Frohnen Reviews New Class War

"Lind’s New Class War is one between technocratic managerial elites and the middle and (especially) working classes tied to recent populist revolts." - @KirkCenter Senior Fellow Bruce P. Frohnen reviews "The New Class War" by Michael Lind: https://t.co/hp0xa99u4M pic.twitter.com/kv91MKwwp0

— Russell Kirk Center (@KirkCenter) March 27, 2021

Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story by Wilfred M. McClay

No Mere Textbook https://t.co/wRsnKjlHxH via @ubookman

— Jakob Wasserhoevel (@wasserhoevel) November 10, 2020

Encounter Books

Bruce Frohnen on California

California Dreamin': The Problem of a Once-Great State

Alternatives to the Benedict Option?

Tolkien Alternatives to the “Benedict Option” by David Michael Phelps

Rod Dreher: Benedict Option Countries

Hope in Eastern Europe? Maybe not.

Bruce Frohnen:

At a conference I attended recently (convened to address contemporary challenges to Christian culture) one speaker faced head-on a central problem with Christian responses to our secular culture: As a rule, we do not have enough children and we do not teach them from a young age their essential familial roles as male breadwinners and female nurturers. For any Catholic, and any Christian who has taken the time to understand the fundamentals of our beliefs and traditions, it is undeniable that the sexes are different and are by nature suited to different roles within the fundamental unit of society, namely, the natural family. The vast majority of thinking Christians know this while the vast majority of secular Westerners reject it as a matter of unthinking ideological prejudice, so there really is no sense at this late date in attempting to argue over it. This is at the root of Rod Dreher’s “Benedict Option” proposal for Christians to concentrate their efforts on rebuilding faithful communities in the face of the cultural aggression of our public institutions.

Bruce Frohnen on Patriotism

“Patriotism and Its Limits,” By Bruce Frohnen

Bruce Frohnen on "Constitutions"

Nomocracy in Politics: “Constitutions and the Greek Problem,” By Bruce Frohnen

Bruce Frohnen on Liberal Democracy

Nomocracy in Politics: “Is Liberal Democracy a ‘Must’?,” By Bruce Frohnen

Related: “Rod Dreher and the Problem with a Return to the Land,” By Bruce Frohnen

Bruce Frohnen on the Second Amendment

Nomocracy in Politics: “The Militia and the Right to Bear Arms,” By Bruce Frohnen

How the Contemporary University Is Destroying America

Bruce Frohnen: Parts 1, 2, 3, and 4

Respecting the Federal System

“The Christian Nation Thesis: How It Is Right, and Why It Is Wrong,” By Bruce Frohnen

Related:
Thomas Fleming, In the Name of Obama

Bruce Fhronen Reviews Martin Rhonheimer's The Common Good of Constitutional Democracy

The Cultural Contradictions of Modern Liberalism

The Common Good of Constitutional Democracy: Essays in Political Philosophy and on Catholic Social Teaching by Martin Rhonheimer, edited by William F. Murphy, Jr. (Catholic University of America Press, 2013)

Frohnen and Dreher on the Benedict Option

“If Not Retreat, Then What?,” By Bruce Frohnen

Mr. Frohnen assumes that it is still possible to bring about political and legal change; the Benedict Option does not necessarily make assumptions about this possibility one way or another, though it is usually understood as a response to a society become de-Christianized and the loss of political influence for Christians. (And while Dreher judges the current situation to be one of increasingly diminished influence for Christians, he still thinks it is possible to achieve some political goals within the system.)

The Benedict Option, in so far as it includes networking, building up local communities, friendships, and alliances so that there is a unified power base to bring about political change, is a necessary part of an effort to curb the power of the Federal National Government. However, even if strong local Christian communities cannot bring about change at the state and federal levels, the community is nonetheless a good desirable in itself, and it cannot be stated enough that in many places, such communities do not even exist, even though Christians may be going to church every Sunday.

Critics of the Benedict Option by Rod Dreher

Rod Dreher: "The Benedict Option is a call for cultural resistance through building endurance and resilience within ourselves, our families, and our communities."

Psychological or existential resilience? Perhaps not in the all-encompassing political-economic sense used in sustainability circles.

Withdrawal? The literal meaning of the word refers to locomotion, e.g. moving back into homes, Catholic "ghettos." But it can also mean avoiding what is harmful; Christians do need to be more circumspect about mass culture and what they buy and from whom they buy it (better to purchase from a local producer who is hostile to Christianity than from a corporation?). They also need to refocus their lives on works, observing the order of charity, and practicing charity with their fellow Christians first.

Bruce Frohnen's Rejection of the Benedict Option

“There Is No Benedict Option” By Bruce Frohnen

And this gives us reason to take actions that many might consider to constitute a tactical retreat—e.g., those who have children in public schools should take them out and those with students in parochial schools must be prepared to fight, hard, for their education. But voting, writing, speaking, and marching must continue and increase. The press continues to ignore hundreds of thousands who march for the unborn every year. The answer must be for more of us to march and to stand in solidarity with those whom the new system seeks to ruin financially and spiritually. We may well “lose” in the short run by the standards of this world.

What separates Frohen from Dreher? I think both would (or should) agree that a re-appropriation of the order of charity is necessary for Christians, and the Benedict Option should be understood as a further development of Christians taking the order of charity seriously. Is "political action," as Frohnen describes it here, a precept of Christianity? I do not think so, especially as it assumes that the current political system is legitimate or effective. Does the Benedict Option exclude the possibility of undertaking civic action? No -- we can collaborate with non-Christians of good will who seek to uphold traditional mores and identity in order to strengthen whatever community we have with them. Our response must begin with that, and it is very possible that it may end there or not even get  very far. But if a political response requires the building and exertion of power, then Christians need to understand how to build up power, and participating in a system that seeks to diffuse that power is counter-effective.

"Patrick Henry" looks at other options: The Benedict Option (via The Orthosphere)

Related:
What Does Community Mean?
On intentional communities:

Community is tangible; community is cohesive; community brings people together in ways that allow them to do things they couldn’t have done in isolation.

Within this context, this is how I would define an IC:

An IC has a shared purpose and set of values; the people who live in it are economically entwined to some degree; there is a definition for membership in the community and a process for becoming a member.

What of natural communities, which should share some of the same characteristics? Would liberals let traditional ones live in peace? I think not.

Can a Tyrant Be a Great Statesman?

Bruce Frohnen asks the question,"Was Lincoln a great statesman?" I won't be commemorating his birthday next Monday (or today).

Related:
All Hail Abe! By Brion McClanahan

Bruce Frohnen on Robert Putnam

“Why We Bowl Alone” by Bruce Frohnen

The Cult of Niceness

Bruce Frohnen

The Legacy of the Gettysburg Address

“My Problem With So-Called Conservatives,” By Marshall DeRosa
Jeffrey Polet, Gettysburg at 150: Some Essays
Gettysburg Gospel
Kirkpatrick Sale, The Frauds of the Gettysburg Address


Related:
Kevin Gutzman: Lincoln, Kennedy, Obama, and the value of compromise
Patrick Cleburne, The Gettysburg Address: Not Heritage For Obama's Nation
On the Sesquicentennial of Vicksburg and Gettysburg
“An Age of Centralization,” By Jeff Taylor
“The ‘Bill of Rights’ is not the Constitution,” By Bruce Frohnen
John Willson, John Lukacs’s Valediction

Tradition Must be Revivified

The Imaginative Conservative: The Restoration of Tradition by Stanley Parry

Related: Local Politics: Small may not be Beautiful, but it’s what we’ve Got by Bruce Frohnen

The Imaginative Conservative: The Start of Something Big: Jamestown by Bruce P. Frohnen

Review of The Jamestown Project by Karen Ordahl Kupperman.

Background Causes for Uhmerican Social Atomism

Westward Expansion: How the West was Won? by Bruce Frohnen

On Brad’s more important point, the problem of western expansion, I’d like to simply encourage him in further beating up on Thomas Jefferson–always a good thing, and particularly appropriate in this instance. It probably was inevitable that Americans would settle the bulk of habitable North America. From their beginnings, Americans have been a restless people perhaps too enamored of adventure and material self-betterment. Our national character is not perfect, but it is a thing we must recognize. However, that this expansion was made far more harmful to America and Americans as well as the peoples who “got in our way,” is beyond question. Old fashioned greed, being a part of our fallen nature, is to be expected, but was made far worse by a combination of racism and power. When our thug-in-chief at the time, Andrew Jackson, decided that peaceful, law-abiding Cherokee, living in European-style settlements, were to be removed with deadly force because their land was too valuable to let them keep, we saw the worst in America come forth. Most westward expansion was far more morally ambiguous than this, with blame and praise earned on both sides, but expansion was almost always made worse by a progressive drive on the part of the government.

Related:
The global land grab: The new enclosures by Liz Alden Wily (Resilience)