Articles 355
The Economics of Distributism III: Equity and Equilibrium
What Does an Economy Do? If what we said in the last installment is correct, then the first task of any humane science is to determine what its purpose is.…
Commencement Address
Take heart though, for most of your triumphs, large and small, lie in front of you as well. Which is just to say that you stand at a grand beginning,…
New Dishwasher?
Mt. Airy, Philadelphia. About a week ago our dishwasher started to issue a loud grinding sound from its hidden depths. After a few days I decided to call an appliance…
Meritocracy, Urban Design, and Culture: Observations from a Friend
PHOENIX, ARIZONA. (Note: this post has two pages, thanks to webmaster Lundy's new-and-improved FPR technology.) I am gratified by the many responses, here and elsewhere in the sphere, that were…
GPS, Security, and Freedom
Blairsville, GA. Recently my wife and I took a trip to New York City. To alleviate the trials of navigating an unfamiliar city, my sister offered to let us use…
What Is to be Done?
On Amtrak Regional Train 130 Daniel Larison has written a number of related postings here (and here) and elsewhere that have insistently raised and sought to answer the question: what…
Summertime Blues
Wichita, KS. I'm more than capable of putting on my localist and communitarian hat(s) during the fall, winter, and spring: I defend the public schools, speak out in favor of…
The Economics of Distributism II: Political Economy as a Science
Science, Normative and Positive Some wag somewhere has remarked that economists suffer from “physics envy.” One could certainly make that charge against W. S. Jevons (1835-1882), one of the founders…
Science and the Spirit in an Age of Hostile Presumption
Washington, CT. Winter was a hard-nosed professional this season just past. It sunk its icy teeth in long and hard and mocked us with a one day January thaw that…
Blog Flu
JEFFERSON COUNTY, KANSAS.* Recently on this virtual stoop, questions have arisen about the "tone" of discussion generally, and particularly in the comment section (I refuse the neologism "combox" as an ugly stain…
This is My Son
Devon, PA. This is my son. As you see him here, he has been alive for just about one-hundred-forty days and has, this and other ultrasound images suggest, my nose…
The Immoral Life of Children
A few weeks ago a friend's ten-year-old daughter came home from school, turned to her mother with a frown, and speaking low, so as to stay out of earshot of…
Good Job, Bruce!
A retirement dinner party for an Ivy League professor follows certain conventions. It begins with the cocktail hour where guests renew old and make new acquaintances while sipping wine and nibbling appetizers.…
Localism And Cosmopolites
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS. Remarking on Jeremy Beer's article on meritocracy, Patrick Deneen concludes with this grim, but correct, observation: This, in a microcosm, is a central paradox of our political system:…
The Economics of Distributism Part 1: Does Capitalism Work?
Property in the hands of labor is freedom. Labor in the hands of property is slavery. --Dmitri Kleiner From the earliest days of Distributism, distributists have exhibited a certain disinterest…
A Nation of Slaves?
Difficult economic times force people to confront the problem of economic security. In fact, it’s easy to imagine that, in an ideal world, economic insecurity would be a thing of…
The Great Recession and the Rebirth of Community
An article in last week's Washington Post explores the revival of communities as a response to the economic crisis. According to the article, As the neighbors got out of their…
Practicing the Discipline of Place
My "Place" (Photo by AMS) JEFFERSON COUNTY, KANSAS. If you think I'm reprinting yet another old essay because I'm too lazy or beset to keep up with my bettors on…
The Speech of Work and the Work of Speech
Devon, PA. Outside of certain, very particular, Christian circles, one seldom hears much about man's fallen nature anymore; and yet, as G.K. Chesterton once observed, original sin may be the…
Act Like a Man, and We’ll Arrest You
Interesting article in the Philadelphia Inquirer today about a blind man from Brussels who, not bein' from around these parts, didn't realize that American freedom meant the Freedom Not to…
Mortgaged Myth and the Monuments of a Depauperate Republic
Washington, CT. In August of 1311, the Doge of Venice.... as big shots are wont to do.... decreed that a monument to the government would henceforth be constructed and its…
The Decline of Middle America and the Problem of Meritocracy
I delivered a version of the following text as a lecture at Augustana College last Tuesday, April 28 (all errors of fact and interpretation should be ascribed to my…
Against Mother’s Day?
BURNED-OVER DISTRICT, NY--Hey, it’s time once again to send Mom that special e-card. From the vaults, the story of the men who voted against the first Mother’s Day: In the…
How Germany Made Us “Conservative”
Wichita, KS. Fifteen years ago, when my wife and I got married, we had a lot of inchoate ideas and aspirations, many of which were relatively humble, generally egalitarian, and…