh, this is a terrifying essay by Sigal Samuel. It’s both a symptom of our cultural rot and of Silicon Valley’s ridiculously high view of its authority.
“How the Enlightenment Ends.” Henry Kissinger asks some necessary questions about artificial intelligence.
“Conservatives Should be Wary of Big Business.” John Burtka IV warns that big business is as toxic to local life as big government: “we should not underestimate the importance of our immediate commercial environment to the forging of a sense of community[.] The shift from locally owned businesses to multinational corporations comes at a cost.”
