Russell Arben Fox

Russell Arben Fox
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https://mmfraf.webs.com/
Russell Arben Fox grew up milking cows and bailing 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

The Passing of the Red Tory Moment (For Now)

The less-than-majority showing by the Conservatives make it likely that any power they do achieve will come through an alliance with the least Red Tory party of them all.

Big Societies, Christian Communities, and Tories (Red or Otherwise)

Whatever the results of the British election, the Red Tory ideal remains promising...and yet, absent a robust civic religion, also probably wanting.

Germany: Socialist and Conservative

Social democratic states can demonstrate frugality and responsibility, too.

Q: What Caused the Culture Wars? A: Globalization and the Pill

If there truly is a difference between how red states and blue states see the family, maybe it starts with how the economy and technology have changed how kids grow up.

Thoughts on Teaching Wendell Berry

Teaching Wendell Berry to students today isn't a thankless task, but the victories are small and far between (which, one might say, is all the best victories always are).

Rod’s Divided Over Progress (And So Are We All)

Rod Dreher likes the iPad. What does that say about progress?

The Tragic Logic of Central Authority

Ross Douthat reflects on the way in which globalization, the mass media, and participatory democracy make local control so difficult to maintain.

Christian Democratic Communities and Teleological States: A Response to God’s Economy

If your religion--or at least your concept of the moral norms of the civil order--lacks a notion of grace, it therefore also lacks a notion of gifts; all it can say is that some people are lucky, not that some people are blessed.

Place, Limits, Liberty (In That Order)

Harvey Mansfield and William Galston disagree about liberty; from the perspective that insists place empowers liberty, Galston has it right.

Who Was at Rod Dreher’s Super Bowl Party?

I get somewhat frustrated, at times, with the language of compromise, because it seems to me that if you are, in fact, acknowledging a degree of compromise with modern life, well then, that must mean you're....willing to work with modern life.

Thinking About the States, Again

What if we had more states?

Still.

Wichita, KS I write a Christmas post every year. I'm actually quite fond of this year's entry, with its reflections on ghosts and spirits and...