News from the Front Porch Republic
Greetings from the Porch,
This week we're grateful to have Natalie Symons, a student at Patrick Henry College, start serving as our editorial intern. Welcome aboard, Natalie!
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In this week's Water Dipper I recommend essays about localism, liberalism, and regionalism.
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Kevin LaTorre reviews two books about his place and describes how he is learning to see where he is: "Mountain Nature and Strangers in High Places vindicate this demand that each place makes on its inhabitants, even a novice like myself. It is only the beginning, and it is only partly scientific: I dream of the bears and mychorrhiza deep in the coves of the Appalachians. That fungus, in trees’ secret root nodes, breathes out the nitrogen, and I think of what it is to cherish this detail as life-giving, the way a tree must."
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John Klar defends cows from their fashionable despisers: "Cows do not kill people; people kill people. Especially people who claim cows are the problem. Cows are key players in solving the problems created by industrial agriculture."
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Adam Smith responds to Patrick Deneen's Regime Change by raising fundamental questions about whether its argument is too conservative or, conversely, too radical: "What is more radical, and more conservative, than to cast the ring into the fire? That would be a real 'regime change,' would it not?"
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Russell Arben Fox wonders if the demos that Patrick Deneen praises in his new book, Regime Change actually exists: "Why Liberalism Failed was a good book, but Regime Change is a better one, and I think will be recognized as such—as well as one that will gain notoriety in a way that the earlier, more academic book mostly did not."
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Jeffrey Polet responds to discussions about national identity by urging a recovery of Christian forgiveness: "Debates over the fate of the nation-state are largely driven by the fundamental problem of how we respond to guilt in a post-Christian age. Our politics will thus reflect the growing division between those who still believe the Christian message about forgiveness and those who will deal with guilt either by scapegoating or by denial."
I finished writing a review of Eugene Vodolazkin's A History of the Island this week (it should be published in the coming weeks). It truly is a remarkable novel. And it's funny, which so few "serious" novels are these days. Given the current spate of candidates announcing that they are running to be president of the US, I thought this passage was rather timely:
In the year of Cecilia's reign, the Island prepared for elections. This was the country's second election, so Island residents had already gained some experience. Experience hinted to them that elections undoubtedly influenced the flow of life but then the influence had its limits. More specifically, elections determine the name of the president rather than the president's decisions. The shrewdest citizens even expressed their conjecture that the victor in a presidential election does just as any other candidate would do upon winning. Someone recalled unforgettable Bishop Geronty's story about the crow and the cheese, but that recollection was deemed inappropriate and even dangerous.
[If you're interested in reading the Bishop's fable about the dangers of voicing your opinion in the wrong way, you'll just have to read the novel.]
Thanks for spending some time with us on the Porch,
Jeff Bilbro