Obama and the Psychologization of Belief
by Austin StoneAs a card-carrying member of the "bitter block", I have a number of bones to pick with an intellectual trend on the left that I like to call the "psychologization of belief." I’ll define it as a rhetorical move which dismisses opposing claims by relegating to the status of . . . . Continue Reading »
M. Robinson’s Gilead and ‘the Nature of the Horizon’
by Austin StoneI 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 »
Why, for a Postmodern Conservative, Communism and Libertarianism Are Virtually Identical
by Austin StoneUnder 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 »
Tocqueville Explains Why We Postmodern Conservatives Are Closer to Pascal Than Marx
by Austin StoneAccording 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 »
A Postmodern Appreciation of the Sixties
by Austin StoneWe cannot forget that, because of the 1960s, America is more just and in some ways less cruel than it once was. That decade’s objection to "soulless wealth" and technocracy in the name of personal significance and personal love also retain some force. They do so . . . . Continue Reading »
Ricoeur as POMOCON?
by Austin StoneMr. Poulos’ acute observations prompted these thoughts on the subject of Mr. Ricoeur: Paul Ricoeur, in Oneself as Another , strives to reconcile the ancient quest for a substantive good with the modern respect for formal individual rights – which is not unlike . . . . Continue Reading »
Why Postmodern Conservatism Ain’t Libertarian and Both (at Least Psychologically) Christian and Political
by Austin StoneHere’s something from my "Christian American Political Realism (in CHRISTIANITY AND POWER POLITICS TODAY, ed.. E. Patterson (2008): "As Harvey Mansfield writes, our ‘manly’ desire to display our nobility as indispensably important, transcendent beings is . . . . Continue Reading »
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