Lasch, Old Country Stores, and Intelligent Trees

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Photo by George W. Ackerman

Eric Miller on Christopher Lasch and Wendell Berry.” Elias Crim and Pete Davis talk with Eric Miller about two of FPR’s guiding lights, and they also share their reflections on last month’s FPR conference.

The Case Against Sentimentality.” In America Magazine, Michial Farmer eviscerates sentimentality, showing why it is so alluring yet dangerous, and advocates aesthetics, ethics, and politics that flow from the concrete presence of other people and creatures.

Pro-life but not Republicans: Meet the American Solidarity Party.” Micah Meadowcroft profiles Brian Carroll, the presidential candidate for the most interesting third party in American politics. Stay tuned for more about Carroll from FPR.

Fortunate Naivety.” Matthew Loftus reviews a new biography and commends Vanier’s example: “What I found powerful about a new biography of Jean Vanier by Anne-Sophie Constant was how deftly Vanier walked this line between the radical and the ordinary in his life and how downright accessible his example of a life of service comes across.”

Gracy Olmstead: It Still Takes a Village.” Chuck Marohn interviews Gracy Olmstead for the Strong Towns podcast about multigenerational community, rural America, and more.

Why Millennials are Skipping Church and Not Going Back.” Christine Emba parses recent data on church-going and warns that millennials will suffer in a multitude of ways if they don’t attend church: “Actively participating in a congregation means embedding oneself in a community. This involves you in the lives of others and the other way around — their joys and sadnesses, connections and expectations. By leaving religion, we’re shrugging off the ties that bind, not just loosening them temporarily.” Ross Douthat offers a nuanced look at the Pew data Emba cites.

My Old Kentucky Store.” Poet Maurice Manning writes an ode to “the oldest country store in America continuously owned and operated by the same family.”

Big Food is Betting on Regenerative Agriculture to Thwart Climate Change.” Gosia Wozniacka examines the steps that big corporations are taking to encourage their suppliers to adopt more sustainable farming practices: “the big question is whether the push for regenerative practices by some of the world’s biggest food companies will be effective at reversing climate change—or if it’ll just help them market and sell more products.”

Climate Stalinism.” Joel Kotkin warns that draconian climate policies and democracy are irreconcilable. Perhaps it’s not the populists who are anti-democratic, but the intellectual elites.

When C.S. Lewis Predicted Our Doom.” Matt Purple suggests C.S. Lewis is the dystopian prophet whom we should heed: “Lewis . . . conceived of a bleak future, one in which man seeks to overcome his nature and in so doing ends up enslaving himself.”

Caring About Climate Change Is the Christian Thing to Do.” Katharine Hayhoe reminds us that American Evangelicals need not be—in fact, should not be—opposed to caring about climate change.

Never Underestimate the Intelligence of Trees.” Brandon Keim interviews Suzanne Simard about her research on plant communication networks. This is fascinating stuff.

1 COMMENT

  1. That City Journal article is exceptionally stupid even for a tendentious, partisan, and moronic publication. He wants to both acknowledge that global warming is a serious problem but also say we shouldn’t do anything about it because some very dumb people might find action inconvenient.

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