The Stump
Reflections on Alasdair MacIntyre
Dependent Rational Animals offers both a satisfying philosophical exclamation point and a sorely needed ethical and political vision appropriate for the struggles of our own day.
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Summoning Jeremiah
The Call to Prophecy When we think of the great biblical prophets, we might be tempted to think of people concerned mainly with wholly religious or purely spiritual matters. But in fact,…
Liberalism: A Joke, Literally
It’s a bit rich to pile on a “free-thinker” like Kanye West, who implores us to “lead with love,” when the best critics and pundits are themselves bankrupt of compelling ideas. Take…
Social Justice vs. Social Charity
The Pernicious Nature of Charity There is a pernicious force that operates in all societies, but especially in ours and especially in these sad days. It is a force that destroys economies,…
A Digital Relation to the Universe
Matt's essay concludes our discussion of "Localist Social Media." You can view all the essays in this symposium here. When I first submitted my attempt at a jovial attack on localist…
The Bar Jester Goes Off (While Putatively Responding to Matt Stewart)
We also need technological monks.
Sparking Little Platoons
When I became a Washington, D.C. newsroom intern, Twitter usage was mandatory (primarily so that we could help run the magazine’s Twitter account). I neither understood nor liked Twitter at the time—it…
Marginalia
I was a bit surprised that Matt directed his critique at Twitter rather than at other forms of social media. At least Twitter isn’t as corrupt as Facebook and its opaque algorithms.…
What Tolkien Can Teach Us About Twitter
In December of 2016, I observed, alluding to Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, that Twitter was akin to Trump’s ring of power. My point then was relatively straightforward: just as the one…
In Praise of Boredom
G. K. Chesterton reproached the modern experience of boredom. In Heretics, he declares: There is no such thing on earth as an uninteresting subject; the only thing that can exist is an…
Alone Together on the Internet
The happy traveler is apt to become even happier as he crosses a state line into Vermont or Maine. These two misfits of the continental 48 ban billboards (Hawaii and Alaska do…
Big Other is Watching. Hallelu!
All hail Big Other, in whom we live and move and have our being. All hail Big Other, from whom so many blessings flow. All hail Big Other, than which no greater…
The Irony of Twitter
Several years ago I followed an exchange on Twitter between two academics. Both were lamenting the (in their view) low quality work done by young writers as well as the way those…
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