It's a free country and people are entitled to live however they want. But it's important to put forth and advocate for general patterns of life that are mostly likely to lead to flourishing - particularly when we've been following them ourselves. In that light, this month's newsletter contains ten of these theses about marriage and family.

In the mid-century era from World War II (or even before that) to around 1990, America had a mass market common consumer culture. With the fragmentation of that culture accelerating post-1990s, the upper middle class and middle class began to develop distinct cultures and folkways. Even removing race and politics as factors of division would not address this, because even among whites, the upper middle class and middle class now have different and incompatible definitions of the good life. This creates local political dissension and perverse incentives in areas like land use. 

Eric Brende spent a year living with the Amish, and also time trying to live a similar homesteader life in a small town environment. He decided that that there is no place quite like the city to build a productive household environment that is less dependent on the industrialized, technological economy for day to day life. He joined me to talk about his journey and how to get started with the productive urban household life.

Eric Brende's web site: https://thehappyhouseholder.com/

Eric Brende/WSJ: How to Beat the High Cost of Working: https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-to-beat-the-high-cost-of-working-1535747253

Eric Brende: Better Off: Flipping the Switch on Technology: https://www.amazon.com/Better-Off-Flipping-Switch-Technology-ebook/dp/B000FC1VAG/

President Nate Fischer and Executive Director Josh Abbotoy join me to talk about American Reformer, a non-profit focused on reinvigorating Protestant Christianity in American life. 

In pro wrestling, the "face" is the hero and the "heel" is the villain. The incentive structures of our society are willing to personally reward people, especially conservatives, who engage in heel behavior in real life. This is because by acting the heel, people serve as a foil to the hero the media wishes to build up. Even Peter Thiel fell prey to this, helping to propel Rigoberta Menchu to the Nobel Peace Prize. While heel behavior can be effective at times, and is a tool everyone should have in their tool chest, we should think long and hard before engaging in these tactics.

Heel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heel_(professional_wrestling)

Peter Thiel speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibR_ULHYirs

With remote work giving people flexibility on where to live, and people moving because of politics and other social factors, where should we live personally? I will examine different types of communities, and share some thoughts on their pros and cons.

I will look forward at potential trends for 2023, including the theme of the return to normal.

Returning to the theme of deficits in the American leadership and elite classes, I will examine some of the reasons why evangelicals in particular seem not be high impact leaders in our institutions and in society. In particular, I will discuss evangelicalism's weak sense of "calling" and it's low view of the created order.

Doxxing is the internet practice of revealing the identity of an anonymous social media account and/or digging up controversial or offensive social media content in order to get someone fired or worse. It's nearly universally viewed as a shady practice, but is a common technique for cancellation today.

In this month's newsletter I provide a primer on doxxing: what it is, who does it, what the consequences are, and how it is perceived. I also provide some practical insights about how to respond to a world where doxxing is common.

Subscribe to my newsletter: https://aaronrenn.substack.com/

Change, whether in personal self-improvement or social evolution, is not linear. There are quantum leaps and discontinuities. This can be deeply unsettling and render obsolete previous ways of doing business and operating in the world.