Tag Archives: Alexis de Tocqueville

We Deserve It

Posted on by

At the summit. (Business Insider)

Indignation’s become a cottage industry in America since the election of Donald J. Trump as our 45th president. I’d rather refer to him as our “Big Orange Cheetoh.” That’s probably too much for the Trump Kool-Aid Crowd to bear. But the guy obviously tans, as evidenced by the return of the goggle marks around his eyes. Not to mention, his most recent claim to fame prior to becoming president was that of a reality TV huckster.

None of this is new or revealing. All you really need to know about Trump’s fitness for the presidency can be gleaned from reading Michael Wolff’s book about the Trumpinator, since you won’t dig much deeper than that. And again, if you insist on wearing your ideological blinders (either the left or right versions), you’ll always get the reasons why we’re now ruled by The Donald, wrong. Continue reading →

Freedom

Posted on by

Freedom may be the most indeterminate word in the postmodern American vernacular. Freedom, freedom, freedom—everyone talking about freedom. It’s almost a fetish for some. What is freedom? Is it merely the absence of the unpleasant, and if we had the freedom we’re always pining for, would our lives suddenly take on a new luster and enhanced quality? Continue reading →

The case for community

Posted on by

Robert Putnam coined the term “social capital” in a seminal essay written in 1995. He’d later expand those ideas about community into a full-length book, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, in 2000.

Putnam’s book and his ideas have infused my own thinking about the world since reading the book in 2002. In 2005, I tackled writing a book of my own, one that drew liberally upon the concept of social capital, using baseball rather than bowling as the metaphor for the changes American communities have experienced over the last 50-60 years. Continue reading →