culture 56
The End We Imagine
I recently had a chance to watch the film The Giver. Sometimes we get films early, sometimes late, sometimes at the same time as they are released in the United…
Something’s Fishy–But Not Very–At Dinnertime
Ingham County, MI As darkness falls upon what a friend of mine charitably calls “Jack-Ass Acres,” and as the promise of rain comes with the moving clouds at the end…
Soylent: It’s What’s for Dinner (and Lunch and Breakfast)
Hidden Springs Lane. What if you never had to worry about food again? Possible answers: 1) Wow! Think of all the time I can save, all the hassle of shopping,…
An Ancient Legacy of Form: Guardini on Mastery and Nearness
Our dwelling place is the state not of nature but of culture.
Liberal Culture?
The word “culture” readily falls from our lips, but what appears on first glance to be a clear-cut notion becomes much more complex as soon as we attempt to define…
Culture War No More
In recent decades we have heard much of the so-called “culture wars.” For many, the idiom of war has come to dominate their thinking in all things cultural and this,…
Richard Weaver on War and Stephen Smith on Liberalism in ANAMNESIS.
FPR readers will be interested in two new essays in ANAMNESIS. The first, by Professor Jay Langdale, is a fascinating examination of Richard Weaver's analysis of pathologies related to modern…
On Being a Worthy Heir of the Agrarian Contrarians
But, as Shakespeare wrote, we sometimes “by indirections find directions out.”
“Derrida’s Hope and Despair for Globalization”
Many FPR readers will enjoy "Derrida’s Hope and Despair for Globalization" in ANAMNESIS.
It’s a Boy! It’s a Girl! It’s a Technology-Enabled “Sex Party”!
How do we explain a culture that tells children that sex doesn’t matter much, that “girls can do anything boys can do,” and at the same moment is treating the…
Independence Day Eve
Whenever I hear someone claim that “our enemies hate us for our freedom,” I think first of the USS Vincennes and July 3rd, 1988. Twenty-two years ago today, Vincennes was…
“Open” Primaries and the Illusion of Choice
Claremont, CA. On Tuesday, the residents of this fair state voted to “open” the California primaries. From now on, every voter in the state will receive the same ballot in…
An Apologia for Tiger Woods
The rise and fall of Tiger Woods leads to a brief meditation both on beauty and virtue.
Facebook and Friendship
Whatever else you make of Facebook friendship, it underscores the great and significant discrepancy between: 1) the scale of contemporary life, and 2) the scale of friendship.
The Heart of Light and the Heart of Darkness
He is resigned to the inertia of the old Spanish cult, and willing to just let it fade away. The voluptuousness of European culture had no way to gain traction…
What Colour Is the Village Green?
Often the politics of the local turns on the “who” as much as the “where.” Switzerland showed as much very recently. The country enjoys some goodwill among the sort of…
The Stories We Tell…
Philadelphia, PA. If you have read just one of Wendell Berry’s novels or short stories, then you have glimpsed this Kentucky farmer’s love for family, place, and story. In a contemplative…
The American Aesop
Hillsdale, MI. It is said that Aesop, despite making all his characters animals and thus avoiding being Nathan to his contemporary Davids, was finally thrown over a cliff by the…
Big Secrets
Claremont, CA. Yesterday I was walking past the post office in my latte-liberal, bohemian-bourgeois town, when I saw a picture of President Obama made up to look like Hitler.…
Tocqueville on the Shores of Titicaca
Amid Alexis de Tocqueville’s writings on revolution in France, there is a passage that rings true for those of us who have spent time in the countryside. He observed that…
In Praise of States (and Why There Should be More of Them)
Wichita, KS Over the July 4th weekend, we made a quick trip south to Dallas, and were blessed with a brief look at that particular large chunk of the American…
