Mark T. Mitchell is the co-founder of Front Porch Republic. He is the Dean of Academic Affairs at Patrick Henry College and the author of several books including Plutocratic Socialism, Power and Purity, The Limits of Liberalism, The Politics of Gratitude, and Localism in Mass Age: A Front Porch Republic Manifesto (co-editor).
Mark T. Mitchell
Articles by Mark T. Mitchell
Fences, Vines, Bees, and Huge Chickens
Hidden Springs Lane. We’re building fence this summer. I purchased 150 eight foot posts and we’ve been slowly planting them. We’re putting a paddock in the front and a larger…
Your Computer (and everything connected to it) is Broken
Read this just before your shut your computer down for good. Here's a taste: Once upon a time, a friend of mine accidentally took over thousands of computers. He had…
FPR Conference: Get Your Ticket Now
The fourth annual Front Porch Republic conference will examine ways to promote a more comprehensive localist vision that both learns from and goes beyond the increasingly successful local-food movement. It…
On the Nightstand
Two books right now, one fiction and one non-fiction. First, the fiction: Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh. I re-read this one (revisit it?) every few years. Brideshead is quite different…
Philanthrolocalism vs. Effective Altruism
William Schambra has a piece at Philanthropy Daily that describes the coming showdown between two competing conceptions of philanthropic giving. Here's a taste: Community-embeddedness versus detached godliness: not a bad…
Soylent: It’s What’s for Dinner (and Lunch and Breakfast)
Hidden Springs Lane. What if you never had to worry about food again? Possible answers: 1) Wow! Think of all the time I can save, all the hassle of shopping,…
Ron Paul on The Future of Freedom
Here is a video of a talk Ron Paul recently delivered at a program sponsored by The Independent Institute. Paul sees signs of a shift away from concentrated power, and…
Death and Life in the Country
Hidden Springs Lane. There is something especially sad about opening up a hive full of dead bees. Several weeks ago I wrote about my hives and my hope that they…
FPR Conference: Save the Date!
The 2014 FPR conference will on September 27 in Louisville, KY. Wendell Berry will deliver the keynote address. More details to come, but this is shaping up to be a…
How Equality Makes Us Better (and Stupid)
Hidden Springs Lane. The concept of equality lies at the heart of the American system. School children learn by heart (or used to) those memorable lines from the Declaration of…
Equality and the Culture of Perpetual Offense
Hidden Springs Lane. Rod Dreher has recently been pointing out (for example here) the various ways that those who voice public opposition to certain positions (especially gay marriage) are routinely…
More on Distributism
This week in The Week, Michael Brendan Dougherty has a piece titled "The Conservative Case Against Capitalism." Relying on Belloc's An Essay on the Restoration of Property, Dougherty argues that…
Pope Francis and Distributism
In an article at The American Conservative, Arthur W. Hunt III argues that the economic ideas touched on by Pope Francis point in the direction of distributism, a third way…
What’s a Localist to Do?
Hidden Springs Lane. It’s not easy being a localist. Vladimir Putin has taken Crimea and many in the West are afraid that he has designs on the rest of Ukraine…
Of Bees and Moonshine
Hidden Springs Lane. In the spring of 2012, I started keeping bees. The first thing to notice is that people do not raise bees or herd bees. In fact, one…
A New Book on Place
FPR contributor Ted McAllister and Bill McClay have just published a collection of essays titled Why Place Matters: Geography, Identity, and Civic Life in Modern America. It includes essays by…
Rod Dreher at Cornerstone University Tonight
For readers in Western Michigan, Rod Dreher is speaking at Cornerstone University tonight at 7pm in the Matthews Auditorium. He is talking about Community and The Little Way of Ruthie…
A Man’s Home Is His Castle
Hidden Springs Lane. After too long, I finally got around to watching The Castle (1997), a film recommended by FPR’s Jeff Polet. It’s a film you probably haven’t heard of…
Real Presences
Hidden Springs Lane. What’s the deal with Smart Phones? Go to any public gathering and most of the young people (and some of the not-so-young) are clearly more interested in…
To Quantify the Complexity of a Book
There's a computer program called Lexile that purports to measure the complexity of books and thereby determine the grade level for which they are best suited. Here's the description: Lexiles…
It’s the Scale, Stupid
Hidden Springs Lane. The great shutdown charade (less than 50% of workers furloughed) is over for now. However, though our leaders are patting themselves on the back for ending the…
New “Safety” Laws Threaten Farmers
Scale matters and a one-size-fits-all solution is a function of a state that exceeds a proper scale (and ignores a common sense approach to problems). According to one article: The…
Beauty is the Answer
In ISI's on-going series titled "Conservatism: What's Wrong with it and How Can we Make it Right?" Gerald Russello argues that conservatives have pursued power but neglected beauty. He writes:…
Conservatism: What’s Wrong with it and How Can We Make it Right?
This is my contribution to ISI’s symposium, Conservatism: What’s Wrong with it and How Can We Make it Right? In one sense, there is nothing wrong with conservatism. The principles…