The Portly Politico Summer Reading List 2016

I'm at the beach--at the very desk at which I re-launched this blog after a six-year hiatus--and I figure it's the perfect occasion to unveil the "Portly Politico Summer Reading List 2016."

The books listed here are among some of my favorites.  I'm not necessarily reading them at the moment, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't!  These books have shaped my thinking about the many issues I've covered over the past two months.  I highly encourage you to check them out.

 

This picture accurately depicts high school students the night before classes start.

(Image Source:  Original doodle, 23 September 2012)

So, without further ado, and in no particular order, here are some of my all-time favorites:

1.) Richard Weaver, Ideas Have Consequences (1948) - I just wrote about this book in my last post (which I encourage you to read), and I'm including it on this list because it's pretty much required reading, especially if you're putting yourself through Conservatism 101.  The edition linked here is right around 100 pages, and while it's a dense read, it's not so overwhelming that you can't finish it, making it perfect for long days at the beach.

Weaver's writing is prophetic, especially if you've studied conservative thought, or even if you've just experienced a vague, gnawing sense of dislocation in the modern world.  It's packed--nearly on every page--with brilliant, quotable gems.  I re-read the introduction to the book every August right before school starts back, because it reminds me why I teach, and helps to align my thinking morally and spiritually.

If you read just one book this summer--or even this year--make it Ideas Have Consequences.

2.) Dennis Prager, Still the Best Hope:  Why the World Needs American Values to Triumph (2012) - Few books have shaped my thinking about American values--what they are, why they matter, and why they're worth defending--more thoroughly than this effort from conservative talk-radio host Dennis Prager.  Prager, a devout Jew with an Ivy League education and rich love of learning, outlines the so-called "American Trinity"--easily found on any coin--and argues that Americans are losing a three-sided battle against the Left and Islamism due to an inability to articulate why American values matter.

The "American Trinity"--liberty, trust in God, and e pluribus unum--is a brilliant and easy-to-digest device for understanding core American values.  In fact, I owe a huge debt to Prager; Still the Best Hope almost directly inspired two of my earliest come-back posts:  the much-read "American Values, American Nationalism," and the follow-up "Created by Philosophy."

Prager splits the book into three major sections:  outlines of the threats of radical Islamism and modern progressive Leftism, then an unpacking of the "American Trinity."  By far, the largest chunk of the book is the second section, which is one of the most effective eviscerations of Leftist assumptions ever written.  It's so long because it's extremely thorough and well-documented.

At around 450 pages, it can be a longer read, but it's written in a pleasing, engaging style.  Prager isn't a blow-hard like so many talk-radio show hosts, and his inquisitive, inviting voice comes through on the page.  I also love Prager's mind and the way he approaches topics; check out his other works here.

3.) Roger Kimball, The Long March:  How the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s Changed America (2001) - If you've got some time--and are prepared to be terrified by the excesses of 1960s radicalism and its heroes--you must read this excellent, damning collection of essays.  In fact, everything Kimball writes is required reading (I also recommend The Fortunes of Permanence:  Culture and Anarchy in an Age of Amnesia and The Survival of Culture:  Permanent Values in a Virtual Age, both from 2012; the latter is edited by Kimball and includes the works of other writers).

"[E]verything Kimball writes is required reading."

Long March strips away the romantic facade of 1960s folk heroes and "radical chic" academics, exposing their fraudulent, dangerous theories and their continued influence on American society and institutions.  Kimball isn't aiming for the easy targets or to satisfy the Sean Hannity crowd; he brings thorough research and intellectual heft to the proceedings.  As an art historian and critic, he offers a perspective that's often lacking from conservative scholarship, serious or otherwise.

My only real beef with the book is that he takes a very dim view of rock 'n' roll.  That being said, his argument against it makes sense, and I can't help but experience a twinge of introspection now whenever I listen to my beloved classic rock.

Regardless, Kimball is a strong, eloquent writer, and I can almost feel myself getting smarter when I read his works.  I'm currently reading The Rape of the Masters:  How Political Correctness Sabotages Art from 2005, and it's a linguistic delight.

"If you read just one book this summer--or even this year--make it Ideas Have Consequences."

Honorable Mention:  Greg Gutfeld, Not Cool:  The Hipster Elite and Their War on You (2015) - if you want a summer read that's quick, digestible, and absolutely hilarious, pick up Not Cool.  Greg Gutfeld, co-host of Fox News's The Five and former host of the excellent late-late-late-night round-table discussion show Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld, offers an unusual thesis:  everything awful that's ever been done--such as adopting wasteful, inefficient, and redistributive government programs--for the past fifty years or so has been because people are afraid to look uncool.

It's oddly compelling.  When you think about it, no one wants to be left out, and the Left constantly bludgeons society with the idea that if you don't uncritically accept that the government should solve all of our problems through coercion ("compassion"), then you're a mean, stingy racist.  If the parade of A-list celebrities at the Democratic National Convention last week (and the smaller cavalcade of B-list celebrities at the Republican National Convention the week before) is any indication, then it's clear that it's "cool" to be a progressive, but lethally uncool to be a conservative.  After all, what's "cool" about saying no to "free" stuff?

Not Cool is a quick read, and Gutfeld's humor and insight crackle on every page.  Sometimes you won't know whether you should laugh or cry.

***

So, there's your summer reading for 2016.  We've still got about a month of summertime fun left (although I'll be heading back to the classroom in just a couple of weeks), so grab some of these books before you head out of town.  You'll be glad you did.

Values Have Consequences

Every August, just before the new school year begins, I reread the introduction of Richard Weaver's seminal Ideas Have Consequences (1948), one of the foundational texts of the modern conservative movement.  It is one of the most eminently quotable books I've ever read, and every page of the introduction contains a gem.  I undertake this annual ritual as a way to prepare myself mentally, spiritually, and morally for the year ahead, and because philosophy is hugely important.

The crux of Weaver's argument is that a relatively innocuous notion, William of Occam's nominalism, "which denies that universals have a real existence," ultimately led philosophy "to banish the reality which is perceived by the intellect and to posit as reality that which is perceived by the senses.  With this change in the affirmation of what is real, the whole orientation of culture takes a turn, and we are on the road to modern empiricism."  As such, the "denial of universals carries with it the denial of everything transcending experience," and ultimately "the denial of truth."  (Weaver, 3-4)

In other words, Weaver argues that nominalism set man on the path to moral relativism, which now dominates Western culture.

 

Those glasses probably had consequences for Weaver's dating life.

(Image Source and Attribution:  By Source (WP:NFCC#4), Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=46415555)

Throughout his work--which I hope to explore more thoroughly in future posts--Weaver makes his case eloquently and succinctly (the whole book runs to just over 100 pages).  Anyone who has ever experienced a general sense of displacement in the postmodern world will find much in Weaver's work that rings true:  the decadence of modern society, the sense of alienation that haunts men, the gradual erosion of basic rights (after all, how can there be universal rights if there are no universals, or any true foundation upon which to base those rights).

Weaver argues that a single idea--nominalism--possessed ramifications that reverberated throughout the centuries.  Similarly, I would contend that the erosion of belief in the transcendental has resulted in a debasement of culture.

The story of the West is the story of philosophical inquiry and the quest for Truth.  I agree with Weaver--ideas have consequences, and shape everything from public policy and political theory to the fine arts and morality--and Western civilization gradually came to articulate rights that derive from that Truth (or God).  These rights are universal and precious.  They are woven into the very fabric of existence.

"[E]rosion of belief in the transcendental has resulted in a debasement of culture."

Thus emerged, from a marriage of Judeo-Christian faith, Greco-Roman philosophy, and (much later) Anglo-Saxon constitutionalism, ideas such as individual liberty, the sanctity of private property, the importance of freedom of religion and tolerance to protect men's thoughts and souls.

Once faith in these transcendental values was shaken by a cold, unflinching empiricism--after all, one cannot see justice, honor, or virtue--the cracks in the foundation slowly spread, until, one by one, the pillars of a Truth-oriented society crumbled.

Words once imbued with awe and power have been distorted or reduced to meaningless platitudes; some examples:

- "Justice" now is often "social justice," which amounts to a vindictive form of score-settling for historically-aggrieved groups.  There is no blind balancing of the scales, but bitter accusations of "privilege" and "cultural appropriation."

- "Community" has been replaced with "globalism" and "cosmopolitanism," which demand an artificial reduction of identities into an arid, sleek denominator.  Focusing on those near us, and to committing to a place and its traditions, are denounced as narrow and parochial interests.

- "Art" is doing anything that's "trangressive," but if there are no boundaries, how can they be pushed?  Rather than study great artists, learn their techniques, and then strive to build upon and actually create something genuinely new and artistically exciting, "artists" put their unmade beds into museums.

- "Family" is no longer the stable foundation upon which a free society is built.  Instead, it's an amorphous term that validates any number of arrangements that don't recognize the obligations, duties, and relationships of family members to one another.  The state will provide, so who needs the support of the nuclear family?

***

 "Once faith in these transcendental values was shaken by a cold, unflinching empiricism... the pillars of a Truth-oriented society crumbled."

The examples are, sadly, numberless.

Without any firm foundation in a moral universe, such dislocation and distortion are inevitable.  The lack of a unifying acceptance of transcendentals is why, more than anything else, there is such division in the United States and the West today.

There are, broadly, two camps:  those who reject transcendental Truth (and, ironically, create their own orthodoxies and religious precepts in the process) and those who accept it.  I fear the latter is losing--and has been for some time--this struggle for the soul of the West.

If the important things--family, community, justice, art, culture, tolerance, republican self-government--are to survive, it will take a re-dedication to the quest for Truth in an age that has, I'm afraid, utterly rejected it.

As such, I will dedicate the next few Fridays to exploring why tradition, morality, and Truth matter to a free society, and how we can restore them.