Russell Arben Fox

Russell Arben Fox
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https://inmedias.blogspot.com/
Russell Arben Fox is a Front Porch Republic Contributing Editor. He grew up milking cows and baling hay in Spokane Valley, WA, but now lives in Wichita, KS, where he runs the History & Politics and the Honors programs at Friends University, a small Christian liberal arts college. He aspires to write a book about the theory and practice of democracy, community, and environmental sustainability in small to mid-sized cities, like the one he has made his and his family's home; his scribblings pertaining to that and related subjects are collected at the Substack "Wichita and the Mittelpolitan." He also blogs--irregularly and usually at too-great a length--more broadly about politics, philosophy, religion, socialism, bicycling, books, farming, pop music, and whatever else strikes his fancy, at "In Medias Res."

Recent Essays

Ruthie Leming’s (and Rod Dreher’s) Little Way

Rod Dreher's 2006 manifesto, Crunchy Cons, was an inspiration (and provocation) to many, on both the left and the right. It wasn't that the...

Something About Which Leftists, Localists, and Libertarians (But Probably Not Philosophical Liberals) Ought to Agree

Senator Rand Paul's filibuster of the nomination of John Brennan to be head of the CIA--something that he did in order to "draw attention...

Glenn Beck Gives Utopia a Bad Name

So Glenn Beck has proposed his grandest scheme yet: the construction of separate planned community, literally built around (in terms of architecture and overall...

Behind the Beautiful Forevers, and the Ground on Which Communities Are Built

The final sentence in Behind the Beautiful Forevers--Katherine Boo's wonderfully written, devastatingly detailed narrative of several fascinating, despairing stories that took place over the...

Conservative Wisdom from an Original Radical

Last Friday, Tom Hayden, co-founder of the Students for a Democratic Society, principal author of 1962's Port Huron Statement (or, if you Big Lebowski...

What Was High School For Anyway?

Twenty-five years ago today (I think; my memory is far from perfect) I graduated from Central Valley High School in Spokane Valley (then "Veradale"),...

Creative Destruction and its Benefits, China-Style

A few weeks ago I was visited by a fellow Wichita resident who was thinking about getting into politics. We talked for a while...

Getting the Garden Going, One Baby-Step at a Time

This academic year Friends University found itself wondering what to do with a plot of land, directly beside and behind some student dormitories. Through...

Wes Jackson, Localism, and the Carbon-Based Community

A couple of days ago, I had the lucky opportunity to listen up close to Wes Jackson, founder of The Land Institute here in...

Saul Alinsky, Localist

Well no, not exactly. But as anyone who has ACTUALLY READ ALINSKY KNOWS--in contrast to those who simply parrot his name as part of...

Huzzah for the Montana Supreme Court!

This is the kind of states' rights I like: Montana’s Supreme Court has issued a stunning rebuke to the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision...

Occupy Food! (And Other Simple Things)

As Christmas and the end of 2011 approaches, I find myself thinking gratefully about what Leroy Hershberger has enabled my students and me to...