Patrick J. Deneen

Biopolitical Tyranny?

Rubens_saturn May 8, 2013

John Milbank has written a remarkable critique of gay marriage that points to the ways it will ultimately and immeasurably strengthen the modern liberal State.  The theologian who launched “Radical Orthodoxy,” and who identifies as a man of the Left…

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Ron Swanson’s Man Rules

May 7, 2013

The best thing to come out of Hollywood since….   well, maybe ever:  Ron Swanson’s Man Rules.
It’s hard to pick a favorite, but #5 – “Grind it Out” – is an instant classic:
We have a certain amount of time…

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A Refreshing Bit of Sanity

March 8, 2013

I’ve been sitting in an airport most of today, subject to the inescapable barrage of manufactured outrage that is CNN, and was offered this lifeline of sanity from a reader.  She was responding to a posting of last December in…

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The New Domesticity

December 13, 2012

This is a highly confused article on the turn, particularly among women, to forms of “new domesticity.”  Its author, Emily Matchar, appears eager to deny that there is anything good to being “conservative,” yet comes close to admiring, if admitting cognitive…

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Social Science and Human Liberty

December 11, 2012

At about the same moment I was reading David Brooks’s third “Social Science Palooza,” which is a summary of some recent, interesting findings in the study of human behavior, I received in my inbox the following letter from FPR’s good…

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Benedict XVI – Porcher

December 6, 2012

From an address calling for a renewal of agricultural work by Pope Benedict in November, 2010:
“To this end, it is essential to cultivate and spread a clear ethic that is up to the task of addressing current challenges: Everyone…

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Leaving Washington

Capitol in Rear View Mirror October 9, 2012

Notre Dame, IN. …It was on the virtual “pages” of the Front Porch Republic that I announced last February that I was leaving Georgetown University, in Washington D.C., to accept a position at the University of Notre Dame, in South

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Front Porches in Chattanooga

June 6, 2012

On Monday, June 11, I will be lecturing as part of the marvelous “Monteagle Sunday School Assembly,” a longstanding summer community based in Chattanooga, TN. Originally inspired by the Chautauqua movement, the Monteagle Assembly has been organizing an active annual…

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Katniss Everdeen, Localist

April 18, 2012

A mysterious author by the name of “J,” a writer at the suspiciously derivatively-titled website “Back Porch Republic,” has posted a thoughtful and provocative examination of “The Hunger Games” as a portrayal of local communities brutalized by the centralizing power…

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Birzer Against the Machine

March 23, 2012

Don’t miss Brad Birzer’s superbly thoughtful essay “Christian Humanists Challenge the Machine.” He provides a lucid historical and philosophical roadmap tracing the anti-humanism of the modern impulse of mastery, beginning – ironically enough – with the rise of so-called “humanism,”…

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In the National Cathedral

March 13, 2012

On Sunday I was the invited speaker at the magnificent National Cathedral in a series devoted to the exploration of political themes. The subject was “The State of Political Language.” The event was recorded, and is available here.…

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Our Libertarian Future

February 17, 2012

I was invited by the good people at “Minding the Campus” to write a response to the recently released 2011 American Freshman Survey. My brief essay is now available on their website, and might be of some interest to FPR…

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Religious Liberty?

morefarewell February 16, 2012

Alexandria, VA. … Vast and even incalculable quantities of ink have already been spilled over the issue of the HHS mandate that religious organizations purchase contraception as part of their compliance with the Obama health care plan. It would seem that

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Gas Bag

natural_gas_flame_money_ January 2, 2012

George Will has penned an end-of-year pick-me-up for conservatives, counseling them that the likely prospect of Republican Presidential electoral defeat in November (given their sad slate of potential nominees) ought not to get conservatives down in the mouth. Rather, things…

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Just Don’t Say God

December 17, 2011

In this season of the “holidays,” it was announced several days ago that Fairfax County schools would be permitted to install video surveillance cameras in High Schools. Fairfax County is frequently lauded as being one of the best public school…

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Defending Distributism

December 1, 2011

Until one of us finds the time to slap down Joe Carter’s attack on distributism (as Rod Dreher called upon us to do), I’ll direct our good readers to a searing post by Thaddeus Kozinski.
One small-owner money quote:
Robert…

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