Social Matter

The demands of social justice tend toward the capricious. Like Fortuna or that stretch of the Atlantic around the Outer Banks or legendary tech dynamo Shanley Kane, she is a fickle mistress. The changefulness and the frequent mutual incompatibility of her demands are well documented by now. America ought to, for instance, treat violence against women as a singular and heinous evil. Social justice demands it. But social justice also demands that Americans put women toe-to-toe with our most savage enemies on the front lines of combat. Quite the quandary. So I suppose it’s no wonder that the most ardent […]

For roughly the last century and a half, the major Western states have been attempting to supplant the family with its own systems of obligation and provision. This has a certain logic to it, because while monarchical systems, empires, and even despotic states rest on the leadership of a solitary father-figure, bureaucratic nation-states are run by administrators and enforcers who execute the law. The laws are the arbiter of who gets what and when, rather than the independent judgment of any single family head. Whereas in one system, the metaphor is that of government by the father-of-fathers, under a more […]

My wife and I took a vacation a few weeks after the Boston Marathon bombings back in 2013. On the flight home to Tennessee, I sat across the aisle from a younger fellow wearing a Boston Strong t-shirt. He was mostly unremarkable—skinny, mop of hair, maybe twenty five and travelling with a artfully distressed leather messenger bag—but I had occasion during the flight to contemplate that shirt at length whenever I wasn’t trying to figure out how a guy my height is supposed to fit into an airplane seat. The lack of leg room might have been coloring my perceptions […]

President Obama (and his administration) is facing establishment backlash for not attending Paris’s solidarity rally. As leader of the free world (whatever the hell that means today), I suppose he should have attended the march of hugs and kisses, or at the least sent Secretary of State John Kerry or Vice President Joe Biden. When one Western democracy marches, the rest often have to follow suit. But for reasons unknown, President Obama decided not to attend, nor did he send anyone in his stead. Nevertheless, the world took notice. I have to agree with President Obama for not attending, though […]

You’re supposed to feel warm inside when you see a big crowd of people demonstrating for ‘unity’ and ‘tolerance’ carrying candles and signs, speaking soothing words of peace. The images are intended to reassure you, just as the mass of the herd reassures animals like deer, gazelle, kangaroos, sheep, and cows that they are safe from predators. But the herd is as much of a target of predators as it is a form of protection. And humans are not, ultimately, herd animals — we are pack hunters with a sophisticated social structure. The herd is not a form of social […]