The Water Dipper 334
Groundhog Day, Apps, and Foie Gras
“America Needs a Miracle.” The first section of Andrew Sullivan’s musings, where he reflects on Ezra Klein’s Why We’re Polarized and Christopher Caldwell’s The Age of Entitlement, is balanced, nuanced, and quite insightful.…
Rivers, Bill Gates, and Hating Literature
“Rewilding Food, Rewilding Farming.” Vandana Shiva argues that we need to improve farming, not get rid of it: “The notion that high-tech ‘farm free’ lab food will save the planet…
Facial Recognition, Urban Dreams, and Rhetoric
“The Secretive Company That Might End Privacy as We Know It.” Kashmir Hill details the workings of a new facial recognition app for the New York Times. What could go wrong?…
Elites, Content Collapse, and Amish Outhouses
“Saving Democracy From the Managerial Elite.” Michael Lind has a new book coming out about the new class war (look for FPR’s review on Monday). The Wall Street Journal published an excerpt:…
Old Tractors, Social Media, and Idolatry
“Once it Comes Time.” Michael Adno narrates the life and work of the photographer William Christenberry: “The thread of memory applied to all his work in sculpture, painting, and photography.…
Nationalism, Ebooks, and Gertrude Himmelfarb
“Rich Lowry’s Nationalist Review.” Patrick Deneen extends the argument he made last summer at the National Conservatism Conference in a review essay of Lowry’s The Case for Nationalism: How It Made Us Powerful,…
The Farm Bill, Afghanistan, and Philanthropy
I hope you enjoy this week’s slate of essays. I’ll be taking a Christmas break the next two weeks, but look for the Water Dipper to reappear in January 2020.…
G.E.M. Anscombe, Climate Despair, and René Girard
“Untempted by the Consequences.” John Schwenkler has a rich essay on G.E.M. Anscombe in Commonweal. Her fierce fidelity to “doing the truth” makes her a valuable exemplar. “Motivated Reasoning, Part Gazillion.”…
Chinese Surveillance, Class War, and a Land Tax
“Exposed: China’s Operating Manuals for Mass Internment and Arrest by Algorithm.” Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian reports on China’s sophisticated system of surveillance and detention of Uighurs: The classified intelligence briefings reveal the…
Lukacs, Tarkington, and Place-Based Policies
“Remembering John Lukacs: Ode to an Academic Outsider.” Will Hoyt remembers the life and writings of one of the great historians and writers of the twentieth century. “The Magnificent Tarkington.”…
The Pleasures of Eating, Romano Guardini, and the Two-Income Trap
“The Pleasures of Eating.” Emergence Magazine published a beautifully illustrated version of Wendell Berry’s classic essay with a preface by Alice Waters. Even if you know this essay well, it’s worth taking…
Yokels, John Wesley Powell, and Packaged Pleasures
“Sneering at the Yokels in the Age of Trump.” Jeff Polet contrasts two different ways of writing the elites-from-the-coasts-come-to-the-heartland-to-find-out-why-these-weirdos-voted-for-Trump essay. Some do this poorly, others do it well: Bourdain allowed…
Lasch, Old Country Stores, and Intelligent Trees
“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…
China, Monopolies, and Logging
“Hawley to Introduce Bill to Move Federal Agencies out of Washington D.C. to Economically Stagnant Areas.” Jack Crowe outlines Josh Hawley’s new proposal. It sounds like Senator Hawley has been…
Friends, Cattle Markets, and a Luddite Revolution
Plough Quarterly: Vocation. The new issue of Plough has several good pieces on the meaning and value of work. One of my favorites is the interview with Mike Rowe. “Why You Never See…
Jones, Hurston, and Newman
“‘These Global Days.’” Adam Schwartz reviews the newly published The Grail Mass and Other Works, by David Jones. It conveys Jones’s critique of empire and globalism: “It was modern imperialism’s lethal…
GMOs, Bad Ag Secretaries, and Economic Growth
“The Case Against GMOs: Cautionary Tales From Uganda.” With biting wit, Mary Serumaga argues that legislation to introduce GMOs to Uganda is being driven by foreign investors rather than local…
Ellul, Land of Hope, and Opting Out
“Book Review: The Household and the War for the Cosmos by C. R. Wiley.” Jake Meador reviews The Household and the War for the Cosmos by C. R. Wiley, in which Wiley argues that…
Holy Warriors, Brain Gain, and Children and Climate Change
Several people have written reflections on last week’s conference. If you weren’t able to make it, you can read what Russell Arben Fox and Scott Richert made of the gathering. “Academia’s Holy Warriors.” Jon…
Berry’s Dissent, Procreation, and Rotten STEM
“A Shared Place: Wendell Berry’s Lifelong Dissent.” Jedediah Britton-Purdy writes a long and thoughtful review of Berry’s essays and body of thought. He avoids many of the lazy critiques of…
Homesickness, Landscape of Despair, and Mass Barbecue
“Wayfaring in America.” Brian Smith reviews The American Road Trip and American Political Thought, by Susan McWilliams Barndt—a book that reflects on what Americans’ fondness for travel narratives suggests about our…
George Herbert, Simone Weil, and Front Porches
“What a Famous Poet Can Teach Rural Pastors.” Stephen Witmer looks at George Herbert’s classic and asks, “what if we were to read Country Parson for its original purpose: as a guide…
Educating Nones, Water, and Killing Umps
“5 Questions with Gracy Olmstead.” Gracy Olmstead talks about rural communities, seasonal rhythms, and more. “Inhabiting Memories and Landscapes.” Brecon Cathedral in Wales is hosting a conference next summer on…
Air Conditioning, Modern Friendship, and Rooftop Farming
“The Great Land Robbery.” In the Atlantic, Vann R. Newkirk II narrates a tragic story about black land ownership in the Mississippi Delta. Between racist lending practices, global commodity markets,…