Weekly Digest: The Coming of Neo-Feudalism
Welcome to the weekly digest for February 4, 2022. Visit your account page to edit your email settings.
Latest Content and Media
I was a guest on the God and Culture podcast to discuss my First Things article on the three worlds of evangelicalism. The Plain Truth podcast discussed my article as well.
The head of Indiana’s state economic development agency responded to my critiques of the state’s poor economic performance.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer riffs of my piece on the DIY family.
Willamette Week, Portland’s alt-weekly, references my research on a boondoggle bridge project in Louisville, Kentucky.
New postings this week:
This Is My Beloved Teenage Son - great pictures of fathers and sons from a Twitter hashtag.
What Would Normal People Think of This? - Why it’s important to think about what will or will not appeal to normal people, whether or not we choose to cater to them.
The Power of a Catchy Name (Subscriber Only) - Having a cool and catchy name has a big effect on the uptake of an idea
At American Reformer, Benjamin Mabry looks at how gay marriage really came about.
My podcast for this week was a field guide to chambers of commerce. (Subscribers can read the transcript). I also interviewed Joel Kotkin about our feudal future. His book on the topic is The Coming of Neofeudalism. (Subscribers can read the transcript).
Next week I’ll be interviewing Lyman Stone about Lutheranism in America. It will be Wednesday, February 9 at 2pm ET. You can watch live on replay on Youtube.
You can listen to my podcast on Apple, Google, or YouTube.
Please subscribe to get the full experience. Subscribers get exclusive content, transcripts of podcasts and interviews, and can share comments here on Substack.
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Best of the Web
Daily Wire: How The Federal Government Used Evangelical Leaders To Spread Covid Propaganda To Churches - It sounds like former NIH director Francis Collins was running a sort of affinity group scam in which he used his credentials and star power to get evangelical leaders to broadcast things he knew were not quite true (such as pooh-poohing the idea that Covid may have a lab leak origin).
Anthony Bradley asks if Christianity doing more harm than good to American men.
Institute for Family Studies: Sex Differences in Adolescents’ Occupational Desires Are Universal
I'm wondering what to think of the Francis Collins article in light of the substack post about normal people and loyalty.
"In October, even after Collins’ funding of the University of Pittsburgh research had become widely known, Moore continued to burnish his friend’s reputation, saying, “I admire greatly the wisdom, expertise, and, most of all, the Christian humility and grace of Francis Collins.” That same month, influential evangelical pundit David French deemed Collins a “national treasure” and his service in the NIH “faithful.” Former George W. Bush speechwriter and Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson struck the most poetic tone in his effusive praise, claiming that Collins possesses a “restless genius [that] is other-centered” and is a “truth-seeker in the best sense.”
Now, this may not be an expression of "loyalty" at all, since it costs nothing in terms of status. Indeed, speaking out against Collins' actions as head of NIH would probably be more costly. But the point I want to get at is this: what would Aaron do? How do we apply this business about loyalty in situations where one's friend did some really messed up things?