Has postmodernism ever been tried

It hit me the other day that one of the key tenets of postmodernism has never actually been tried. I mean the supposed distrust of grand narratives. That one was around only a few seconds before it was replaced with the notion that we could replace grand narratives we didn't like with new ones that we did.

That isn't surprising. It's just what Casanova said to Voltaire.

But could you do it. Could you (you here meaning me too) live narrative free?

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Political realignment

What does it mean when economists start to praise moral (moralistic?) critiques of society from establishment conservatives? Here is Tyler Cowen on Ross Douthat's new book: Excellent book! It has a real dose of Peter Thiel (and some Tyler Cowen), and most of it comes as fresh material even if you have read all of Ross’s other columns and books. Imagine the idea of technological stagnation tied together with a conservative Catholic critique of decadence, and in a convincing manner with a dose of pro-natalism tossed in for good measure. I think, as my title for this post indicates, that you can see evidence of a realignment here. People who didn't used to be political bedmates are becoming political bedmates. I think the real motion here, just to be clear, is on Douthat's part. We see people who used to be establishment conservatives—Douthat, Kristol, Goldberg, Dreher, Ponnuru, French—embracing technocrats. As with so many other things, we're turning back to the 196...

Meditiations and Confessions

This is from the Meditations as quoted by John Sellars in his book, The Art of Living , These three thoughts keep always ready to hand: First, in what you do that you act not without purpose otherwise that Right itself would have done [...] The second, to remember the nature of each individual from his conception to his first breath until he gives back the breath of life [...] The third, to realize that if you could be suddenly caught up into the air and could look down upon human life and all its variety you would disdain it [...] Sellars goes on to say that these three connect to the three divisions of Stoic philosophy. "The first is concerned with actions and impulses and corresponds to 'ethics'." The second, meanwhile, "is concerned with the true nature of individuals and corresponds to 'physics'." Finally, "the third is concerned with the analysis of impressions and value judgments and thus corresponds to 'logic'." At ...

It's been a good year for manly movies

The trend would seem to be against manly movies. Responding to fully justified complaints that men (overwhelmingly white men) have been over-served by and over-represented in movies over the years, filmmakers and critics have been shifting the emphasis to movies for and about people who are not men. The results of this shift have been a mixed bag. But a funny thing has happened. Although there are many fewer movies for men we have also seen the return of very high quality films about manliness, both what it should be and what it should not be. This year I've seen two truly excellent movies about manliness— Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Joker . I haven't seen Ford v Ferrari yet but I have a good feeling about it. When I say "return of very high quality films about manliness" it raises the question, "When was the last time we saw such movies?" These movies never truly disappeared. Fight Club is a great movie about manliness. But it was an anomaly. I...

Beliefs have consequences

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