Episode 9 features Jack Kerwick, whose work has appeared in both scholarly journals and popular publications including Townhall, The Agonist, BeliefNet, Abbeville Institute, The Imaginative Conservative, and Frontpage Magazine. Kerwick received his doctoral degree in philosophy from Temple University. He is a professional philosopher who teaches at several institutions in New Jersey. Kerwick’s areas of specialization are ethics and political philosophy, with a particular focus on the classical conservative tradition.
In our discussion, we talk about the “Great UnReason” regarding coronavirus and the progressive riots, both of which are hastening the fundamental transformation of the West. He sees hope in the self-defense measures taken by many Americans, as well as rising gun sales and the fact that the cultural-Marxist mayhem has been solely an urban phenomenon.
But I’m not so sure. Will Americans who live outside the cities actually rise us up? Can they under the current paradigm of state-sanctioned leftist violence, social and corporate struggle sessions, and lawlessness toward the law-abiding? Will it even be enough? I’m quite a bit more black-pilled than is Kerwick, but his ideas may be at least part of the solution. Take a listen, and let me know what you think in the comment sections.
Kerwick’s books are “Higher Miseducation: A Dissident’s Essays on the Assault against Liberal Learning,” “Misguided Guardians: The Conservative Case Against Neoconservatism,” “Christianity and the World: Essays Philosophical, Historical and Cultural,” and “The American Offensive: Dispatches From the Front.”
Also of note are the compilation books “Exiled: Stories from Conservative and Moderate Professors Who Have Been Ridiculed, Ostracized, Marginalized, Demonized, and Frozen Out” and the brand-new, Paul-Gottfried-edited “The Vanishing Tradition: Perspectives on American Conservatism,” both of which feature essays by Kerwick.
Comments
Excellent podcast. You know, I think (and I could be totally wrong) that the problem with Americans today–the fact that they have no understanding of history, no thoughts of culture, philosophy, etc..–is rooted in a deliberate dumbing down of society. People today live perpetually in the present. Our government school system is designed to produce students who think only in the moment, to live only in the present. Students are sequestered away from their elders and held in a factory/prison school system that marches them around like automatons and discourages critical thought in favor of behavior modification. They are turned into little consumers, intellectual children who know nothing of the past and have no path to the future and are nothing more than the fuel/resources for a materialistic society. They just consume, consume, consume. Our political system is organized around that. “Capitalism” and socialism both reduce human interaction to simple economics which is purely theoretical and utterly godless.
As always, well said, good sir. Yes, I suppose the overall point of Yankeeism (besides invasion, theft, murder, reconstruction, centralization, and power) was a “proposition nation” built upon industrial capital with material goods at the center of life. When the state is daddy, consumerism becomes the quest and materialism becomes the god, which is of course why history and tradition must be smashed. If it can’t be commodified, screw it, say the haters. I sometimes wish I was the type of person who lived with her head in the sand, but alas, knowledge and truth are what God calls us to seek because He is truth. So even though this narrow path is filled with dangers and lots and lots frustration, it is what we were made to do. It can be a pretty lonely journey, especially these days, but it does shine like a beacon on those who are our true brothers and sisters. So, I’m glad to be running the race set before us with you, friend. Let’s keep on keepin’ on. Like Stonewall said, “Duty is ours, consequences are God’s.”
I haven’t been able to attend to these as much as I’d like of late, DM, but I finally had some time this morning to do so. I’ve respected Dr. Kerwick’s work for a good while now, and really appreciated hearing him. This philosopher’s feet are firmly planted in Reality, not merely aery-faery abstractions (NOTE: I actually loved the “disruption” by one of his kids toward the end, as a metaphor of this very thing!).
Yeah, I almost cut that out, but then I thought, that’s how real life goes. It’s messy, unpolished, and of a time and place, so I’m glad you appreciated that off-the-cuff authenticity. Kerwick’s a great guy, too. Pleased you liked the episode, DD!