Thanks to all who joined us for a wonderful gathering in Grand Rapids last weekend. On Friday evening, Jeff Polet and Ross Douthat conversed about populism, Lasch, and American presidential politics. The discussion may have been a bit more national in scope than is typical for an FPR conference, but it took place in the shadow of Gerald Ford, the only president who never won a national election (he didn’t even win a state-wide election). The conference continued on Saturday at Calvin University, and it turned out to be a day of lively presentations and conversations about the value and limits of civility. Several speakers described civility as necessary for healthy political and communal life but not sufficient, pointing to higher virtues such as conviviality or charity as the goal toward which we should aim and considering how we might foster these virtues. They are not easily cultivated on a mass scale; we learn to love in homes and neighborhoods and local civic institutions where, as Tim Carney articulated, we engage in a common undertaking.
As usual, Bill Kauffman rounded off the day’s presentations by recalling one of Batavia’s strange yet beloved members. While this penny-pinching man was known and loved by his neighbors, the shuttering of Bill’s church and the waning of other local institutions threatens the continuance of such local membership. Bill acknowledged that he increasingly belongs to people and things that are dead yet urged us to follow Robert Frost’s advice and “build soil.” As Tityrus notes in this poem, we live in uncivil times: “what are wars but politics / Transformed from chronic to acute and bloody?” But there is no general, abstract love to pose in opposition to general, abstract chronic conflict. So Tityrus invites his interlocutor to “conspire— / In self-restraint,” to turn away from grand visions and work instead to “build the soil” of his particular place.
You see the beauty of my proposal is It needn't wait on general revolution. I bid you to a one-man revolution--- The only revolution that is coming.
Regardless of the incivility that threatens our national politics, may we all build the soil that sustains love in our neighborhoods.
On Sunday, several attendees made a pilgrimage out to Mecosta to visit the Kirk Center. Plans are already afoot for next year’s conference!
