Place. Limits. Liberty.
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Life in the Cyborg Age: A Conversation with Josh Pauling

And Robin and I really hope that this book can be part of that movement to help people get outside the Machine, throw sand in its gears, and live as…
December 13, 2024

Modernity is a Dirty Diaper

Modernity has become permanently liquid; it no longer seeks solid replacements to the pre-modern world but finds greater value in transience, not just of institutions and things, but of human…
November 1, 2023

On the Front Porch with Ursula Le Guin

Those who do know her work might be a bit surprised if I suggest that Le Guin has a real porcher sensibility.
August 26, 2020

Why I am a Conservative

If you love place, limits, liberty, and think they are words that have meaning, you are probably conservative, and should honor that word also.

But I By Backward Steps Would Move

“The dwarf sees farther than the giant, when he has the giant's shoulder to mount on."

From Olive Trees to Overcapacity

A homogeneous global consumer culture flattens its victims. And, perhaps in the same vein, our meanderings around the dying furniture capital of Yecla turned up nothing: virtually everything on display…
January 28, 2010

After the Econolypse

Hamilton, Ontario. When remembering a family-owned grocery store in rural Virginia, a first image comes to mind, even though I did not actually witness it. This is my boss, a…

Against Pessimism

Alexandria, VA My last post has led some to conclude that I am a pessimist. Even Ross Douthat, among the most perceptive commentators in print and on internet, suggested that…
Patrick Deneen
January 6, 2010

Stopping a Streetcar with an Umbrella

It is autumn in Amsterdam and damp. The twilight is coming. I await a streetcar to take me home through the labored-over canals, the old working-class neighborhoods on the Amstel.…

Notes from the Canal Zone

Claremont, CA. On the flight home, I read an issue of Delta Sky Magazine that listed the Panama Canal as one of “70 Wonders of the World.” The canal was…
September 30, 2009

Voices Against Progress: What I Learned from Genovese, Lasch, and Bradford

The following is excerpted from Paul Gottfried's Encounters: My Life with Nixon, Marcuse, and Other Friends and Teachers, recently published by ISI Books. I met Christopher Lasch for the first…

Abraham Lincoln and the Destruction of Place

In case you missed it, 2009 is the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth. Earlier this week I participated in a roundtable discussion on Lincoln’s legacy sponsored by Messiah College and…

Prosperity, Myth and Liberty

E.D. Kain identifies a paradox in modern American conservatism that will be familiar to students of George Grant. Forty years ago, Grant wrote this in his essay, "In Defence of…
March 4, 2009