Conservative Minds

Reading the Left from a conservative perspective series

Saul Alinsky starts from where the world is, as it is, and not as he would like it to be. Rules for Radicals is a how-to manual for young radicals committed to the fight and revolution. He says the present generation wants a meaning, a chance to strive for some sort of order. This book offers direction on how to get there.

Special Guest - Gerald Russello, editor of University Bookman at the Russell Kirk Center, joins our discussion.

Reno believes American elites forged a general theory of society following WWII to prevent another rise of totalitarianism. This "postwar consensus" involved a weakening of the "Strong Gods" - the objects of men's love and devotion. He believes this loss is driving populism in the West.

Postman argues that public discourse in America has dissolved into the art of show business. In early American history, the written word reigned supreme, and our politics and culture were better for it. He provides fascinating insights into how the media medium structures our understanding and perceptions.

Why do we have such a difficult time agreeing about moral principles? MacIntyre believes that what we now understand as morality is merely the fragmented remnants of a formely fuller and more substantive comprehension of morality. What remains are only the language and appearances of morality. He argues that our only way out is a return to Aristotelian virtue ethics.

Disclaimer: We experienced some technical difficulties in the recording of this episode. Please excuse the sound quality.

COVID-19 comes to Conservative Minds! We reflect on the epidemic with reference to our books from Season 3. What did we learn that could inform the present situation?

Autobiography of former Soviet agent, Whittaker Chambers. He shares his story, along with his reflections on communism and his life as a communist operative. According to Chambers, a man becomes a communist because he is driven to despair by the crisis of history.

Special Guest - Yuval Levin joins us to discuss his new book A Time To Build.

Plato's dialogue pits Socrates against a wealthy friend willing to help him escape his death sentence. Socrates refuses, because he believes it would not be just. When should we as citizens ignore an unjust law? According to Socrates, we owe an obligation to the polis (society) that transcends individual justice.

Grover Norquist, and his Americans for Tax Reform, developed the no-new-taxes pledge that has become an institution for conservative candidates in American politics. He divides the world into two sides arrayed against one another in political influence: the Leave Us Alone Coalition, whose only ask of government is to leave them alone; and the Takings Coalition, who view the proper role of government as taking money, power, and property from one group and giving it to someone else.

The Gulag Archipelago is an account of the brutal arrests, imprisonment, and often murder of tens of millions of innocent Soviet citizens by their own government beginning under Vladimir Lenin in 1918 through the reign of Joseph Stalin to 1956. Solzhenitsyn saw his task as documenting for the Soviet people the full scope of what happened. He relies on his own experience in the Gulag from 1945 to 1953, along with experiences related to him by other survivors. It is a harrowing warning about the totalitarian nature of communist regimes.