What happens when you are a grandparent but never get to really be the grandparent at Christmas because your own parents are still alive? What happens to people like poor Prince Charles who sit in the waiting room for decades because generational turnover never happened? This newsletter contains reflections on how generational turnover got stuck as a result of lengthening life spans and what we can start doing about it. Also: Related observations on how people are even starting to politicize their own deaths.

Sean Clifford is the CEO of Canopy, a company that produces software for blocking pornography on phones and other devices. We'll discuss the problem of porn today, how today's porn differs from yesterday's, how Canopy works to block porn, and how we can create a broader cultural pushback against pornography.

Visit Canopy's Web Site at: https://canopy.us/

TGC: The Most Effective Technology on the Planet to Block Pornography:  https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/the-most-effective-technology-on-the-planet-to-block-pornography/

EPPC: How Social Media Harms Children and Families: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0C_wHt7LK4

Everybody today likes to complain about the failures of elites. There's a lot to complain about. But are we willing to be elites ourselves? Are we willing to step into elite roles and change things for the better? We have to be the elite we want to see in the world if we want better leadership in today's world.

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Occupations are regularly created and destroyed in modern industrial America. But Rory Groves went back to the jobs that existed at the founding of the country to see which ones have stood the test of time for over 200 years, compiling them into his book Durable Trades: Family-Centered Economies That Have Stood the Test of Time. From farmer to midwife to coachman to brewer, Rory and I talk about trades that have proven themselves durable and how they are still alive in the world today. And how many of them still support creating functional, productive households in the 21st century.

Buy Durable Trades on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1725274140/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=theurban-20

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Following on the heels of a hit job in Vice, the Guardian has published three articles in the past month attacking Christ Church and the Moscow, Idaho community around Doug Wilson.  I examine the latest hit piece, using it to show how the media operates in these situations and the likely objectives of the Guardian's crusade, namely to sever the relationship between the Moscow people and their media partners. I also show why high quality work of the type Moscow produces freaks the left out. And give a few reasons why the latest hit piece is a very low quality trash journalism.

The Guardian: US Christian right group wages culture war with books, cartoon and nature doc - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/28/christ-church-us-christian-right-group-books-cartoon-nature-doc

Tell people you are starting  a church to reach the homeless, a new immigrant ethnic group in town, a neighborhood, etc. and you'll be praised. But people would look at you sideways if you said you wanted to start a church to reach the elite.

This episode discusses the need for more Protestant elite formation, why existing elites who are still theologically orthodox continue to stay with mainline denominations like Episcopalianism, the functions of elite institutions, what conservative Protestants needs to change in their elite formation approaches, and why they should study Catholic approaches.

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As we approach the US Thanksgiving holiday, I again remind people not to give into despair, to apocalyptic thinking, etc.  Things are in some ways far worse than people think in the US, but there's more room for hope than people believe.  Deliberately going through all that we have to be thankful for is a good way to avoid giving into apocalyptic thinking and stay hopeful.

Also: Indiana under Republican rule and the controversies at World magazine.

My article on Indiana under Republican rule: https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2021/11/indiana-under-republican-rule-pro-business-policy-disappoints-outside-the-sunbelt/

Michael Foster and Dominic "Bnonn" Tennant join me to discuss their web project and forthcoming book It's Good to Be a Man. We discuss:

• How they got interested in men's issues
• How they met and launched It's Good to Be a Man
• The "war of the patriarchies"
• The relationship of Fatherhood to manhood
• Gravitas
• Fraternity
• Mission
• The manosphere  and pagan masculinity movement.

Buy the book:  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1954887051/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=theurban-20

Religion is in decline in America, but there's an exception: the Mormon church. Mormonism is growing, has strong family formation dynamics, healthy communities, good aesthetics, and strong finances. 

One factor in Mormon outperformance is the way Mormons choose elites. Rather than relying on a self-selected professional leadership pool, Mormons screen for, identify, develop, and promote people who have demonstrated leadership competence and skin in the game. They also rely largely on unpaid lay leader instead of a paid, professional clergy.

A result of this has been a church whose leaderships ranks are staffed with highly talented and accomplished people. Mitt Romney, for example, served as the equivalent of a parish priest for several years while also running Bain Capital, something unthinkable in the Christian church.

While Christianity has its own theological and ecclesiastical reasons for the way it chooses elites, there are some lessons that could be learned by analysis of the Mormon case study.