Tag: political discourse

Naming and Seeing our Neighbors

In these movements, we are but a speck of dust in the great desert. But here, where our feet are, we hold a power forgotten.

After the Second Cheer: A Review of Two Cheers for Politics

Purdy has a palpable affection for what he calls “the preservative work of being together.” Beginning again from that affection might allow Purdy and his readers to find a fuller “response to political nihilism,” to listen for the voice that Two Cheers is wanting.

Phantom Menace: America’s Enduring Fixation with Fascism

The reader may be none the wiser regarding the definition of fascism, but this book affords a wisdom and moderation of sorts all the same, one that stems from the awareness that in popular rhetoric, fascism is a word full of sound and fury, signifying not much.

Hot Mediums, Hot Tempers

Life is inherently unpredictable and requires engagement without certainty of outcome. It also often requires patience. No matter how many labor-saving and time-bending devices we create, we will never exist in a completely predictable and easy environment. “Convenience” ceases to be convenient when it is sapping us of the courage we need to encounter everyday life.

Learning to Love a Nation: A Review of Richard Mouw’s How...

Siloam Springs, AR. Earlier this month Americans celebrated yet another Fourth of July, marking 246 years of independence. As we approach the country’s semiquincentennial,...

Remembering Our Names After the Fall

Rural Rebellion by Ross Benes, examines the changing politics of rural Nebraska from the perspective of a native son living in Brooklyn. Nebraska is a cycle of poems by Kwame Dawes, a Ghanaian-born poet teaching at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Both address the identity crisis of our time and call us to remember the real names of things.

What is Truth?

A year ago, as President Trump launched yet another salvo of tweets whose express purpose was to correct allegedly "false news" with a new...

The New Yorker’s Latest Contribution to Trumpian Populism

All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others. --George Orwell, Animal Farm This past Thursday, I opened my mailbox and saw...

The Music of The Spheres and The Terminally Tone-Deaf

I was watching a film called Chartres Cathedral and the Geometry of the Sacred the other day. For some reason, the Gothic gargoyles put...

A Burke for Our Times

In a wonderful article published here at FPR a few weeks ago, Jason Peters argued that a proper education ought to provoke a kind...