Articles Archive
Speaking of Illich
I neglected to comment on the Illich post when it was timely (funny how the internet compresses time and reduces us all to servants of what Berry called the "absolute…
Brave New World Reconsidered: A Tale of Two Gnosticisms
Many who are alarmed at the prospect of the “abolition of man” have found in Huxley’s Brave New World a dark and salutary warning – an imaginative rendering of our…
Hospitality in a World Immune to Grace
Media, PA. Ladies and gentlemen, Ivan Illich is dead. Long may he live. I don’t mean Tolstoy’s famous fictional decedent, Ivan Ilyich, although he is certainly dead, too. No, in…
Communitarianism, Conservatism, Populism and Localism: An Updated Survey
Wichita, KS [Cross-posted to In Medias Res] Michael Sandel's giving of the prestigious Reith Lectures for the BBC (hat tip: the ever-watchful Harry Brighouse at Crooked Timber) has prompted me…
Workaday Morals
Henry County, Ky. Those of us foolish enough to call ourselves “conservative” are forced to admit that culturally and politically at least we live amidst less and less worth conserving. …
Face Right, Move Left
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is probably the most popular center-left leader in the world, with an approval rating hovering near 75 percent. Elected in 2007, Rudd is more popular…
Ray Bradbury of Illinois
BURNED-OVER DISTRICT, NY---"Here comes the summer!" as the Undertones rejoiced. The Muckdogs' home opener is next Friday, and two days later the sun makes the season official. In preparation, today I checked…
Necessity and Virtue
A fascinating article in today's Washington Post confirms the old adage that there's always a bull market somewhere: right now, namely, in the seed selling business. The article notes that…
The Big (Organic) Apple
Claremont, CA. The Big Apple dreams of the organic apple. Everywhere you look in The New York Times these days, somebody is talking about organic farming. A few examples -…
John Calvin and the Land of Chocolate
Readers of FPR will be readily forgiven if they have yet to reserve any time this year to celebrate the 500th anniversary of John Calvin’s birth. (If you are tempted,…
The Economics of Distributism V: The Practice of Distributism
Irving, TX. Somewhere, the Sage hath said, Philosophy is easy; plumbing is hard. The Sage is correct; we should be suspicious of systems that exist only in the mind, but…
Front Porch Friendship in the journal of Back Room Business
My (real) friend and sometimes co-conspirator Tony Woodlief of Wichita has penetrated Wall Street with some front porch wisdom this morning: "My 298 Facebook friends aren't the ones who remember…
On the Logic and Nature of Blogging
Phoenix, Arizona. Because of my involvement with this darn site I have been attending to the blogosphere much more than heretofore, and lately have been trying to get a handle…
The Front Porch Cyclist talks Autarchy
I have been remiss in following up on some superb thinking that has been going on, partly prompted by my earlier link to his blog, but mostly prompted by the…
Against the Environment
Alexandria, VA The other night I happened to catch the second half of an ABC special program, "Earth 2100." The program was a "speculative history" of what the world might…
With Malice Toward None (Well, Maybe Toward the Thought Police)
Check out this exceptionally fine speech http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ronald-maxwell/on-the-occasion-of-presid_b_212674.html by film director Ron Maxwell (Gettysburg, Gods and Generals), who refused to allow William ("inherited utility monopoly wealth means never having to say…
Liberty or Freedom?
Many involved in Front Porch Republic embrace the idea of a smallholder economy based on family production under conditions of widespread ownership of productive resources. This was the vision of…
Is Burke Our Intellectual Father?
Devon, PA. Last week, Caleb Stegall's reprinting of his article on Community from the Conservative Encyclopedia excited a small objection that the genealogy of conservatism said article offered was untenable…
“A nation is an extended family.”
Quick quiz ... who said/wrote the above quote this week? No Googling!
The New “Freedom”
Claremont, CA. Becka flew into my office, so excited that she was out of breath. "Professor," she asked, "have you heard about freedom?" I couldn't help laughing. "Why yes, Becka,"…
The Gain is Gloss: Thanks to FPR and Its Readers
Devon, PA. Much like Jeremy Beer, I have found that FPR has led me to look at 'Blogs almost for the first time in my life. I have run across much…
The Need for Autarchy
Devon, PA. Thanks in part to the series of fine essays John Médaille has provided us during the last several weeks, the implicit economic vocabulary on the Front Porch has…
Corporate Capitalism and the Loss of Virtue
Blairsville, GA. The corporation is a central part of our economy. In fact, some have argued that our economic system is accurately identified as corporate capitalism, for the values and…
The Blessings of Pesticides
I learned tonight, courtesy of American Media's Marketplace, that there is a letter-writing campaign currently afoot protesting the organic garden that was planted and is tended by Mrs. Obama. The…