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

Seeing Our (Non-Cosmopolitan) Selves

Some years ago, some of the folks behind F5, an alternative weekly newspaper here in Wichita, started a different (and, as it turned out,...

What Would the Father of Nationalism Say About Scottish Independence?

On Thursday, voters in Scotland will go to the polls and either choose "Yes," meaning that they want Scotland to become an independent state,...

Libertarianism, Paternalism, and Pot

From 2003 to 2005, we lived in Craighead County, Arkansas, while I taught at Arkansas State University. Craighead was a dry county, having...

Happy Birthday, Mr. Berry

Today, Wendell Berry turns 80. There is much which could and perhaps should be said in honor of him on the occasion of...

Trust, Community Ties, and Letting Your Children Play

The story has exploded all over the internet : Debra Harrell, a Georgia woman, dropped her 9-year-old child off at a parkā€“not an isolated...

How Marx Explains the Pomo-Con/Front-Porch Divide, In Four Easy Steps

Via Rod Dreher, I see that the occasionally interesting blog Postmodern Conservative has departed its longtime home at the (often, if not always) theoconservative...

Public Schools, Local Schools, Family Schools

Yesterday was the final day of the school year at Peterson Elementary School, the public school which three of our four daughters have attended....

Half Edward Abbey, Half George Grant, All Natural

Farley Mowat has died. Long before I knew anything about alternatives to the late-20th-century American way of life, long before I considered myself an...

(Civic) Myths over (Religious) Markets: Defending the National Day of Prayer

I don't often disagree with my old friend Michael Austin, partly because he's much smarter and much better read than I, and partly...

The Meritocracy Reaches Kindergarten

My title isn't saying anything new, unfortunately; highly competitive private kindergartens and pre-k programs have long since dotted the wealthier (and more paranoid) corners...

In the Heart of the Empire, a Tiny Garden Grew

This wonderful essay--a sad, reflective, but also hopeful one--tells the story of Michelle Obama's long forgotten (by most people, anyway) backyard garden initiative, and...

Jesse Winchester, Southern Regionalist, RIP

Jesse Winchester, a tuneful poet from a small corner of southern America who had to flee America--at a time when it was going through...