Austin Stone

On the main page of CULTURE 11,  Michael Brendan Dougherty has written an incisive if obvious criticism of the excellent TV show MAD MEN:  It’s not a nostalgic or even balanced look at the greatness and misery of the white and prosperous urban American early . . . . Continue Reading »

I hereby declare Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead mandatory reading for all pomocons or those who are considering converting (although Robinson herself does not appear at this time to have faced the inconvenient fact that she is one of us).  This book is first of all the fictional Reverend . . . . Continue Reading »

Predictably, much of the post-debate analysis is obsessively preoccupied with finding the all-important gaffe, that rhetorical slip that , however innocuous, disqualifies one decisively for public office. Many have commented on the element of schadenfreude in the gaffe watch, the excited . . . . Continue Reading »

When James t ells you to read Rorty , he’s not telling you to follow Matt Yglesias in reading the wrong part of Rorty . I’ve written before about Rorty’s nutty philosophy of language . While I won’t go as far as Richard Weaver in saying that nominalism is the root cause of . . . . Continue Reading »

Under communism, Marx explained, people live liberated or completely unconstrained or completely unalienated lives.  "Do you own thing" becomes the only remaining rule.  So communism—which is communal only in the sense that the remaining necessary work is done by . . . . Continue Reading »

On the main page today there is a symposium on what might benefit/damage Sarah Palin most in tonight’s debate. But what if she fails to take our advice? Well, thanks to the wonders of modern technology, there are ways of making her talk (the way we’d prefer) in the virtual world, . . . . Continue Reading »

What is a Postmodern Conservative view of economics? While  a true postmodern conservatism is cognizant of the power of markets and the great advantages of the prosperity it generates (and the reliable incompetence of government in providing regulatory supervision), it is also aware of . . . . Continue Reading »

One name that should show up on any reading list for postmodern conservatism is James C. Scott, the Yale anthropologist who argues that weak and powerless classes don’t get brainwashed by powerful elites but rather learn how to manifest rebellion against the elites in subtle ways. Being . . . . Continue Reading »

. . . and the ghost of Barry Goldwater sheds a tear. . . . . Continue Reading »

According to Pascal, the greatness of man is in his misery, and the restless, workholic Americans are clearly miserable in the absence of God.  Such restlessness, Tocqueville observes, is not new to the world.  What’s unprecedented is that a whole people is restless.  America . . . . Continue Reading »