The Aaron Renn Show
Aaron Renn
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Aaron Renn's commentary and insights on our 21st century world, along with his conversations with some of the world's leading thinkers on the issues of today. Covering culture, media, economics, politics, Christianity and men's issues.
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5 days ago
The Rise of the Influencer Class
An article in the Guardian argues that online influencers will be more important to conservative discourse in the US going forward in America. This is in part because of technological change, but also from the failure of the establishment class. At the same time, the influencer model has key weaknesses that need to be shored up to make that model healthier.
The Guardian: ‘It’s all about trolling’: how far-right influencers are shaping Republican narrative - https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/mar/26/jack-posobiec-digital-influencers-far-right-republicans-trolling
Washington Post: Indicted Chinese exile controls Gettr social media site - https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/03/26/gettr-guo-wengui-social-media/
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Mar 20, 2023
The Case for Saying Yes
The standard self-improvement advice is to say No more often. That's frequently good advice. A lot of times we want to say No but are just too scared to do it. Sometimes other people are taking advantage of us. Or maybe we just neglect our own affairs to say No when we shouldn't.
But there's a case for saying Yes too. Yes has much more optionality than No. Saying yes to opportunities, even when they don't seem like they can amount to much, often has payoffs much bigger than we can imaging. Managing for positive optionality and opportunity is a key part of becoming antifragile and positioning ourselves to capture the upside from events.
Michael Foster tweet thread on saying No: https://twitter.com/thisisfoster/status/1636016109617856513
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Mar 13, 2023
Great Literature is Right Wing (Newsletter #74)
People involved in the arts, literature, or other creative fields are generally politically left wing - even far left. It’s much rarer to see someone who is explicitly and openly to the right, though it does happen occasionally.
But there’s another way to look at it. Our ideas of left and right in politics descend from the French Revolution. But what if we defined them differently than we currently do?
My preferred definition of the right, properly understood, is discerning and aligning oneself and the world around him with the truth. Thus, because great art often expresses Truth, that art is implicitly right wing regardless of the politics of its creator. The best art, journalism, etc. often overflows the intentions of its creator.
But many of those who have the greatest insights about today’s world are not Christian at all. Sometimes this makes their work offensive to American Christian readers. But those who pay careful attention will often find incredible truth, particularly about the deformed nature of contemporary society, hiding in plain sight. Today I want to give some examples of this in the form of three contemporary European literary figures: Hanne Orstavik, Karl Ove Knausgaard, and Michel Houellebecq.
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Feb 27, 2023
If There's a Shortage of Good Men, What Does That Mean for Men?
We see any articles about the so-called shortage of good men. That is, we've seen many articles in the major media about how women are delaying or foregoing marriage because they can't find the right man to marry. If that's true, what are the implications for men? It means that if they do have their act together, then they are a hot commodity in the marketplace, and need to internalize that understanding.
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Feb 20, 2023
Re-Editing Old Books
The estate of Roald Dahl (author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), has engaged so-called "sensitivity readers" to re-write portions of the text to be compliant with today's ideologies. I discuss this trend, the idea of editing old books in general, and a practical response we can take to mitigate against this trend.
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Feb 13, 2023
Ten Theses on Marriage and Family (Newsletter #73)
It's a free country and people are entitled to live however they want. But it's important to put forth and advocate for general patterns of life that are mostly likely to lead to flourishing - particularly when we've been following them ourselves. In that light, this month's newsletter contains ten of these theses about marriage and family.
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Feb 6, 2023
Societal Fragmentation Creates Perverse Incentives
In the mid-century era from World War II (or even before that) to around 1990, America had a mass market common consumer culture. With the fragmentation of that culture accelerating post-1990s, the upper middle class and middle class began to develop distinct cultures and folkways. Even removing race and politics as factors of division would not address this, because even among whites, the upper middle class and middle class now have different and incompatible definitions of the good life. This creates local political dissension and perverse incentives in areas like land use.
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Jan 30, 2023
The Productive Urban Household (with Eric Brende)
Eric Brende spent a year living with the Amish, and also time trying to live a similar homesteader life in a small town environment. He decided that that there is no place quite like the city to build a productive household environment that is less dependent on the industrialized, technological economy for day to day life. He joined me to talk about his journey and how to get started with the productive urban household life.
Eric Brende's web site: https://thehappyhouseholder.com/
Eric Brende/WSJ: How to Beat the High Cost of Working: https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-to-beat-the-high-cost-of-working-1535747253
Eric Brende: Better Off: Flipping the Switch on Technology: https://www.amazon.com/Better-Off-Flipping-Switch-Technology-ebook/dp/B000FC1VAG/
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Jan 23, 2023
Spotlight on American Reformer
President Nate Fischer and Executive Director Josh Abbotoy join me to talk about American Reformer, a non-profit focused on reinvigorating Protestant Christianity in American life.
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Jan 16, 2023
Why You Shouldn't Play the Heel (Newsletter #72)
In pro wrestling, the "face" is the hero and the "heel" is the villain. The incentive structures of our society are willing to personally reward people, especially conservatives, who engage in heel behavior in real life. This is because by acting the heel, people serve as a foil to the hero the media wishes to build up. Even Peter Thiel fell prey to this, helping to propel Rigoberta Menchu to the Nobel Peace Prize. While heel behavior can be effective at times, and is a tool everyone should have in their tool chest, we should think long and hard before engaging in these tactics.
Heel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heel_(professional_wrestling)
Peter Thiel speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibR_ULHYirs
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Jan 9, 2023
Where Should I Live?
With remote work giving people flexibility on where to live, and people moving because of politics and other social factors, where should we live personally? I will examine different types of communities, and share some thoughts on their pros and cons.
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Jan 2, 2023
The Return to Normal
I will look forward at potential trends for 2023, including the theme of the return to normal.
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Dec 19, 2022
Why Evangelicals Are Not Leaders in Our Society
Returning to the theme of deficits in the American leadership and elite classes, I will examine some of the reasons why evangelicals in particular seem not be high impact leaders in our institutions and in society. In particular, I will discuss evangelicalism's weak sense of "calling" and it's low view of the created order.
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Dec 12, 2022
A Primer On Doxxing (Newsletter #71)
Doxxing is the internet practice of revealing the identity of an anonymous social media account and/or digging up controversial or offensive social media content in order to get someone fired or worse. It's nearly universally viewed as a shady practice, but is a common technique for cancellation today.
In this month's newsletter I provide a primer on doxxing: what it is, who does it, what the consequences are, and how it is perceived. I also provide some practical insights about how to respond to a world where doxxing is common.
Subscribe to my newsletter: https://aaronrenn.substack.com/
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Dec 5, 2022
The Non-Linearity of Change
Change, whether in personal self-improvement or social evolution, is not linear. There are quantum leaps and discontinuities. This can be deeply unsettling and render obsolete previous ways of doing business and operating in the world.
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Nov 28, 2022
Asymmetric Financial Warfare
Companies have long used aggressive sales tactics to maximize units sold and prices charged. Customers have long tried to get the best deal. With the rise of digital technology and financial disparities, these conflicts are highly asymmetric to the disadvantage of ordinary consumers. It's similar in competition for many essential goods like housing, where the equation for the average consumer has been re-written to favor those with large amounts of money.
WSJ: If the Price Ended in 99, You Probably Overpaid - https://www.wsj.com/articles/if-the-price-ended-in-99-you-probably-overpaid-11669293972
WSJ: The Sinister Logic of Hidden Online Fees - https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-sinister-logic-of-hidden-online-fees-11669229205
NYT: It’s Public Land. But the Public Can’t Reach It - https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/26/business/hunting-wyoming-elk-mountain-access.html
Subscribe to my newsletter: https://aaronrenn.substack.com/
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Nov 21, 2022
American Elites Prey on the Poor By Promoting Vice
Gambling, drugs, loan sharking, and sex used to be the province of the mob and other shady characters. Now they are big business, legally sanctioned by governments which often profit from them, and in which even major institutions and respectable figures profit. This is a perfect microcosm of the decline of American leadership.
NYT: Key Findings From The Times’ Investigation of Sports Betting: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/20/business/sports-betting-investigation.html
The Observer: Game, set, bankrupt: how an addiction to gambling on tennis lost me £40,000: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/nov/20/gambling-addiction-tennis-bet365-online-betting-hannah-jane-parkinson
LA Times: The reality of legal weed in California: Huge illegal grows, violence, worker exploitation and deaths: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-09-08/reality-of-legal-weed-in-california-illegal-grows-deaths
Subscribe to my newsletter: https://aaronrenn.substack.com/
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Nov 14, 2022
Why You Should Be Careful About How Online Critiques Affect You and Others (Newsletter #70)
Online or other criticism, combined with receiving support from unexpected quarters, is one of the most powerful dynamics promoting political realignment today. I discuss these, why you need to protect yourself from them, and why you should be careful about how you criticize people on your own "team" online.
Twitter thread on career selection: https://twitter.com/aaron_renn/status/1590715709612433408
Twitter thread on presentations: https://twitter.com/aaron_renn/status/1589635724164288512
Subscribe to my newsletter: https://aaronrenn.substack.com/
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Nov 7, 2022
Get Out and Vote This Election Day
Thoughts on the midterm elections in 2022 and why you should get out and vote.
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Oct 31, 2022
What Is an Evangelical?
With the ongoing flight from the label "evangelical", I will discuss the various meanings of this term and why, rightfully understood, there is no escape from the name.
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Oct 24, 2022
Accountability for Failure on the Covid Response
There's an increasing consensus that elements of the Covid response went way too far - especially long term school closures. It's also clear now that many things that were said turned out to be untrue. For example, vaccine efficacy was clearly overstated. That may have been an honest error, but it was still a serious one.
Our society seldom holds people in leadership positions to account for their screwups or the failures that occur on their watch. I share thoughts on this, including a specific look at pastors and Covid.
AP: Online school put US kids behind. Some adults have regrets: https://apnews.com/article/online-school-covid-learning-loss-7c162ec1b4ce4d5219d5210aaac8f1ae
Daily Wire: How Church Leaders Aligned With Fauci To Discredit Experts Opposed To COVID Mandates: https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-church-leaders-aligned-with-fauci-to-discredit-experts-opposed-to-covid-mandates
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Oct 17, 2022
The Vocation of Masculinity (Newsletter #69)
The question of the vocation of masculinity today is not what it is but whether it exists. I examine how traditional societies, and texts like the Bible, assumed pervasive gender polarity that's greatly attenuated today. I discuss what would have traditionally been common attributes of masculine vocation, and how they relate to contemporary society and ideology. The key point of conflict is over the traditional idea that men needed to over-produce in order to provide a surplus beyond their own needs that would benefit family and community. But so long as we live in a wealthy, prosperous society, weak gender differentiation will likely be the norm.
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Oct 10, 2022
The Lost America of the 1980s
Videos from the 1980s show a vanished America. You see the near total absence of the detached, ironic, cynical tone that characterizes the country today and which came to the fore in the 1990s. It's largely a pre-obesity. And it's still a mass culture America. Despite its flaws, the median American today might actually be better off in that era than today.
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Oct 3, 2022
You Didn't Build That
Conservatives bristled when President Obama said "You didn't build that." But they should understand that theologically and practically, we did not actually build all that we've accomplished by ourselves. We benefitted from good fortune, and often especially from networks and access to capital. Paying it forward in terms of helping be the network for others is one of the way we show gratitude for what we've achieved and been given.
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Sep 26, 2022
Understanding the Media's Reporting on Foreign Countries
Conservatives tend to view the media as leftist. Due to certain experiences of the Reagan and Bush II administrations, they also seem to believe the media tries to undermine a muscular foreign and defense policy. In fact, on matters of foreign policy and reporting on foreign countries, the media should largely be seen as supporting whatever the US policy towards those nations might be, policy that is typically quite bi-partisan in nature.
Subscribe to my newsletter at: aaronrenn.com.
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Sep 19, 2022
Beware of the Contagiousness of Divorce (Newsletter #68)
There's an element of social contagion in divorce. We are more likely to get divorced if our friends and associates are divorced. Hence, we should carefully monitor both our own and our spouse's friend networks, keeping an eye out for divorces.
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Sep 12, 2022
The Corruption of American Competence
A Dutch soldier in Indianapolis for training exercises was murdered downtown, creating an international incident with global press and cabinet level officials in both the Netherlands and the US having to address it. And yet local Indianapolis leaders, in contrast to the abortion issue, can't talk about the role of crimes like this in our business climate and reputation.
From crime to the water crisis in Jackson to drug abuse to our electric grid to elections to health care, Americas leaders cannot muster the will and ability to address serious problems. They are imprisoned by the ideological constraints of managerialism and hobbled by the increasing complexity of our systems.
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Aug 29, 2022
The Rise of Influence and the Decline of Authority
Andrew Tate, Kevin Samuels (RIP), the FaZe Clan and many others online figures most Americans have never heard of have no become the decisive influence on Gen Z. While all of us know this at some level, few appreciate the full reality of it in practice. This feeds off of, and accelerates, the decline of trust in institutions.
NYT: Can FaZe Clan Build a Billion-Dollar Business? - https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/15/style/faze-clan-house.html
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Aug 22, 2022
The History of Violence
Some observations on the way evangelicals leaders have been speaking of "violence" as distinct from injustice, and present it as if it were a natural force like thunderstorms rather than a product of human agency.
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Aug 17, 2022
BENJAMIN MABRY: A New American Aesthetic
Dr. Benjamin Mabry joins me to discuss his essay on anti-managerial aesthetics. We will discuss what aesthetics are, why the approach promoted by "dissident right" figures like Curtis Yarvin won't work, and why we should reject the idea of a top 20% vs. bottom 80% of society in favor of an aesthetic scaled to speak to both the elite and the average citizen.
Anti-Mangerial Aesthetics Essay: https://aaronrenn.substack.com/p/newsletter-67-anti-managerial-aesthetics
Premium Mediocre: https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2017/08/17/the-premium-mediocre-life-of-maya-millennial/
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Aug 15, 2022
Anti-Mangerial Aesthetics (Newsletter #67)
In this month's newsletter, Dr. Benjamin L. Mabry discusses the importance of aesthetics, as well as sharing perspectives on what an aesthetic that would provide a genuine alternative and rival to the dominant managerial aesthetics of our culture today.
He describes the aesthetic mode of managerial society, which is based on an imperial mode in which there's a sharp boundary between ruler and subject, in this case the top 20% managerial class vs. the 80% of everybody else. He notes that a top 20% aesthetic is not that of a true elite in any case, as genuine elites are a very small share of the population, not 20%. He also argues that we should aspire to have an aesthetic that both the elites and the average citizen can relate to and admire, rooted in a genuine notion of excellence.
He also talks a bit about what such an aesthetic is and and is not. It is not a "mania for newness", or is it a retro-aesthetic that treats the past as just another style element to mix and match at real.…
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Aug 8, 2022
My Mission and Guiding Principles
I have listeners and readers who have joined at various points along the journey. In this episode I help reset and anchor everyone in the mission and guiding principles I've set out and try to live up to in my work.
Mission: I want to be a leading public intellectual so that through my writing and speaking I can help conservative American Christians successfully adapt to today and tomorrow’s world.
Values:
* Honesty
* Fairness
* Independence
* Rigor
* Excellence
* Authenticity
Guiding Principles:
* Live not by lies
* Build up, don't just tear down
* Have skin in the same
* Give compelling insight people can't get anywhere else
* Pay it forward
NYT: Is Scott Galloway the Howard Stern of the Business World? - https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/02/style/scott-galloway.html
Subscribe to my newsletter: https://aaronrenn.substack.com/
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Aug 1, 2022
Why We Should Use Authentically American Language
Much of the language we use today can be divided into two categories: compliant and defiant. Compliant language - like DEI or ESG - signals agreement with the current elite consensus. Defiant signals some level of disagreement or rejection of that consensus.
Defiant language today often uses terms and imagery that are alien to American to American political and cultural tradition. "Nationalism," for example, does not appear to be a way that Americans have understood their relationship to their country. Catholic integralism and Continental philosophy and themes often seem bizarre to the average American.
These phrase, such as nationalism, can be perfectly appropriate to use in some contexts, but we should be evaluating the language we use to think about whether it is consonant with the cultural mainstream of our country.
As an example of an organization that did this well, consider the Claremont Institute's DC operation, which was called the "Center for the American Way of Life." The…
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Jul 18, 2022
In Praise of the Private Good (Newsletter #66)
This month's newsletter explains why American Christians, in particular evangelicals, having been reduced to a disfavored minority in the negative world, need to start acting like minority. That is, they need to focus much more on their own internal community strength and health - their private good. This is how all minority groups have always behaved.
This doesn't mean ignoring mission, the common good, etc. But you can't give somebody something you don't have yourself. I examine several case studies, including black Americans, Hispanics in Chicago, Catholic in the early to mid-20th century, and the Mormons. Additionally, I provide some starter ideas for what this new focus on community well-being might look like.
Above all, the important thing is to make the shift to a minority mindset.
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Jul 11, 2022
Important and Feasible: Tools for Strategic Decision Making
I review a few perspectives on strategic decision making, including Jim Wilson's application of the "strategic point." As a bonus, we'll talk about what you can learn from the Big 10 conference signing on USC and UCLA.
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Jun 27, 2022
Thoughts on the Reversal of Roe v. Wade
Some thoughts about the reversal of Roe. vs. Wade. This includes observations on the unintended consequences of violating norms, why the moral vision of the pro-life movement has been more effective than the utilitarian arguments advanced by conservatism generally, the power and importance of a generational perspective, and why a total abortion ban may not be as popular with the American public as some believe.
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Jun 20, 2022
Why I Don't Use the Hero's Journey
Online men's gurus typically use a version of the "hero's journey" or the "rags to riches" to sell you on their products. They tell you how they hit rock bottom, then transformed themselves, then created the amazing life they have today. You too can have that life - if you follow the same script. This is a powerful narrative structure and completely legitimate to use in marketing, yet it has always left me cold. My personal life does follow something of that storyline, but it was not my efforts and plan but rather random events (or, if you prefer, God's sovereign control) that seem more dominant in determining the outcome. We are not always the hero. We have to remember that "unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain." While there's nothing wrong with using a hero's journey storyline, we should be humble in recognizing but that for incredible good fortune, we would not have achieved whatever success we have.
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Jun 13, 2022
The Missing Heroic Feminine (Newsletter #65)
This month's newsletter is a repost from a new Substack called Kennaquhair on the missing heroic feminine. The author explores the nature of archetypal stories and explains why the feminine heroic archetypal story has been under-developed. He also explores the nature of the heroic feminine through the character of the Biblical Miriam, and gives other examples of this archetype. The failure to have a well articulated heroic feminine has caused problems in our society, and rectifying this is an important to-do for addressing many of our cultural problems.
Subscribe to Kennaquahair's Substack: https://kennaquhair.substack.com/
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Jun 7, 2022
The State of the Church (with Paul Vanderklay and Bethel McGrew)
Paul Vanderklay and Bethel McGrew join me to discuss my three worlds of evangelicalism framework and their perspectives on the current state of the evangelical church in the US. This interview will be streamed live in front of an audience at an event in Wheaton, Illinois.
Paul Vanderklay's Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGsD...
Bethel McGrew's Substack: https://bethelmcgrew.substack.com/
Note: This episode may have audio problems in some spots.
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Jun 6, 2022
The Quest for Legacy
The desire for a transcendent connection to the past and future is a primal human desire. We want to know where we came from. We want to know that we will be remembered in the future, that the experience and possessions we've accumulated will live on in and with others. Our world, which is explicitly liberationist, attempts to destroy these longings and organic connection to a lineage beyond ourselves. But it hasn't succeeded, as the rise of people doing 23 & Me or researching their family tree shows. Thus our world will continue to create dissatisfactions and anxieties in the people.
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May 23, 2022
Conservatives Don't Fund Art
Michael Anton has a new essay talking about conservative funding of art and journalism. I discuss this, as well as reiterate my points about conservative organizations not being especially interested in primary or ethographic research either. But even with funding or institutional support, there also has to be the talent to take these projects on, and the desire to seek truth, not just confirm pre-existing biases or dogmas.
Michael Anton: The Tom Wolfe Model - https://im1776.com/2022/05/13/the-tom-wolfe-model/
My Review of "American Made" - https://americancompass.org/the-commons/coming-apart-hoosier-state/
Subscribe to my newsletter: https://aaronrenn.substack.com/
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May 16, 2022
This Is Your Country (Newsletter #64)
The idea of American exceptionalism has long blinded us to our country's legitimate faults. Having said that, activists attempt to use America's faults to morally debilitate its people in order to accomplish their own agenda. As Americans, this is our country. We can love it for that alone, without any further justification. We don't have to apologize for America and how we feel about it anymore than a Han Chinese immigrant has to feel shame over what his people are doing to the Uighurs back in China. No ethnic group or nationality should be subjected to this type of moral debilitation. We just rejected attempts to morally debilitate us. Yet we must also be willing to acknowledge America's faults where they exist, and work to correct them in the ways that we are positioned and feel called to do so. To riff off of Chesterton, we don't love America because she is great, but her greatness comes from our love of her.
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May 9, 2022
Life at the Cultural Center
Reflections on the differing perspectives of people at the cultural center and the cultural periphery. Very successful people and those in the cultural center tend to have a more positive view of society and are less likely to support fundamental or outside the Overton Window change.
The Three Worlds of Evangelicalism: https://www.firstthings.com/article/2022/02/the-three-worlds-of-evangelicalism
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May 2, 2022
Only the Paranoid Survive
Evangelicals often take a dismissive or even smug attitude towards the decline of the mainline denominations. They'd be will served instead to ask themselves some tough questions like, "Why isn't the same thing going to happen to us?"
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Apr 25, 2022
Managerialism vs. Localism
If, as I laid out in newsletter #63, we live in a managerial society in which power resides in large institutions, how should we think about localism and localist movements? I examine this question in the latest podcast.
Newsletter #63: Understanding the Managerial Revolution - https://aaronrenn.substack.com/p/newsletter-63-understanding-the-managerial
County Before Country Conference: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/county-before-country-22-tickets-317725755287
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Apr 19, 2022
ANDREW CRAPUCHETTES: Navigating the Woke Job Market
Andrew Crapuchettes founded the job board Red Balloon to connect employees with jobs at companies that did not have a Covid vaccine mandates. It's grown rapidly and become a place for both companies and employees looking to focus on business and avoid politics in the workplace. He joins to discuss today's job market and how workers can navigate it.
Visit Red Balloon: https://www.redballoon.work/
Subscribe to my newsletter: https://aaronrenn.substack.com/
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Apr 18, 2022
Outsider Cultural Change
Many people subscribe to James Davison Hunter's view that cultural change is driven by elites and institutions in the cultural center. That's a generally true statement, but can easily mislead us into thinking that all change must originate with elites. While elite buy-in may be necessary to institutionalize change, the ideas themselves can originate on the margins. I explore this by looking at the views of Eric Hoffer, who puts forth a view almost completely opposite of Hunter, arguing that the new almost always originates with outcasts, misfits, and failures rather than highly successful elites.
Eric Hoffer's The Ordeal of Change: https://www.amazon.com/Ordeal-Change-Eric-Hoffer/dp/1933435100/?&_encoding=UTF8&tag=theurban-20
Subscribe to my newsletter: https://aaronrenn.substack.com/
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Apr 11, 2022
Understanding the Managerial Revolution (Newsletter #63)
An introduction to James Burnham's concept of the managerial revolution, or how managers and bureaucrats came to dominate society (vs. old school business owners or political leaders). We discuss industrialization's revolution in scale that created the managerial class and the transformations wrought by managerialism. We also cover managerialism's limits and weaknesses, and key lessons that an understanding of the managerial nature of our regime can teach us.
Subscribe to my newsletter: https://aaronrenn.substack.com/
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Apr 4, 2022
Immigration, Chaos and Order
Many things in life are a product of dualisms like chaos and order, yin and yang, hot and cold, change and preservation. Unlike with good vs. evil, these are not simple opposites, but principles that need to be integrated. The right balance is not a static one for all time, but depends upon the needs of the time. I discuss this principle using immigration as a case study. Immigration is not a matter of simply good or bad, but finding the right balance of dynamism and rootedness for the times.
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Mar 29, 2022
STEPHEN B. CLARK: The Making of Man and Woman in Christ
Stephen B. Clark, author of the landmark book Man and Woman in Christ, joins me to talk about that work and its creation. We will also discuss the Catholic charismatic renewal movement and the Sword of the Spirit intentional communities that Clark helped create and which have informed his work.
Buy Man and Woman in Christ: https://www.amazon.com/Man-Woman-Christ-Examination-Scripture-ebook/dp/B098XQQDFW/?&_encoding=UTF8&tag=theurban-20
Sword of the Spirit Community: https://swordofthespirit.net/
Subscribe to my newsletter: https://aaronrenn.substack.com/
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Mar 28, 2022
America's Demographic Winter
New Census Bureau population estimates for 2021 show the lowest year of population growth on record, with 3/4ths of counties having more deaths than birth, and around a third of metro areas losing population. In this podcast I discuss how the US has entered what appears to be a "demographic winter," what the drivers are, and what it means for the country.
Subscribe to my newsletter: https://aaronrenn.substack.com/
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Mar 21, 2022
Can You Be a Conservative in the City?
A reader who lives in cities and likes living in the city wrote to ask whether it is possible to be a conservative in the city given all the rhetoric about conservatives moving away from the city, homesteading, etc. I explain why the answer is Yes, and why a rural life is not suitable for most conservatives.
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Mar 14, 2022
Building the Virtue of Self-Mastery (Newsletter #62)
This podcast is the audio edition of the March 2022 newsletter. It is about the oft-overlooked virtue of self-mastery. We cannot allow ourselves to be enslaved to appetites, tossed here and there by the waves, or manipulated into pursuing other men's missions rather than our own.
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Mar 7, 2022
You Can't See Into My Heart
This week's short podcast looks at one of the biggest "gotchas" people try to use in response to criticism, namely that it's impossible to know the motives of the person being criticized. I discussed why it's valid (if imperfect) to infer motives from actions, but also suggest some alternatives to avoid this common comeback.
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Feb 28, 2022
The Third Worldization of America
People frequently say, obviously with hyperbole, that America is becoming a Third World country. Yet if we look at one of the stereotypes of the Third World - as places with unreliable electricity - are are indeed becoming more Third World like. Our electric grid is increasingly unreliable, and larger numbers of Americans are installing backup generators to deal with it. This episode explores the matter of the third worldization through the lens of our decaying electricity system.
WSJ: America’s Power Grid Is Increasingly Unreliable - https://www.wsj.com/articles/americas-power-grid-is-increasingly-unreliable-11645196772
WSJ: Wary of Being Left in the Dark, Americans Produce Their Own Power - https://www.wsj.com/articles/amid-power-outages-americans-buying-generators-solar-plus-battery-microgrids-11645207261
Texas Monthly: The Texas Electric Grid Failure Was a Warm-up - https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/texas-electric-grid-failure-warm-up/
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Feb 22, 2022
THE BENHAM BROTHERS: Expert Ownership for a Hostile World
David and Jason Benham, entrepreneurs and investors, join to discuss their book Expert Ownership - and their own journey to business success after being cancelled by HGTV.
Buy Expert Ownership: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1736807005/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=theurban-20
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Feb 21, 2022
How to Build Local Community
Creating community and social capital is a frequent topic of conversation in our world, one in which we sense the decline of our existing community building structures. This podcast provides practical examples that you as an individual can use to start building community where you live. It's focused around various forms of institutionalized hospitality, ranging from Sunday night dinners to porch parties to in home concerts.
My writeup on the Sunday night dinner concept: https://www.aaronrenn.com/2014/03/09/sunday-night-dinner-in-indianapolis/
This episode sponsored by Gold River Trading Co. teas: https://goldriverco.com/ (Use discount code RENN10 for 10% off your oder).
Subscribe to my newsletter at: https://aaronrenn.substack.com
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Feb 16, 2022
MATT HENNESSEY: Generation X's Moment of Truth
Generation X has been something of a lost generation. Sandwiched between the much larger Baby Boomer and Millennial generations, Generation X has often been overlooked. It has also preferred standing aloof, ironically critiquing society rather than seeking to take the reins and reshape it. Today, as American struggles under aging Boomer leadership, and Millennials and Gen Z get absorbed into technology, what role should America's last analog generation play?
The Wall Street Journal's Matt Hennessey, author of the book Zero Hour for Gen X, joins me live to discuss these and other questions related to the enigma that is Generation X.
Buy Matt Hennessey's book Zero Hour for Gen X: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1641770643/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=theurban-20
Subscribe to my newsletter for interview and podcast transcripts, and more exclusive content: https://aaronrenn.substack.com
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Feb 15, 2022
JULIUS KREIN: Can Conservatism Be More Than a Grudge?
Julius Krein is the editor of American Affairs magazine, a reformist conservative policy journal, joins me to discuss why the Republican Party as currently constituted can't succeed, what's untrue in conservative dogma, and what conservatives should do next to be more successful and to genuinely help the country.
American Affairs Journal: https://americanaffairsjournal.org/
Julius Krein's essay Can Conservatism Be More Than a Grudge? https://ksr.hkspublications.org/2021/05/18/can-conservatism-be-more-than-a-grudge/
Subscribe to my newsletter for interview and podcast transcripts, and more exclusive content: https://aaronrenn.substack.com
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Feb 14, 2022
Rediscovering the Lost Virtues of Authority (Newsletter #61)
This month's newsletter is about how America has witnessed a profound decline of the exercise of authority by those who legitimately possess it in order to promote the public welfare. The evangelical church in particular seems to have defective process of elite formation, and is implicitly hostile to Christians exercising authority, especially doing so as Christians. This needs to change both for the sake of the church and America.
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Feb 9, 2022
LYMAN STONE: Lutheranism in America
Demographer and Lutheran Lyman Stone joins us to discuss Lutheranism in America. What are the distinctives of Lutheranism? How did Lutheranism get established in the United States? What are the unique features of how it is organized? Why is the profile of American Lutheranism lower than some smaller denominations like Presbyterianism?
Subscribe to my newsletter: https://aaronrenn.substack.com/
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Feb 7, 2022
The Case Against the Case Against Bill Hybels
Since listeners expressed an interest in hearing about this, I revisit the sexual harassment and abuse accusations made against against former Willow Creek pastor Bill Hybels. In contrast to those many against many others, which were heavily substantiated, very little evidence was publicly presented demonstrating that the accusations were true. This is not to say that Hybels is innocent, merely that that the case against him that's been presented is not especially strong. I also examine the case of Canadian radio personality Jian Ghomeshi, who was also credibly accused of sexual misconduct by multiple credible accusers and was event put on trial for it. Ghomeshi was exonerated when he produced evidence showing that this accusers lied.
Willow Creek Investigative Report on Bill Hybels: https://globalleadership.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/IAGReport_022819.pdf
New York Times article on Bill Hybels: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/05/us/bill-hybels-willow-creek-pat-baranowski.html
Sub…
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Feb 4, 2022
JOEL KOTKIN: Our Feudal Future
Leading cultural analyst and policy maven Joel Kotkin will join me to discuss his book The Coming of Neo-Feudalism, as well as the state of California vs. Texas and more. Kotkin will help provide a map to understand the today's geopolitical and economic realities in America.
Buy Joel Kotkin's The Coming of Neofeudalism: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1641770945/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=theurban-20
Visit my Substack at: https://aaronrenn.substack.com
Our Sponsor: Gold River Trading Co. speciality teas: https://goldriverco.com/ (Use discount code RENN10 for 10% off your order).
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Jan 31, 2022
A Field Guide to Chambers of Commerce
Many Republicans love to criticize the "Chamber of Commerce." But what is the chamber of commerce? In this podcast I answer that question, as well as describing the different types of chambers of commerce (there are many of them). I examine what they do, their basic political orientations, and why they will always oppose social conservative ideas.
Article Referenced: Indiana under Republican Rule - https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2021/11/indiana-under-republican-rule-pro-business-policy-disappoints-outside-the-sunbelt/
This episode sponsored by Gold River Trading Co. teas: https://goldriverco.com/ (Use discount code RENN10 for 10% off your oder).
Subscribe to my newsletter at: https://aaronrenn.substack.com/
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Jan 24, 2022
You Can't Beat Something With Nothing
Conservatives haven't tended to oppose things. As William F. Buckley famously put it, to "stand athwart history yelling Stop!" But purely oppositional or defensive approached tend to get steamrolled in the long term. You can't be something with nothing. You can't be someone else's proposal, even a bad proposal, to fix a real problem with no proposal. This is seen most notably in the Republican Party's approach to health care. What is the Republican health care plan? There isn't one and never has been.
If you are someone who does not like ideas that other people are pushing, an important question to ask yourself is: what's my alternative?
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Jan 17, 2022
The Pro-Life Movement's Moral Doublespeak (Newsletter #60)
A new video from a pro-life group about "pro-choice men" exposes once again the conservative Christian world's penchant for blaming men even for the things women do. We see this clearly on display in the pro-life movement in how, while they say abortion is murder and the worst social evil in the country, they describe women who abort their babies as victims, even casting blame at men as in this video. Men are also blamed for women in combat in the military, any martial or family problems, etc.
This is a form of moral doublespeak, and was identified in part as far by as 1987 by no less than famed sociologist James Davison Hunter. It's a big reason why men should exercise extreme caution in believing and acting on anything these conservative ministers tell them on gender.
Video: Abortion Rights Are Pro-Choice Men's Rights - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o950k2HffWw
Become a Subscriber on Substack: https://aaronrenn.substack.com/
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Jan 9, 2022
Beyond Economic Piety
So many arguments today de facto reduce the definition of societal flourishing to some economic definition such as GDP growth, per capita GDP, or per capita income. While economic growth is important, there are other dimensions of life that matter to most people. For example: how socially intact a community is (drugs, crime, out of wedlock birth rates, etc), the political functioning of the country, and whether a particular place is expressing people's cultural preferences. We can't allow the economy to become the sole measure of a nation's success or prosperity.
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Jan 2, 2022
How to Start Creating a Productive Urban Household
A listener asked how people who don't live on homestead farms can start creating a productive household. I share some thoughts about how people who live in urban environments can do that, primarily through in-sourcing things we presently pay people to do. And also through hospitality.
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Dec 26, 2021
Passing on Our Patrimony Redux
Returning to the theme of passing on our patrimony, I discuss the great patriotic and folks song of America, using Columbia the Gem of the Ocean as an example. Contrary to popular belief, the celebration of Christopher Columbus in America did not originate with Italian-Americans in the early 20th century. Instead, Columbus has a very long history of association with the United States. In fact, Columbia is simply an alternative name for the United States, as in the District of Columbia. Columbia is also the name of the female symbol of the United States.
I learned patriotic songs like Columbia the Gem of the Ocean in music class in elementary school. But today you can't rely on school or organizations like the Boy Scouts to teach this part of our American patrimony to your children. Instead, you need to make sure they learn these great patriotic and folks songs that are part of our cultural treasury.
A list of American patriotic songs from Scout Songs: https://www.scoutsongs.com/categ…
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Dec 20, 2021
Catholic Integralism Is an Op
Catholic integralism is a political philosophy that advocates for America to become a Catholic state, with no separation of church and state, and policy and law informed by Catholic teaching.
Despite having a minuscule number of supporters, Catholic integralism has received a lot of press, and gets prime booking as part of the post-liberal movement. Also, despite being an extremist ideology, Catholic integralism and its advocates are treated as totally legitimate in a way that even much more moderate advocates of political change in the US.
The best way to view Catholic integralism is as a movement that's useful to established power and sucking the oxygen out of the room for dissident. Its functional purpose is to collect and harmlessly discharge dissatisfaction with the political status quo. It is very useful to established power in the way it functions to limit the reach of other approaches that are more practical in America and more realistic to bring into being.
Become a Subscri…
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Dec 15, 2021
What Happens When Grandma Doesn't Die? (Newsletter #59)
What happens when you are a grandparent but never get to really be the grandparent at Christmas because your own parents are still alive? What happens to people like poor Prince Charles who sit in the waiting room for decades because generational turnover never happened? This newsletter contains reflections on how generational turnover got stuck as a result of lengthening life spans and what we can start doing about it. Also: Related observations on how people are even starting to politicize their own deaths.
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Dec 14, 2021
SEAN CLIFFORD: Fighting Back Against Pornography
Sean Clifford is the CEO of Canopy, a company that produces software for blocking pornography on phones and other devices. We'll discuss the problem of porn today, how today's porn differs from yesterday's, how Canopy works to block porn, and how we can create a broader cultural pushback against pornography.
Visit Canopy's Web Site at: https://canopy.us/
TGC: The Most Effective Technology on the Planet to Block Pornography: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/the-most-effective-technology-on-the-planet-to-block-pornography/
EPPC: How Social Media Harms Children and Families: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0C_wHt7LK4
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Dec 7, 2021
ARTHUR KWON LEE: Aesthetics, Art, and America
Arthur Kwon Lee is the rare combo of a conservative Christian who also received acclaim and solo gallery exhibitions in the New York City art world. He joins us to discuss how, despite being the son of a Presbyterian minister, he was once an atheist; why he is a conservative for aesthetic reasons; what's wrong with art and aesthetics in modern day America (and in the church), what needs to be changed; and his own efforts in the Genesis Council to move in a better direction.
Watch this interview on Youtube to see the art at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VifM8XB09A
Web Site: https://www.arthurkwonlee.com/
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Dec 6, 2021
Are You Willing to Be the Elite?
Everybody today likes to complain about the failures of elites. There's a lot to complain about. But are we willing to be elites ourselves? Are we willing to step into elite roles and change things for the better? We have to be the elite we want to see in the world if we want better leadership in today's world.
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Dec 1, 2021
RORY GROVES: Durable Trades
Occupations are regularly created and destroyed in modern industrial America. But Rory Groves went back to the jobs that existed at the founding of the country to see which ones have stood the test of time for over 200 years, compiling them into his book Durable Trades: Family-Centered Economies That Have Stood the Test of Time. From farmer to midwife to coachman to brewer, Rory and I talk about trades that have proven themselves durable and how they are still alive in the world today. And how many of them still support creating functional, productive households in the 21st century.
Buy Durable Trades on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1725274140/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=theurban-20
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Dec 1, 2021
The Guardian Declares a Jihad on Moscow, Idaho
Following on the heels of a hit job in Vice, the Guardian has published three articles in the past month attacking Christ Church and the Moscow, Idaho community around Doug Wilson. I examine the latest hit piece, using it to show how the media operates in these situations and the likely objectives of the Guardian's crusade, namely to sever the relationship between the Moscow people and their media partners. I also show why high quality work of the type Moscow produces freaks the left out. And give a few reasons why the latest hit piece is a very low quality trash journalism.
The Guardian: US Christian right group wages culture war with books, cartoon and nature doc - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/28/christ-church-us-christian-right-group-books-cartoon-nature-doc
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Nov 29, 2021
An Elite Church for the Elite
Tell people you are starting a church to reach the homeless, a new immigrant ethnic group in town, a neighborhood, etc. and you'll be praised. But people would look at you sideways if you said you wanted to start a church to reach the elite.
This episode discusses the need for more Protestant elite formation, why existing elites who are still theologically orthodox continue to stay with mainline denominations like Episcopalianism, the functions of elite institutions, what conservative Protestants needs to change in their elite formation approaches, and why they should study Catholic approaches.
Become a Member or Subscriber on Patreon at: https://www.patreon.com/masculinist
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Nov 22, 2021
Don't Give in to Apocalyptic Thinking
As we approach the US Thanksgiving holiday, I again remind people not to give into despair, to apocalyptic thinking, etc. Things are in some ways far worse than people think in the US, but there's more room for hope than people believe. Deliberately going through all that we have to be thankful for is a good way to avoid giving into apocalyptic thinking and stay hopeful.
Also: Indiana under Republican rule and the controversies at World magazine.
My article on Indiana under Republican rule: https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2021/11/indiana-under-republican-rule-pro-business-policy-disappoints-outside-the-sunbelt/
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Nov 17, 2021
MICHAEL FOSTER & DOMINIC TENNANT: It's Good to Be a Man
Michael Foster and Dominic "Bnonn" Tennant join me to discuss their web project and forthcoming book It's Good to Be a Man. We discuss:
* How they got interested in men's issues
* How they met and launched It's Good to Be a Man
* The "war of the patriarchies"
* The relationship of Fatherhood to manhood
* Gravitas
* Fraternity
* Mission
* The manosphere and pagan masculinity movement.
Buy the book: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1954887051/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=theurban-20
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Nov 16, 2021
Lessons from the Way Mormons Choose Elites
Religion is in decline in America, but there's an exception: the Mormon church. Mormonism is growing, has strong family formation dynamics, healthy communities, good aesthetics, and strong finances.
One factor in Mormon outperformance is the way Mormons choose elites. Rather than relying on a self-selected professional leadership pool, Mormons screen for, identify, develop, and promote people who have demonstrated leadership competence and skin in the game. They also rely largely on unpaid lay leader instead of a paid, professional clergy.
A result of this has been a church whose leaderships ranks are staffed with highly talented and accomplished people. Mitt Romney, for example, served as the equivalent of a parish priest for several years while also running Bain Capital, something unthinkable in the Christian church.
While Christianity has its own theological and ecclesiastical reasons for the way it chooses elites, there are some lessons that could be learned by analysis of the M…
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Nov 14, 2021
Loyalty Is the Coin of the Realm (Newsletter #58)
In the November newsletter I discuss the loyalty and its discontents. Historically, disloyalty or treachery was considered the vilest of crimes. Fidelity in relationships at one point even constituted the organizing structure of Western society. But as we've shifted to a consent based culture, loyalty is now too frequently non-existent. Christians will even explicitly disparage loyalty as a form of ungodliness. This bizarre state of affairs must be rectified at some level as part of any restoration of healthy functioning to society or the church. For the individual Christian man, finding a band of brothers, perhaps a very small one to start, in which one is joined in common purpose and common loyalty is critical.
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Nov 11, 2021
JOHN MOODY: Resistance Is Fertile
John Moody is Kentucky a homesteader with an M.Div. who founded an organic food buying club in Louisville. He joins the show to talk about equipping your family for the 21st century world through creating a fertile and productive household by acquiring skills, growing food, etc.
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Nov 9, 2021
Passing on Your Patrimony
Using the recent celebrations of Reformation Day and All Saints Day, I discuss why the church (especially the Protestant evangelical church) needs to be more attuned to its history and cultural patrimony. This includes things like the great English language hymns, but also simply a greater awareness of the incredible legacy of faithfulness and sacrifice that previous generations made to bring us into being and enable us to be Christians today.
Links:
American Reformer: Evangelicalism's Second-Class Status in Conservatism - https://americanreformer.org/evangelicalisms-second-class-status-in-conservatism/
A Mighty Fortress Is Our God: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9uGNb8Zfic
For All the Saints: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPjCQ_SRGqM
The Lion King: "You Don't Even Know Who You Are" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmWKvvXzlyg
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Nov 2, 2021
Who Are the Evangelical Elite? And Are They Failing?
There's been a recent flurry of articles and podcasts discussing the failure of evangelical elites, whether they have in fact failed, wondering who these so-called elites are, disclaiming that people are elites, etc.
This week I look at the question of who the evangelical elite are, and whether or not they are doing a good job. I start by reprising the elite theory of E. Digby Baltzell, and also the views of others elite theorists like James Burnham, Robert Michels, C. Wright Mills, and Robert Dahl.
From this I create a definition of what an elite is and how elite power functions and apply it to America as a whole. Then I apply it to evangelicalism to show how the elites of various evangelical subdomains can be identified.
Looking specifically at the group often labeled Big Eva, I name names in terms of who is doing poorly, who is doing well, and who is struggling to adapt to the times.
I also examine and apply a different definition of the elite adapted from Kevin DeYoung, and dis…
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Oct 26, 2021
Kids These Days
There's a low grade moral panic about the state of Generation Z, fueled by bizarre Tik Tok videos, stories of teen girls suffering depression from not getting enough likes on Instagram, etc. But moral panics over the degeneracy of the youth are recurring features of our society. The hippies, the goths, etc. surely inspired similar reactions.
This is not to say that all is well with Generation Z. They have had too much unfiltered, unrestricted access to social media technology, but if the past is a guide, there will be something of a correction going forward as parents and societies try to foster a healthier relationship between kids and technology. Just as many of the hippies ended as yuppies, many of these Generation Z kids will surely end up much different in mature adulthood than they are today.
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Oct 19, 2021
Women Openly Dumping Their Husbands for Selfish Reasons
Women initiate the vast majority of divorces. It used to be that women felt the need to give a justification for divorcing their husbands. For example, they might say that he was emotionally abusive or neglectful. But today they increasingly no longer feel compelled to do that. Recent articles in the New York Times from Lara Bazelon and Vogue about the British singer Adele feature women proudly stating that they divorced husbands who did nothing wrong for purely selfish reasons. These powerful culture shaping organs are broadcasting to women that openly divorcing for selfish reasons is acceptable. They no longer need have a reason to dump their husbands.
Lara Bazelon: Divorce Can Be an Act of Radical Self-Love: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/30/opinion/divorce-children.html
Vogue: Adele on the Other Side: https://www.vogue.com/article/adele-cover-november-2021
Amazon Alexa Superbowl Ad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxNxqveseyI
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Oct 13, 2021
Life's Not Fair (Masculinist #57)
There are many aspects of life that are unfair. Often these take the form of hidden rules about how the world really works that can be in conflict with the nominal rules about how it is supposed to work.
As men, we need to be aware of these rules and they ways that some of them can put us as a disadvantage. This is not so that we can cower in fear, but rather so that we can be smartly and strategically courageous.
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Oct 12, 2021
Protecting Your Opponents from Themselves
In my previous podcast series on American conservatism, I observed that they have a pattern of jumping into the breach to try to defend their opponents from the consequences of those opponents' own ideology. For example, they defended the school administrators against the student radicals of the 60s when the administrators themselves were liberals implacable hostile to conservatism. In fact, some of those university leaders had previously trashed William F. Buckley over God and Man at Yale.
We see this pattern persist into the present, most recently on display last week when New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the city would eliminate gifted and talented programs in the city's public schools. Conservatives were outraged. I discuss this reaction and what it reveals about conservative patterns of behavior.
Once More Into the Breach Podcast: https://themasculinist.buzzsprout.com/1330924/8060365-once-more-into-the-breach
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Oct 6, 2021
The Small Mindedness of the Middle Class
The upper class and the intellectuals have always particularly loathed the middle class. The novels of Sinclair Lewis or the essays of H. L. Mencken exhibit this mindset. Conservatives, whose social base and principal character is middle class, have pushed back against this, celebrating middle class values. It's worth considering, however, whether there is something to the critique of the middle class. Middle class values too often revolve around small pleasures and respectability that fatally compromise their ability to politically or culturally engage with the world.
My article on Grand Rapids: https://www.city-journal.org/html/manufacturing-comeback-15833.html
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Sep 29, 2021
Learning from Marcuse
American conservatives rarely read or engage with leftist thought outside of the mass media. This is a weakness because if they did do so, they'd find that serious thinkers on the left are often very smart and have important insights about our world. This includes people often stigmatized as bogeymen (by people who have never read them) like the postmodernists or the Frankfurt School.
This podcast talks briefly about a couple of insights from Herbert Marcuse's book One Dimensional Man. Although an extremely difficult read, this 1950s work makes many observations about Western society that remain as relevant as ever and must be confronted by anyone seeking to change the system.
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Sep 21, 2021
The Priority of Owned Space
This week's podcast is the audio of a presentation I gave at a conference on Christian localism called County Before Country. It discusses my positive/neutral/negative world framework for understanding the church's current situation. It then covers a strategy for achieving owned spaces as a possible response to this. The material is largely derived from Masc #13 and Masc #43, but in an accessible, presentation style format.
A video of this presentation can be seen at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0knvBZ5FlgI
Masc #13: The Lost World of American Evangelicalism: https://themasculinist.com/the-masculinist-13-the-lost-world-of-american-evangelicalism/
Masc #43: The Importance of Owned Space: https://themasculinist.com/the-masculinist-43-the-importance-of-owned-space/
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Sep 15, 2021
Understanding Your Social Capital Score (Masculinist #56)
Social capital is the relationships, identities, etc. we can draw on in building a life. This issue discusses social capital and provided a diagnostic you can use to assess the amounts of social capital you can draw on across the dimensions of family, friendships, location, and church.
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Sep 14, 2021
The Cultural Contradictions of Conservative Values
If you made a list of what a right wing fantasy utopia would look like for someone with localist leanings, you'll discover that the only people who have successfully produced those environments are on the left. In this podcast I examine the cultural contradictions of conservative values, showing how in practice the values of conservatives themselves have produced some - not all, but some - of the dysfunction in which they live.
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Sep 7, 2021
What to Think About When You Think About Moving
Americans are relocating, for economic, political, religious, or lifestyle reasons. But what should we think about when we think about moving? This podcast examines a number of factors to consider: whether you having a historic connection to or family in a place, economic prospects, costs and whether you can really afford to live there, whether you actually like it (not just think you'll like it), and whether you can find a church you like there.
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Aug 31, 2021
Do the Collapse
Mars Hill Church collapsed suddenly. The American backed Afghan regime collapsed almost instantly as America withdrew. The Berlin Wall fell unexpectedly in 1989 and the Soviet Union collapsed at a time when few expected it.
Sudden collapse of organizations and countries does happen. Could it happen to the United States? In this episode I examine both sides of the question and how to think about the dynamics of collapse.
Dietrich Dörner: The Logic of Failure - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0201479486/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=theurban-20
Lionel Shriver: The Mandibles - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/006232828X/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=theurban-20
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Aug 17, 2021
Mars Hill and Complementarianism
This week I weigh in with some initial thoughts on the Christianity Today podcast The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill. Although there are some legitimate critiques of the way CT has positioned the materials, complementarians need to accept that Mark Driscoll legitimately does reflect poorly on the movement as a whole.
Freddie deBoer: Who Tells Them Things They Don't Want to Hear? - https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/who-tells-them-what-they-dont-want
Masc #7: Accountability for Failure - https://themasculinist.com/the-masculinist-7-accountability-for-failure/
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Aug 16, 2021
Why the Church Needs to Rethink Race (Masculinist #55)
This month concluded a three part series on the Dissident Right, the mostly online world of right wing politics that has attracted millions of followers. It describes the Dissident Right's views on race. At least some people in the Dissident Right argue for a genetic basis of race differences. In addition to discussing their views, it covers the state of science on genetics (with a skeptical take on genetic explanations for human outcomes), four societal forces pushing people in a Dissident Right direction, and how the church should respond to the challenges of race relations.
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Aug 10, 2021
Why You Need to Know What's On Your Rap Sheet
What are people saying about you when you aren't in the room? Everybody has a rap sheet. The only question is whether we know what's on ours. Unless we know what people really think of us, we have no opportunity to improve on our weaknesses.
In this podcast I share some of the personal, painful feedback I received. I also discuss ways you can look for good feedback for yourself. And philosophies about how to deal with our weaknesses.
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Aug 3, 2021
Succession Planning in Churches
In 2013 Bill Hybels foretold a looming succession crisis for churches. He ended up being more right than he knew. He observed that there had been an explosion of mega-churches, many still led by a founding pastor approaching retirement age.
His prophecy has very much come true. Not only did his own succession not go well, we've seen several succession plans unravel recently. John Piper's successor at Bethlehem Baptist recently resigned. There are pastoral searches underway for two of the three major locations at the spin off churches of Redeemer Presbyterian in New York City. And the challenges facing David Platt and McLean Bible Church likely also have some roots in succession.
There are three major models of succession: the internal successor, the external peer successor, and the unofficial interim. In this podcast I discuss these models, as well as other considerations of succession. Given high profile succession challenges we've seen at churches run by world class leaders, this i…
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Jul 29, 2021
Power Politics at Church
A recent controversy over the election of elders at McLean Bible Church shows that power politics rule in the religious world as much as the secular one. It's an illustration of what people in power are willing to do to win.
Christianity Today: Platt’s McLean Bible Church Hit With Attempted Takeover, Lawsuit from Opposition: https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2021/july/david-platt-mclean-bible-church-elder-race-politics-critics.html
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Jul 20, 2021
How We End Up With Pews Full of Older Singles
The media glamorizes people making the choice to defer marriage and children in order to focus on other priorities like career. While this is a free country and people absolutely have the right to live their lives how they want, the longer term consequences of this for many is not as well advertised. The proliferation of older singles in the pews is in part a downstream consequence of these decisions. The church should not simply become an underwriter of other people's choices to live life on their own terms. While the church absolutely be adjusting to the new realities of more singles in congregations, it should also make sure the role of individual choice in how people ended up where they are is fully acknowledged. And people should be challenged to make different choices going forward.
I also look back at a famous sermon on abuse by Jason Meyer, the successor to superstar evangelical John Piper as senior pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church.
Blog post on Jason Meyer's sermon: https:…
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Jul 13, 2021
The Elite-Adjacent Evangelical
Are the top people in the evangelical world really elite? Are they elite evangelicals or evangelical elites? In reality, they are a sort of sub-elite, more adjacent to than part of the genuine American elite. This episode looks at how to think about and talk about the top people within evangelicalism. It also examines the roots of progressive energy in red states in the "progressive yokel."
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Jul 13, 2021
Taking the Red Pill (Masculinist #54)
This is the second installment in a series looking at the Dissident Right. This series is covering five major commonalities of Dissident Right groups, with this issue covering red pill sexuality and transgressive affect.
Red pill sexuality is a model of intersexual dynamics based on evolutionary psychology, and a library of techniques for picking up or interacting with women known as "Game." Transgressive affect refers to the use of provocative or offensive images or rhetoric as a shock tactic.
The email version of this issue, which has the images of sample memes and links to further resources, is available at: https://themasculinist.com/the-masculinist-54-taking-the-red-pill/
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Jul 6, 2021
What We Can Learn from the Rosenberg Case
It's been 70 years since Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were found guilty of spying for the Soviets and sentenced to death. The left continues to discuss this case and argue that the Rosenbergs (or at least Ethel) were victims of injustice. We can learn patterns of left-wing behavior from observing this case, including that they are relentless and never give up, that they are loyal, and that they use ever shifting rhetoric that often "disguises their power levels." I discuss these patterns and then apply them to show how we might expect the sexuality debates in the PCA (Presbyterian Church in America) to play out over time (in part).
Links to articles about the Rosenberg case.
London Review of Books: How Utterly Depraved - https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v43/n13/deborah-friedell/how-utterly-depraved
NYT: The Rosenbergs, 50 Years Later; Yes, They Were Guilty. But of What Exactly? - https://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/15/weekinreview/nation-rosenbergs-50-years-later-yes-they-were-guilty-but-w…
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Jun 29, 2021
Classical Education Is Not Enough
Conservatives and Christians are very enamored of classical education. Studying the classics, the American founding, etc. are important things to do. But there are other important areas that people living in today's world. These items, including intersexual dynamics, the impact of industrialization, the revolution in scale, and the implications of mass media are often understudied. This leaves conservatives with key blind spots.
This episode also includes further thoughts on playing for keeps and whether or not pastors should use packaged sermons, research assistants, or other help.
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Jun 22, 2021
Playing for Keeps
Darren Beattie once noted that "there is a profound psychological gulf between playing for scraps and playing for keeps." This podcast is a short discussion of how people on the left play for keeps while too often conservatives seem to be playing for scraps.
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Jun 15, 2021
What Does It Really Mean to Be Red Pilled?
People on the internet throw the term "red pilled" around a lot. It obviously derives from the film the Matrix. But how should we think about the term and what it means? I discuss in using the examples of the statistics I've highlighted about how women initiate around 70% of divorces, doomsday cults, the Matrix, and Plato's Republic. To be red pilled involves some sort of painful disconnecting from beliefs that have shaped our reality or identity. This is difficult to do, which is why we need to think as much about how we deliver information as what information we are delivering.
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Jun 14, 2021
Understanding the Dissident Right (Masculinist #53)
Why do young men today turn to online men's gurus instead of to the church for identity, meaning, belonging, and guidance in the current age? This issue looks at the "Dissident Right," a large grouping of people and movements that accounts for a good chunk of these online gurus.
I discuss what the Dissident Right is, how it differs from a different group the New Right, what groups of people constitute it, and what some of its major characteristics are. This issue in particular discussed the atheist metaphysics and Nietzschean ethics shared by many of these figures.
Books and other items referenced in this issue.
George Hawley: Making Sense of the Alt-Right - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0231185138/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=theurban-20
Jordan Peterson: 12 Rules for Life - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0141988517/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=theurban-20
Mike Cernovich: Gorilla Mindset - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1514672111/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie…
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Jun 8, 2021
A Different Kind of Conservatism
In this final podcast installment looking at the fall of the old WASP establishment, we'll compare sociologist E. Digby Baltzell's conservative defense of organic social hierarchy with today's movement conservative that rejects social distinctions.
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Jun 1, 2021
A Man In Full
This episode looks at the implications of the fall of the WASP establishment by looking at the life and career of J. Irwin Miller, a WASP industrialist whose commitment to and investment in his town of Columbus, Indiana helped make it the Rust Belt city that never rusted. The town never went into decline and remains a top architectural destination in the United States due to Miller's leadership.
Miller was also an important national figure. The first lay leader of the National Council of Churches, an advocate for the Civil Rights Act, a leader in divestment from South Africa over Apartheid, and board member of AT&T, Yale, the Ford Foundation, and the Museum of Modern Art.
Recognizing his caliber of leadership, Esquire magazine featured Miller on its cover with the caption, "This man ought to be the next president of the United States."
Miller's life illustrates a tradition of leadership and community service that's largely disappeared in the wake of the collapse of the establishment…
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May 25, 2021
The Decline of the Gentleman
Conservatives today bemoan the fact that men no longer behave as gentlemen. Yet their exhortations on the topic are without effect.
E. Digby Baltzell's writings on the American upper class shed light on this decline of the gentleman. He notes that an upper class establishment, as American had until the 1960s, made the social, moral, and behavioral codes of the upper class normative, or at least aspirational for society at large. The end of the establishment meant that those standards also went out the window.
It's also the case that the gentleman's code as we understand it was a product of the Anglo-American upper class and especially the Victorian era. It was not universal. This period had organic social hierarchy, patriarchal families, and significant restrictions on female behavior, all of which those who argue men should behave like the gentlemen of that era reject.
The largely Boomer social conservatives bleating about being a gentleman should be ignored. Instead, we as men sho…
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May 18, 2021
The Consequences of the Fall of the Establishment
This episode in my series on the historic Protestant Establishment in the United States looks at the role the collapse of that establishment played in many of the dysfunctions of our age. These include the erosion of political norms, the decline of the gentleman, the fading away of the ethos of "fair play," the rise of charismatic politicians like Trump, and the decline of trust in institutions.
Rediscovering E. Digby Baltzell's Sociology of Elites: https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2021/02/rediscovering-e-digby-baltzells-sociology-of-elites/
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May 11, 2021
The Evolution of the American Upper Class
This episode discusses the evolution of the American upper class from a local and familial to a national and associational community. It describes the nationalization and industrialization of the US in the post-Civil War era. And it explains the challenges faced by the old WASP establishment leading up to its demise in the 1960s: managerialism, ethno-religious exclusion, and the failure to take up leadership positions in society.
Rediscovering E. Digby Baltzell's Sociology of Elites: https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2021/02/rediscovering-e-digby-baltzells-sociology-of-elites/
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May 11, 2021
Build Men Up, Don't Tear Women Down (Masculinist #52)
Henry Kissinger quipped, "No one will ever win the battle of the sexes. There's too much fraternizing with the enemy." This encapsulates the broader truth about the relationship between the sexes. We are in this boat together. When men struggle, it affects men's relational prospects. But that's also true the other way around. We should want to see women flourish. So in working to build up men, we should not look to tear down women.
Also, in this issue I provide an extended excerpt from my major retrospective on the old White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) establishment, and the implications of its collapse. As a product of Catholic peasant stock on both sides of my family, this was an interesting one to research. It is also a critical topic to understand the dynamics of our contemporary world.
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May 4, 2021
The White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) Establishment
Social class has fallen off the radar in America, but remains key to understanding many of the problems we face today in society. This includes everything from the erosion of political norms to men no longer behaving as gentlemen.
These problems are traceable in part to the fall of the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) establishment. Sociologist E. Digby Baltzell, who popularized the term WASP, predicted many of these problems years ago. In a new podcast series starting today, we will examine his work and what it tells us about America.
In this episode we will define and distinguish between the elite, the wealthy and the upper class. We well also talk about what it means to be a well-functioning (aristocratic) vs. poorly-functioning (caste) upper class. And we'll define authority and establishment, looking at what makes for a well-structured (establishment) and poorly-structured (caste) elite. Finally, we'll talk about the very specific meaning that the term WASP itself has.
These…
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Apr 27, 2021
The Cost of the Decline of Mainline Protestantism
The decline of Mainline Protestantism, that is the historically prominent American Protestant denominations, had profound consequences for America and American Christianity. Mainline Protestantism was how Christianity was integrated with and represented in society as a whole. With the decline of the mainline denominations, America ceased to be a Protestant, and ultimately Christian nation.
This podcasts describes what Mainline Protestantism is, the origins of the term "mainline", the nature of their decline, their role in the sacred order of society, what may have led to their decline, and the consequences for the church and society.
David A. Hollinger, "After Cloven Tongues of Fire: Ecumenical Protestantism and the Modern American Encounter with Diversity": https://academic.oup.com/jah/article-abstract/98/1/21/873365
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Apr 20, 2021
Two Virtues of Fundamentalism
Everybody likes to beat up on fundamentalists. I grew up in a rural, fundamentalist, pentecostal church. And while I am not a fundamentalist today and think they get a lot of things wrong, they also have some virtues we should appreciate. In this episode is discuss the power of a simple, naive faith, and the willingness to embrace and teach unpopular doctrines.
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Apr 16, 2021
If You're Debating Substance, You've Already Lost (Masculinist #51)
Rational, logical argument is often a recipe for losing debates today. Rather, winning battled depends heavily on emotional appeals and above all seizing the cultural high ground. James Davison Hunter showed the importance of networks and institutions at the cultural center in determining society outcomes.
The New Calvinism movement is an example of an instantiation of Hunter's idea, with celebrity preachers and other key figures creating networks and institutions to achieve power over their subdomain of Evangelicalism. The debates over the Statement on Social Justice show the futility of logical argumentation in the face of superior cultural power.
Those engaged in debates and disputes within the church and society must understand the full spectrum of considerations around power and persuasion, not just make logical arguments.
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Apr 13, 2021
A Report from the Gospel Coalition
The Gospel Coalition is the flagship organization of the New Calvinism movement. They hold their major conference every two years in Indianapolis. Since I'm now back in Indy and they were meeting in person here despite Covid-19, I decided to attend and check it out.
This podcast was recorded in the middle of the conference to share a few observations about it, and the New Calvinism movement generally. The conference showcases two of the great strengths of the movement: its intellectual orientation (serious people talking seriously about serious things) and their excellence in public speaking.
For further reference:
Noah Smith on experts who lie: https://noahpinion.substack.com/p/yes-experts-will-lie-to-you-sometimes
My interview with sociologist Brad Vermurlen on New Calvinism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNA0ic1asbw
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Apr 6, 2021
Metaphors of Race Relations
In their book Metaphors We Live By, George Lakoff and Mark Johnson noted how our language, and very way of perceiving the world, is saturated with metaphor. We use the metaphor "Love is war," for example, when describing someone as a relational "conquest."
Metaphors, analogies, etc. are a helpful and essential way of making sense of the world. But the metaphors we live by can, as with "love is war," import ways of thinking about issues that may not be entirely healthy.
In this podcast we examine metaphors used for understanding race relations in America, and how we might be able to positively reframe our challenges using a different metaphor for thinking about them.
Buy Metaphors We Live By: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0226468011/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=theurban-20
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Mar 31, 2021
Don't Let the News Cycle Set Your Agenda
In our 24x7 media and social media saturated world, it's very easy for us to spend too much time engaging in the controversies of the day and not focusing on what's important to our own long term agenda. It's said that the media can't tell you what to think, but they can tell you what to think about. Merely focusing on something elevates its importance in our mind. We need to be careful where we are putting our focus so that we don't end up letting the media subtly rewire our agenda without us even noticing it.
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Mar 23, 2021
Organic Community
Our relationships in life can often be characterized as organic or inorganic, as naturally occurring or as artificial, consciously chosen or constructed. Organic relationship tends to represent strong ties, inorganic relationship weak ties. Inorganic relationships are very powerful, but often can't be relied on when we need them. Organic relationships are the foundational base of social capital.
More on community: https://socialsci.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Sociology/Book%3A_Sociology_(Boundless)/17%3A_Population_and_Urbanization/17.04%3A_Urban_Life/17.4G%3A_Community
Studies from the JEC Social Capital Project: https://www.jec.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/republicans/socialcapitalproject
Alan Ehrenhalt's The Lost City: The Forgotten Virtues of Community in America: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0465041930/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=theurban-20
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Mar 16, 2021
The Composition of Bodies
People tend to look at the compositions of bodies like legislatures or boards of directors based on attributes like party affiliation or race and gender. But there are other characteristics like professional background, geographic origin, and educational experience that are often even more revealing of how people think about the world. This can give important insights into organizational dynamics.
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Mar 15, 2021
The Truth About Online Dating (Masculinist #50)
This is the audio edition of Masculinist newsletter #50, all about online dating. It reviews the facts revealed through various studies of online dating markets. (This issue is very chart intensive, so it is worth looking at online even though I describe the contents of the charts in this audiocast.
I also discuss how online dating represents the "globalization" of the dating market, with similar impacts to economic globalization in producing high levels of inequality. And I note how the way these sites are skewed towards looks, and the dynamics of responses to women can make online dating an unfavorable environment to men who are not in the top 10-20% of men in terms of looks.
Online dating is a tool and there's no shame in using it. The point is that to make intelligent choices around online dating, we need to be aware of the dynamics of how it actually functions.
Read the newsletter online at: https://themasculinist.com/the-truth-about-online-dating/
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Mar 9, 2021
Perceptions of Time
Our perception of time and relation to it radically shifts over the course of our lives. Our perception of the flow of time accelerates as we age, for example.
It's not until around age 35 that we get the ability to intellectually and emotionally relate to the future story arc of our lives. That's when we start being able to realize that not only have we changed in the past, we will continue to change in the future. This has profound consequences for our lives, including helping to drive the onset of the midlife crisis.
Also, our perception of events is heavily dependent on whether or not they are within our living memory. Any event within our living memory seems like it happened just yesterday, while any that happened before that seems like the distant past.
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Mar 2, 2021
Once More Into the Breach
Conservatives have long rushed to the defense of institutions and people who are threatened, even when those people and institutions were hostile to Christianity. This was true even when conservatives were a minority movement despised by all the major organs of society. They defended the university administrators during the campus unrest of the 1960s, for example, at a time when the universities were very hostile to conservatism.
Christians also behave this way. It's rooted in an identification with the mainstream of society and its institutions. But Christianity today is socially marginalized and seen as a threat to the social order and the new public morality. In that environment, American Christians need to reconcile themselves to being a minority, and start acting like it. That means letting nature take it course with many of the problems of our society. Christians need to be willing to suffer for their beliefs. Now they have to be willing to let other people suffer for theirs.
G…
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Feb 23, 2021
Changing Evangelicalism's Deal With the Republican Party
In this episode I wrap up my series on conservatism, summarizing the previous installments and encouraging conservative Evangelicals to rethink their deal with the Republican Party. Evangelicals have been the largest and most loyal voting block of the Republican Party, but have not received a return commensurate with what they've brought to the table.
While the Democratic Party may not be a viable alternative, conservative Evangelicals need to force the Republican Party to reformulate itself to better align with Evangelical priorities. And to insist on having a genuine seat at the table in defining the conservative agenda.
NBER Paper" Does Private Equity Investment in Healthcare Benefit Patients? - https://www.nber.org/papers/w28474
Brian Alexander, Glass House - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1250165776/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=theurban-20
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Feb 16, 2021
Rethinking Free Trade
Continuing with my series on conservatism, I note again that far from standing firm on timeless principles, conservatives have in fact changed their mind on many of the most basic elements of society. This includes civil rights and the nature of gender and the family.
If they themselves say that they were wrong about such fundamental things, why would anyone believe they are right about anything else? Certainly, we should be open to rethinking many other conservative dogmas, including free trade.
Economists have long argued that free trade is close to a free lunch, an unambiguous win-win in which any negative disruptions it causes will be modest and short lived. In this podcast I look at those arguments, going back in time to the era in which NAFTA and the Uruguay Round of global trade talks were taking place, and China was preparing for entry into the global trading framework.
The economic predictions of the free traders were wrong and the critics completely vindicated. The future…
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Feb 15, 2021
Defending Institutional Integrity (Masculinist #49)
This is the premier installment of the audio edition of the Masculinist newsletter. Each month, a special episode with an audio version of the newsletter will be included along with regular podcast originals.
The Masculinist #49, Defending Institutional Integrity, is about managing for institutional credibility in an age of declining trust in institutions. This includes managing for trustworthiness, competence, and missional integrity. And doing so for the long haul.
Also included in information on homeschooling for college credit, and how to use the FIRE model (financial independence, retire early) to facilitate mission. And a quote from Karl Ove Knausgaard.
If you are not a newsletter subscriber, sign up today at themasculinist.com
You can financially support the newsletter and this podcast on a monthly basis on:
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/masculinist
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Send one time gifts via:
PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/masc…
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Feb 9, 2021
Shills for Donors?
Are conservative pundits just shills for donors? We'll look a bit at the role of money in the conservative intellectual world. While money plays an important role in boundary setting, the cynical view that conservative intellectuals are just shills for donors is not true.
This podcast will give multiple examples of where money did matter, where there are potential conflicts of interests, and questions to ask about organizational structures to help understand where people who work there are coming from.
NYT: Foreign Powers Buy Influence at Think Tanks: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/07/us/politics/foreign-powers-buy-influence-at-think-tanks.html
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Feb 2, 2021
The Specter of Neoconservatism
For some critics of conservatism, the neoconservatives are a sort of bogeyman to which they often attribute conservatisms' flaws and failings. This portrait is often unfair, despite neoconservatism emerging as the dominant strain with conservatism.
This episode provides a basic overview of neoconservatism's origin and debunks certain myths about them. It explains that domestic policy, not foreign policy was its original main concern, for example. And how neoconservative foreign policy today is largely a bipartisan, mainstream consensus view in many cases.
The neoconservatives had a number of consequential wins, such as their intellectual underpinning of Mayor Giuliani's turnaround of New York City. However, there are fair critiques that can be leveled at them, including their disproportionate secularism and a weak sense of America as a historic nation that underpinned failures in Iraq and elsewhere.
The Masculinist Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheMasculinist/
Arguing…
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Jan 26, 2021
Christianity, Conservatism and Crude Oil
Who financed the rise of conservatism? A large amount of funding came from independent oil producers who were keen to avoid government regulation of their industry. They were at war with the major oil companies that descended from the Rockefeller Standard Oil monopoly, and were rightly concerned that the government might de facto cartelize oil again at their expense.
Christianity, both liberal and fundamentalist, was also heavily funded by oil money. The overlaps between the economic interest of the different camps of the oil industry with theology and politics raises profound, and frankly troubling questions that we should ponder more deeply today.
Bryan Burrough, The Big Rich: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0143116827/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?tag=theurban-20
Darren Dochuk, Anointed With Oil: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0465060862/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?tag=theurban-20
On HL Hunt supporting Barry Goldwater in 1964: https://www.nytimes.com/1964/11/01/archives/goldwater-get…
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Jan 19, 2021
The Social Origins of American Conservatism
The American conservative movement was founded by people who were largely socially outside the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) establishment of America at the time. William F. Buckely's book God and Man and Yale and the reaction to it cannot be understood without looking at this social dimension. He was an Irish Catholic criticizing the citadel of the Protestant Establishment that had graciously allowed him in the door. At the same time, the conservative movement was also unrepresentative of its current voting base of Evangelicals.
The Christian side of conservative intellectualism has always been heavily Catholic dominated, from William F. Buckley at its founding to people like Ross Douthat today. The large number of people within conservative intellectual circles that are Catholic converts (both historically and today) attests to the normative status of Catholicism within the conservative movement.
Evangelicals, while constituting perhaps the largest and most loyal voting block…
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Jan 12, 2021
The Founding of Conservatism
Many if not most conservatives in the United States have very little idea where the conservative movement originated and how it developed. This episode provides an extremely condensed summary of the founding of conservatism in the wake of World War II, as well as a bit about its history since then. Key points include:
· American conservatism is a modern political movement with postwar origins. It does not extend back to the founding, Edmund Burke, etc.
· Contrary to its stated commitment to timeless principles, the beliefs of conservatism have continuously and even radically changed over time.
· Conservatism was originally a tiny movement of people on the margins who achieved successes that were probably inconceivable to their founders.
· Conservatism was originally separate from the Republican Party, then one faction within, and now today has become indistinguishable from it. The Republican Party is monolithically conservative today.
· Social conservatives, as we understand…
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Jan 5, 2021
The Republican Party Hates Your Guts
Evangelical Protestants and socially conservative Catholics have been among the most loyal voting blocks for the Republican Party. The electoral base of the Republican Party is increasingly non-college educated, middle to working class whites. Yet it does very little for either of these constituencies in terms of delivering on their policy preferences.
Instead, the Republican Party, its donor class, and its movement conservative intellectuals largely have their own set of preferences. These are not necessarily bad or nefarious preferences, but they are out of sync with the preferences of the voting base of the Republican Party. They utilize that voting base to achieve political power but predominantly for the purpose of implementing their own agenda. Quite frequently, they actually betray their voters. A few even seem to hate the actual people who vote for their party.
This episode kicks off a series examining conservatism and the Republican Party, its history, and dynamics that few…
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Dec 30, 2020
Why It's So Important to Keep Your Morale Up
Too many Christians today evince an attitude of hopelessness and despair. Such attitudes can drain your morale and make it likely that you will preemptively surrender or sell out your posterity without a fight. It's very important that the Christian avoid hopelessness and not give in to the counsels of despair. While we should be realistic in our diagnostics, we should also understand that expected help or even victory can come from quarters we never expected.
The Last Christian Generation: https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/final-christian-generation-jeremiah/
Westminster Larger Catechism Q129: https://www.opc.org/lc.html
The Testosterone-Cortisol Ratio (Masc #29): https://themasculinist.com/the-masculinist-29-the-testosterone-cortisol-ratio/
Tweet regarding Nick Kristof and porn: https://twitter.com/aaron_renn/status/1337191256431144965
The superiority of the tit for tat strategy: https://cs.stanford.edu/people/eroberts/courses/soco/projects/1998-99/game-theory/axelr…
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Dec 23, 2020
Legitimizing the Illegitimate
Liberal groups have always treated non-incumbent conservative positions as illegitimate. Thus they do not substantively engage with them, debate or engage with their practitioners, provide platforms or space in their publications, etc.
Conservatives, by contrast, frequently give respectful hearings to liberal views, engage in substantive debates, etc. They fail to appreciate that even engaging with heterodox views in order to refute them bestows a kind of legitimacy on them. If those ideas ever achieve supremacy, however, conservatives will soon find that their own long held views will be deemed illegitimate. All debate and engagement will be ended.
We should be very thoughtful about how we engage with opponents and situations in order to avoid accidentally legitimizing the illegitimate.
John Piper, "Prayers Cause Things": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krzwmhDMvv8
Rod Dreher on Dialogue: https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/the-orthodox-left-wails-schmemann-lecture-orth…
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Dec 16, 2020
When Conservatives Won the Institutional Battle
The most consequential conservative Protestant victory of the last 100 years was likely the battle to expel liberal theology from the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod's Concordia Seminary in St. Louis.
Concordia Seminary was the center of modernist theology in the LCMS, and its faculty ignored numerous denominational resolutions against their position. When a newly elected conservative leadership in the denomination suspended Concordia Seminary's president, 90% of the faculty and most of the students walked out. The LCMS let them go and rebuilt the seminary from nearly nothing. The liberals created their own institution, the Concordia Seminary in Exile, or Seminex, which failed after only about a decade. Also, 200 liberal congregations left the LCMS and created a new, liberal denomination that ultimately merged with today's Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
In this battle, the opposite of every similar episode to date, the conservatives won and the liberals departed, leaving the…
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Dec 9, 2020
The Methodist Church Split Is a Terrible Deal for Conservatives
Conservatives have long tended to underestimate the value of institutions, and to get out maneuvered by liberals in institutional battles. As a result, it's usually conservatives who exit from institutions in order to form new ones. But because nothing has changed with them, their new institutions frequently undergo a reprise of the same problems that plagued the original ones they left.
The proposed United Methodist Church split is a good example of conservative thinking on institutions. Although the conservatives won the previous rounds of denominational votes, it is they are who are heading for the exists and leaving all the denominational infrastructure in the hands of the liberals.
Their split protocol is also a terrible deal for conservatives. It establishes the liberal position by default, and sets possible supermajority thresholds at every level to get out. This suggests many fundamentally conservative congregations will end up trapped in a now officially liberal denomination…
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Dec 2, 2020
Urban America's Labor Exploitation Racket
This week's episode is a look at how major coastal elite cities have created an economic model that depends on the exploitation of a largely immigrant labor class who serve the wants and needs of the upper middle class in these cities.
Urban dwellers heavily rely on minority or immigrant nannies, nail technicians, maids, Uber drivers, food delivery workers, laundry people, etc. Rarely are these people paid a living wage. Many of them are not even employees, with zero benefits, and who are illegally paid cash under the table. And unlike with the Ellis Island generation of immigrants, many, perhaps even a majority, of their children and grandchildren will not experience upward economic mobility. The growth of this model with an upscale class at one end and an exploited labor class at the other has fueled political discontent, with rising left-wing populist politics and the election of people like NYC Mayor Bill DeBlasio who explicitly campaigned on a theme of "two New Yorks," one rich,…
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Nov 25, 2020
Regarding Tim Keller
No one is more associated with the rise of the urban church than Tim Keller, founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in NYC. Increasingly, however, Keller has been a source of controversy and target of criticism online. What accounts for this? Is Tim Keller selling out?
Tim Keller's actions today need to be seen in the context of his entire ministry. Keller has proven himself over many decades by serving faithfully in a small town church for seven years early in his career, not publishing any books until his 50s, being willing to start Redeemer at a time when every rational person would have said he was crazy, and demonstrating high levels of competence in what he's doing. He's also shown generosity to those less famous than himself.
The root of Keller's problems today stem from a change in the times. The link below talks about the three eras of Christianity in modern America, the positive, neutral, and negative world. His ministry was perfectly tailored to the neutral world,…
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Nov 18, 2020
Urban Christian Buddhism
Catholic neoreactionary writer The Social Pathologist drew on the work of G.K. Chesterton to note how and de facto form of Buddhism had grown in the Christian church, more as a result of a loss of balance or a particular temperament or feeling than outright theological error.
This manifests itself concretely in many parts of both the Catholic and Protestant Churches today, including the urban church. We see it in how any desire that causes people to become upset can be defined as a form of idolatry. This is true especially for the supposed "idolatry of the family." A large number of people, especially women, in churches who deeply desired to be married and have children did not. Their grief over this is not evidence of idolatry but of legitimate loss. Similar things are true of teachings about dealing with things such as career failures or not getting into someone's desired college.
In essence, to be very hurt or upset by desires unfulfilled is treated as evidence that we've put our…
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Nov 11, 2020
Love Your City, Not Your Country
In this concluding episode of the series "Urban World, Urban Church" we look at several odd things about the urban church.
The first is how nationalism is increasingly disparaged in Christian circles today, while urban church people want us to strongly identify with our city. How many sermons or articles have warned about making an idol out of the city vs. making one of your nation? They seem to be encouraging us to transfer our allegiance from our country to our city.
The second is how the urban church world is very focused on starting new churches, while rarely trying to renew old ones. This is very odd in light of how they often explicitly transform an entire city. Can you transform a city of you can't transform a church? The Catholic Church is an exception in this regard, having successfully transformed many parishes as neighborhood demographics changed.
The third is how tribal these urban church groups seem to be. At the elite levels, they seem to have virtually nothing to do w…
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Nov 4, 2020
The Urban Church Has No Cultural Influence
Donald Trump shined a light that exposed a fundamental rift inside Evangelical Christianity which was previously hidden to most people. This shows the value of events that divide people in unexpected ways; they allow us to gain unexpected insights.
In identifying himself with the anti-Trump Evangelicals, Christianity Today CEO Tim Dalrymple acknowledges that the urban church elites, although they have achieved high socio-economic status, have failed to achieve cultural influence.
Contra Dalrymple, these churches have frequently explicitly sought to obtain cultural influence, which is revealed in their transformationalist vision statements around bringing "cultural renewal," "wholeness," etc to cities. While they've achieved a lot in other areas, they have not made much progress here. Instead, they have primarily acquired power and influence over the rest of Evangelicalism, which they are using to remake it in their own image.
Tim Dalrymple: Why Evangelicals Disagree on the President…
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Oct 28, 2020
The Post-Secular City
Contrary to the popular belief that elite global cities are extremely secular, they are often much more religion-friendly than commonly advertised. New York City in particular is very friendly to religion and may be what journalist Tony Carnes has labeled "the first post-secular city." In particular, there large Christian populations in immigrant and ethnic communities that can go completely unnoticed by many. There may be as many as 1.2-1.6 million Evangelical Christians in NYC, mostly in these under the radar groups.
The religious heritage and environment of each city is distinct, so blanket conclusions can't be drawn about their friendliness to Christianity. But it's a mistake to assume that these places must be highly secularized.
A Journey Through NYC Religions: http://nycreligion.info/
An Evangelical Revival in the Heart of New York: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/10/nyregion/central-park-festival-to-highlight-new-yorks-vibrant-evangelical-movement.html
Christian Cultural Ce…
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Oct 19, 2020
In the City for the City
One characteristic of large coastal, elite cities, and their international brethren, is high population churn in their gentrified precincts. People are constantly moving out, with new arrivals coming in behind them.
This high turnover has several implications for the churches there. One is that they have to be constantly attracting new members in order to avoid shrinking. Another is that it's very difficult for them to sustain community.
In general, it's more difficult for people to make an sustain long term, deep friendships and personal connections in those cities than it is in most places. They are good places to move for certain kinds of people: the young, people originally from there or from a nearby town, wealthy people, and people with personality types that allow them to live mostly autonomously.
The people in these cities are shallowly rooted, as we saw during the pandemic when large numbers of their most affluent residents abandoned them. This calls into question how real…
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Oct 8, 2020
The Theology of Pride
Because elite cities have such a big role in creating and shaping culture, it's easy for Christians in them to fall into a theology of pride. They can end up believing not only that they are doing more important work than Christians but that they are better in many ways too.
We'll examine this by looking at how James Davison Hunter's book To Change the World flatters the urban church world, how the urban church uses "third way" rhetoric to implicitly position themselves as better people than flyover country Christians, how the church church validates rather than challenges the way people in big cities are living their lives, and how seldom the church ever speaks prophetically about the sins of elite city industries like finance or entertainment.
Works referenced:
Kathy Keller on lessons learned from 30 years of ministry in New York: https://medium.com/redeemer-city-to-city/lessons-learned-from-30-years-in-ministry-e580d4afb846
James Davison Hunter, To Change the World: https://www.…
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Sep 30, 2020
The Rise of the Elite City
American cities looked like they were headed for the scrap heap in the 1970s and 80s, but some of them, particularly the elite cities of the American coasts (and their peers in other countries) came roaring back. Thanks to globalization, deregulation, and other factors, places like New York and San Francisco now control the commanding heights of the economy. They also control the culture because they are the places where the elite institutions and networks that create culture are concentrated.
The church must be present in these cities lest it abandon the economic and cultural centers of the nation. What's more, the cultural pressures facing the church come first and most intensely in these places, so it is there that the church's response to them can be developed.
The importance of these elite cities means that the church their can fall prey to pride, something that will be explored in the next episode.
Books Referenced:
Saskia Sassen - The Global City
James Davison Hunter - To Ch…
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Sep 18, 2020
The Great Global Urbanization Wave
This episode begins a series called "Urban World, Urban Church" looking at the trends in global urbanization and the church's response to them. This first installment looks at the great shift underway from a planet that was almost entirely rural a century ago to one that will be overwhelming urban at the end of this century. As cities and megacities growth, this will require a complete shift in the way that the church approaches evangelization and missions.
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Sep 4, 2020
Welcome to the Masculinist Podcast
The very first episode in the Masculinst Podcast, welcoming and explaining how we will be providing deep cultural diagnostics for how to live in the "negative world." That is today's world in which Christianity is increasing seen as a social negative and which will lower your status in secular elite culture if you practice it. How can we make sense of the times? How can we create ministry strategies appropriate to the times? The Masculinist podcast is the place where we together will go on a journey to answer those questions.
For more on the "positive", "neutral", and "negative" worlds, read:
https://www.aaronrenn.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/The-Masculinist-13-The-Lost-World-of-American-Evangelicalism.pdf
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