Friday, November 14, 2014

Their kind of conservatism

Charades:

Boy Working

Yes. Everyone who guessed, guessed correctly. And now to the main event.

Just recently, to further promote his forthcoming Dante book, our hard-sniffing Working Boy availed himself of an interview with  "philosopher James K.A. Smith" (Is philosopher a professional designation? If not, can anyone be one? If so, how does one rank Smith relative to philosopher Charlie Brown or philosopher Pogo?).


Naturally, such favors must be repaid, head to tail, and so this tongue bath urging readers to subscribe to Smith's Comment magazine entitled Our Kind of Conservatism.

Here's what we need to figure out, though. In the comments under Smith's article Redeeming Conservatism, a commenter named John Tiemstra puts us on this notice:

OK, just as long as we understand that the real conservatives are people who favor market-based reforms, like cap and trade, Obamacare, and Dodd-Frank. Most so-called conservatives these days are not conservative at all, but radical libertarians.

Whoa, really? Forgive me, but that sounds more like the Pelosi-Obama-Reid wing of conservatism to me.

And no "Nuh-huh, nooooooooo, no way, Dude!" from philosopher James K. A. Smith.

Is there a nuanced mystery to this redeemed conservatism too complex for my dense and primitive monkey noggin? If not, where am I going astray from real conservatism? I will say Smith appears to me to be successfully "offer[ing] a posture".

(philosopher and noted poultry critic Keith M. Ionlyhaveonemiddleinitial H.)

19 comments:

  1. Don't know if you missed it, but I recently pointed out the silliness of the new Cardus issue and this Smith guy's condescending remarks about conservatism. They really need to quit calling it conservatism.

    This guy is from Calvin College which is the home of neo-calvinism. Even my parents, who both consider themselves Calvinists, think that the neo stuff is wacky.

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    1. Yeah, that was it. I thought someone else had said something about this, but then I just shrugged it off as having too many visits to TAC echoing in my head.

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  2. I note that "Cardus" is a Canadian group, which might explain that flavor of "conservatism". Which is confusingly similar to "The" "American" "Conservative", and distinct from the "Triumphalist" type of conservatives that would cheer election victories over progressives.

    P.S. Took me a bit to figure out the drawing, Keith. At first I thought it was a take-off on the Kim Kardashian photo that is all the rage these days (yeah, you can find it -- I'm not going to give a link). Now if you had added some oil ....

    P.P.S. If you're out of winter savory (or live in a backwards cornpone town that has neither it nor flat leaf parsley), double up on thyme in your Barbaton De Boeuf.

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    1. Pik, I did some digging on Cardus and, although I know it's Canadian, James Smith is a philosophy prof at Calvin College in Grand Rapids. Here is a piece he recently wrote in the NY Times. It's packed full of assertions and arguments based on the worst caricature of how Christians who are conservative behave and view the world.

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    2. Hey, thanks for the tip, Pik. I'm also relieved to know that if I've lost the lid to the pot I'm cooking my Barbaton De Boeuf in, I can always use that "oiled or buttered round of parchment paper pricked with a tiny hold [sic] in the center" I keep in the drawer as an alternative. That is, unless I just decide to wear it on my head as a toque instead. In which case I guess I'd just cover the pot with a T-shirt.

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    3. Or if you don't want to part with your last "round" of parchment paper, your t-shirt, or your winter savory, you can do this.

      I did notice from the recipe post that Old Man Dreher has now gotten with the program since the Great Bouillabaisse Caper. It's better to say that the Barbaton is the best ever than to have more mean things written about you after you've left the building.

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    4. I did notice from the recipe post that Old Man Dreher has now gotten with the program...

      Wait, did Old Man Dreher post that himself, or did Rod?

      Entirely off topic, my girlfriend never fails to take the opportunity to tell people I'm the finest man she's ever known. Yes, of course I complain about how embarrassing that is to me, but, really, what can I do? She persists in spite of my best efforts so, who knows, maybe she's on to something.

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    5. I'm afraid I'll have to go with the slow cooker stew, given my difficulty in pronouncing "boeuf".

      "Boof" No...

      "Boif" No, that's not it...

      "Boo-eef" Dangit!

      "Boo-ee-oof"

      Well, drat, I give up. I bet Mr. Dinty Moore never has that problem

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    6. Maybe Old Man Dreher will comment here and clear up this Mystery of the Barbaton.

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    7. Today it's Côtes de Porc aux Pommes à la Moutarde, of course. No mention of Father Dreher's reaction -- the bunny preferred carrots, tho.

      The crowd goes wild in the combox, of course (hey Dreher, take the hint from the response and do a cookbook instead of that damn Dante book). And one commenter runs afoul by daring to suggest using wild boar chops with this recipe -- the taste police sets him right (it would be too gamey -- duh).

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    8. Pik, if you look at the pork & apples post in conjunction with the one Dreher deliberately paired it with (both are noticeably neither of the news cycle nor of his religious interests), you get the full, creamy flavor of Dreher smarmy disdain and condescension for his audience.

      There for the grace of God and his financial planner goes him - except that well, he's eating porkchops in cream with Irish butter, whatever the eff that is, and you, peasant, are probably not. Your skillet-fried pork chop just isn't the same, ma'am.

      So, like any junior high school gossip queen, Dreher's not so subtly telegraphing that he's rich enough to eat that way even after the effects of a sternly frugal and conservative financial plan.

      Or at least he feels compelled to push the impression that he is.

      But what would be the consequence if he wasn't actually that wealthy? Hmmm...a publisher might stand pat on a lower offer to his agent, knowing that Dreher would have to take it. No, no, that wouldn't do at all. So better - since the entirety of the message is within his control anyway - to put out the image that he is both frugally sound and casually extravagant - the sort of rare author all the best bidding wars used to be built around.

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    9. I'd say the consequence of his not being actually that wealthy is that it would reduce his cachet with his readers in the In Crowd. I mean the Cool Kids who wouldn't intentionally read what some podunk So. La. pork chop eater has to say -- but if he's really one of them playing the role so as to step in the shoes of Walker Percy, then maybe so.

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    10. I did find out what Irish butter is. Turns out our connoisseur of the rarest eats keeps a small herd of the most destitute and needy of Irish prostitutes from New Orleans penned in an obscure corner of his father's acreage for his occasional recipe needs. At least I think I got that right just off the top of my head. If not, I can always issue an UPDATE to this, the web journal of my passing thoughts.

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  3. What's disconcerting about that is that the man's a philosophy professor and yet he writes something so vaporous it's hardly worth the time to skim.

    I lived for a number of years in a small town where you'd occasionally see crank letters in one of the weeklies from a local resident. The culprit: a philosophy professor at the local college. You get the impression that 'philosophy professor' incorporates an exceedingly narrow skill set that helps you scarcely at all to say sensible things about mundane life (or what you read in the papers). At least this Prof. Smith seems an agreeable sort (which our local crank certainly is not).

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    1. As the old saying goes, there is no statement so absurd that no philosopher would say it.

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  4. Y'all, check out Dreher's maudlin narcissistic Beliefnet piece about burying his friend. Linky later.

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    1. The part I hated from his TAC regurgitation of that piece is that he blames his skittishness to his being an American, and to "All-American pride", rather than to his own pride.

      Of course that plays well with the readership of “The” “American” “Conservative”.

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    2. I think we should be able to comment on that piece in the Disqus comments section. So you may want to voice your opinion over there. I started off with a rather innocuous comment, but I may throw some more "opinionated" ones up there soon.

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