Inactive: Thomas C. Reeves
Prof. Reeves writes from Wisconsin. Among his dozen books are Twentieth Century America: A Brief History, and biographies of John F. Kennedy, Joseph R. McCarthy, Fulton Sheen, and Chester A. Arthur. Marquette University Press published his biography of Wisconsin Governor Walter J. Kohler, Jr. in 2006.
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Thursday, April 17, 2008
On Plutocracy
[Prof. Reeves writes from Wisconsin. Among his dozen books are Twentieth Century America: A Brief History, and biographies of John F. Kennedy, Joseph R. McCarthy, Fulton Sheen, and Chester A. Arthur. Marquette University Press published his biography of Wisconsin Governor Walter J. Kohler, Jr. in 2006.]
America has long had what has been called a “crass plutocracy,” meaning that you are what you own. Wealth has defined people as long as there has been history, of course, in all parts of the world. The genius of our socio-economic system is that it is relatively open, enabling people from the humblest backgrounds to be wealthy. Andrew Carnegie is an oft-cited example of the extraordinary opportunity and economic success that continues to attract immigrants to the United States by the millions. The system, however, has three problems that seem especially large during this year of fluttering prosperity and elections.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
The War on School Choice
An integral part of the Culture War is the determination by some, largely on the Right, to pull their children out of the public schools and teach them at home. Home school parents want to avoid the violence, immorality, and politically correct indoctrination that is all too common in today’s public schools, and they also believe they can provide a better education than is offered in the typical classroom. Some on the Left are just as determined that all American youth (well, not the rich; they can afford private education) be forced to attend the public institutions. Teachers’ unions, for obvious economic reasons, are among those opposed to home schooling. And ideology driven teachers want no one to escape their preaching. Of course, the official reasons for attacking schooling at home are almost always stated in lofty terms involving good citizenship and child welfare.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Stalin and Putin
Michael Weiss, in The New Criterion, has called historian Robert Conquest “the premier truth-teller of the most sustained totalitarianism of the twentieth century.” Conquest published some twenty books on Russia and the Soviet Union, but Weiss was referring principally to The Great Terror. This landmark volume appeared first in 1968 and has recently been republished with the subtitle “A Reassessment.” It is the definitive work on Stalin’s purges of the 1930s. The new edition, based on the latest evidence (more than two million secret documents have been declassified in recent years, and the quantity continues to escalate), further documents one of history’s most insane and deadly crimes against humanity. To enter Stalin’s world is to confirm the Judeo-Christian concept of original sin, experience the relative weakness of human reason, and view the undeniable difference between good and evil. The fashionable temptation to be “non-judgmental” plays no role here. The politically correct version of the Cold War, seeing both sides as equally to blame, carries no weight.
Saturday, April 5, 2008
The Empty Church Revisited
A dozen years ago, I published The Empty Church: The Suicide of Liberal Christianity. It was a comprehensive analysis of the mainline Protestant churches in this country, showing that the future of the Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Lutherans (ELCA), Methodists and the others were limited to the degree that they echoed trendy values and demanded little of members, spiritually, morally, and financially. A new study published by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life has confirmed my prediction, and has gone on to describe other churches in the United States as well. While the survey is long on numbers and short on explanations, it contains some surprises.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
The Faith-Based Initiative
While Senate Democrats scuttled the Bush Administration’s efforts to pass sweeping faith-based legislation, the president, for seven years, has been reshaping the federal government’s approach to addressing human needs by permitting faith-based charities and grassroots nonprofits to receive federal dollars. In 2001, President Bush signed an Executive Order creating the White House office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, and he established Centers for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives in 11 federal agencies. Thirty five governors and more than 100 mayors, both Democrats and Republicans, have taken similar steps. Such efforts have gone international, as faith based organizations have received grants to help the struggles against such problems as AIDS and malaria.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Ruminations in March
1. From its beginning, the American economy has used the power of government to assist business. At the same time, business has very often called publicly for small government, hoping to keep taxes and regulations to a minimum, thus maximizing profit. These days, large government seems inevitable. We need its services in many ways, of course. Medicare and Medicaid cover about 90 million Americans, a number that will leap as the population ages. Agriculture is dependent on Congressional legislation. We need government to protect us from terrorists. The lesson we’ve relearned of late is that we also need a strong federal government to protect us from elements within the business community. Our current financial crisis makes clear the need for tighter federal supervision of the banking industry. A Bear Stearns board member told a reporter, “I blame the system, I blame greed. Wall Street is really predicated on greed. This could happen to any firm.” Very familiar language to American historians. Still, the deeper issue is not about government or free enterprise. This crisis is no different from most in that ethics and morality are at the very center of it. How many business and law schools understand that? Or care?
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
On Authority
Few lessons in life are more important than understanding where you go to find truth. When I was growing up, the search for authority was much simpler than it is today. Or so it seemed. We trusted our professors and memorized much of the assigned textbooks. Everyone believed that the New York Times and the Encyclopedia Britannica were authoritative. When weighing the value of books, we learned to choose the more reputable publisher. Few doubted the veracity of Time and Newsweek. Walter Cronkite’s pronouncements were venerated. On the deepest issues of life, you were expected to accept the teachings of your religious denomination. Catholics and Lutherans, among others, memorized the right questions and answers in order to be confirmed. Skeptics, cynics, and people with lots of questions were not the most popular people in town during the first two decades following the Second World War.
Friday, March 21, 2008
Election Observations
1. Despite their church’s teaching about abortion, sodomy, and the family, American Catholics are strongly endorsing Democratic candidates. According to polls conducted by Edison/Mitofsky, 42% of Catholics identified themselves as Democrats in 2005. In a recent survey of 19 states that have held presidential primaries this year, 63% of Catholics were Democrats. Much of this has to do with Hispanics, of course, who tend to vote for the Left, relying on Big Government to assist them economically. But it also reflects the powerful impact of the post Vatican II years when radical change in the church and in society occurred at the same time, forcing often painful change on the laity and prompting thousands of clergy and religious to abandon and radically rethink their vocations.
Monday, March 17, 2008
On William F. Buckley, Jr.
Bill Buckley was born with every advantage: a brilliant mind, good looks, wealth, physical stamina, a golden speaking voice, musical talent, and a family environment that encouraged education, industry, patriotism, and faith. As many close friends have written in recent weeks, Buckley used his gifts with skill and grace. Whole issues of National Review and The Weekly Standard mourned the loss, and dozens of friends shared warm memories. Buckley’s son Christopher published an especially revealing and moving piece in NR titled “My Old Man and the Sea.” It should not be missed.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
On Wealth
1. Are you upset because your salary can’t meet inflation, or by the fact that your savings draw little interest? How content are the millions of Americans who live on the pittance called Social Security? Well, it appears that you’re better off being rich and able to participate in a hedge fund. These private, lightly regulated, and often secretive investment funds are available largely to wealthy and institutional investors. They specialize in complex investment strategies and have total assets of about $1.9 trillion, up from $490 billion in 2000. In 2007, hedge funds gained 10.5%, and this year are ahead of the market, dropping just 1.7%. Gregory Zuckerman writes in the Wall Street Journal, “The most successful fund managers enjoy celebrity-billionaire status, even as regular investors struggle to figure out what they are up to.” Still, uncertainty and turmoil plague this esoteric environment. Borrowed money is often used by investors, and some of that is drying up. Others fear that the hedge funds may be overstating their returns. Several hedge funds have fallen on hard times. To paraphrase Isaiah 57:20-21: There seems to be no rest for the wealthy investors. A worthy query: Is there no goal in life higher than being a celebrity-billionaire?
Sunday, March 9, 2008
The Dictatorship of Relativism
Pope Benedict XVI, a world class scholar and a champion of reasoned debate and compassion toward others, recently got a taste of what he once condemned as the “dictatorship of relativism” in contemporary life. On January 17, he was scheduled to give a speech at La Sapienza University of Rome, Europe’s largest university, on the topic of how to encourage dialogue between faith and science. The Vatican cancelled the speech when 67 science professors (out of 4,500 teaching staff) objected and about 100 students (out of 147,000 enrolled) staged a sit-in at the rector’s office. Radical students also threatened to drown out the Pope’s speech with loud music, and Italy’s transsexual movement was planning a demonstration. Italy’s interior minister warned that there was a chance for armed clashes between extremist groups.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
The Media at Work
It is widely assumed among conservatives that the media is bringing our civilization to its knees. Many on the Left scoff at the indictment for they equate the narcissistic, secular, value-free, sex-in-your-face, obscenity ridden style of life so popular in the media with freedom and even intellectual respectability. The Culture War, a struggle between largely articulate minorities on the Left and Right, is very real, and polls show that increasingly the public as a whole is moving in the direction favored by leftists. Here are summaries of some recent items about the media that shed light on the issue.
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Ruminations in February
1. Dana Gioia, who heads the National Endowment for the Arts, said recently in a Wall Street Journal interview, “I don’t believe that artistic quality and democracy are irreconcilable.” George Gilder once took another view: “Under the sway of television, democratic capitalism enshrines a Gresham’s law: bad culture drives out good, and ultimately porn and pruriency, violence, and blasphemy prevail everywhere, from the dimwitted ‘news’ shows to the lugubrious movies.” Three cheers for Gioia, who is working hard, throughout the nation and overseas with our troops, to support the very best in our culture.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
A House That Bubbled
We are all familiar with the escalation of housing prices over the last decade and of the bursting of that bubble by the shenanigans that led to the sub-prime mortgage crisis. Housing prices are down 10% from the 2006 high. Housing starts today are down 38% over the past 12 months. And in January of this year sales of existing homes dropped to the slowest pace on record. Still, in some especially desirable places throughout the country prices are still sky high. One such market is Portland, Oregon, where my wife was born and raised. Indeed, what follows is the revealing story of the house in which she lived as a youngster. It is now for sale.
Friday, February 22, 2008
Four Crucial Issues of 2008
Harvard law professor William J. Stuntz wrote an interesting piece in the February 18 issue of The Weekly Standard warning both Republicans and Democrats that they must face unpleasant facts about four major issues being discussed during this election year. Republicans have to reexamine their positions on abortion and immigration, and Democrats must talk sensibly about the War in Iraq and federal spending. Neither party to this point, Stuntz contends, is dealing with these issues in a responsible and constructive way.
Monday, February 18, 2008
On The Presidential Race
1. Almost all the interesting action in this already exhausting and mind-bogglingly expensive contest is within the Democratic Party. The GOP is divided, dispirited, and unpopular, and the Bush Administration is leaving the Republican standard bearer with a lengthy (albeit it highly important) war and a somewhat shaky economy. What strikes one most about the Democrats is how closely their vote is tied to race and sex. Women tend to favor Hillary Clinton, blacks strongly support Barack Obama, and the current struggle is over the Hispanic vote. Millions of Americans are apparently willing to vote for anyone endorsed by Oprah.
Friday, February 15, 2008
Poverty and Morality
World poverty in our increasingly opulent and educated 21st century, has become something of a scandal. According to the World Bank, in 2004 some 2.6 billion people, almost half the population of the developing world, was living below the two-dollar-per-day level. In Sub-Saharan Africa, 298 million people were living in extreme poverty in 2004, the same number as in 1999. In the United States the gap between rich and poor continues to expand, and child poverty actually increased in 2005, to include 37 million young Americans.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
The Politics of Doing Nothing
Libertarianism has a small but highly vocal group of admirers in this country, largely on the Right. By just doing nothing, they tend to believe, and letting the mysterious forces that allegedly rule economics and international affairs operate freely, all will be well. It’s when do-gooders and government reformers step in to make things better that they inevitably get worse. There are still economists, for example, who condemn the New Deal, convinced that the Great Depression would have righted itself if only Washington had kept its hands off. And there are historians who are still persuaded that isolationism in both world wars and the Cold War, would have been wise. As for the contemporary Middle Eastern situation, many of the faithful want the United States to pull out and dialogue with the Jihadists. A non-interventionist foreign policy, they believe, will prompt peace to break out.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
The Transformation of Psychiatry
American history textbooks, including my own, rarely discuss mental health. It’s a major omission, for psychology and psychiatry have had a direct impact on millions and have influenced virtually all of us. Today there are some 45,000 psychiatrists and 3,500 psychoanalysts in the United States. The latest developments in the field, according to Yale University psychiatrist Charles Barber, are particularly noteworthy. Traditional psychology, he reports, is dead, and Freudianism, long dominant in the science of the mind, has been abandoned. The brain has been discovered to be far more complex than earlier generations imagined. Barber’s article “The Brain: A Mindless Obsession,” in The Wilson Quarterly (winter 2008), was adapted from his forthcoming book on psychiatry and should be required reading for all thoughtful Americans.
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Filty Rich in China
Syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer recently questioned the widely-held assumption that economic liberalization leads to political liberalization. For example, Pakistan and Kenya, nations that have shown a measure of democratic stability, are both convulsed with violence and uncertainty. Increasingly wealthy Russia seems to be sliding back into totalitarianism. And China, for all its opulence, is controlled by a Leninist dictatorship that shows no signs of going away or granting its 1.3 billion people appreciably more freedom. Still, China is far from the straightjacket of class equality that Mao envisioned. In fact, the nation is enjoying an abundance of Western-style economic activity that has spawned a class in China called “Xin Gui,”or New Nobility.
Recent Entries
- On Plutocracy
- The War on School Choice
- Stalin and Putin
- The Empty Church Revisited
- The Faith-Based Initiative
- Ruminations in March
- On Authority
- Election Observations
- On William F. Buckley, Jr.
- On Wealth
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- Liberty & Power
- Judith Apter Klinghoffer
- Thomas C. Reeves
- Mark A. LeVine
- Revise & Dissent
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- Gil Troy
Recent Comments
- kurt wakefield on Shades Of Gray
- Richard Lee Newby on On Plutocracy
- Robert Charles Stankewitz on Too Many Lawyers
- Ludwik Kowalski on Stalin and Putin
- Ludwik Kowalski on Stalin and Putin
- Ludwik Kowalski on Stalin and Putin
- Ed Schmitt on On Plutocracy
- Randll Reese Besch on On Plutocracy
- Tim Matthewson on The Faith-Based Initiative
- Tim Matthewson on The Empty Church Revisited
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