The best of intellectual conservative thought, every Thursday
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CATEGORY: CULTURE (14 MIN)
Beating swords into pens
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Conservatives often bemoan the loss of popular culture to the progressive regime. It can be easy to avoid the most inflammatory material and simply make the rest a depressing talking point. But instead, should we be attempting to reclaim areas of culture that have lacked conservative voices for a generation?
Michael Anton, writing for IM—1776
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, argues that writers on the right need to take advantage of this vacuum and forge excellent careers. To make his point, Anton focuses on the life of Tom Wolfe, the legendary journalist and nonfiction writer. Wolfe affected the culture strongly through classics such as Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers and The Bonfire of the Vanities.
Anton acknowledges that talents like Wolfe don’t come around all the time, but he urges conservative donors to search for young writers to invest in. He believes that such young people could go tell the truth about the world around us in an exciting and attractive way that could break into the liberal monopoly on the arts. These writers could be “potent weapons,” Anton says.
Read his full argument right here
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Read Now
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Weekly Poll
RESULTS: 6/1/23
Last week, we asked: In your opinion, do American corporations have a duty to American citizens, or was Milton Friedman right when he said a corporation's only responsibility is to make as much money as possible? 49.3% of respondents agree with Milton Friedman and 47.8% believe that corporations have a duty to US citizens.
In your opinion, should conservative philanthropists fund cultural and artistic works to take back the dominant culture from progressives, or should they mostly focus on donating to political and economic activism?
[A] C
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onservative philanthropists should fund cultural and artistic works
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[B] C
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onservative philanthropists should focus on political and economic activism
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[C] Unsure
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/Just tell me the results
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CATEGORY: GOVERNMENT (15 MIN)
Emergence of the elites
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The shocking leftward slide of American culture has left many conservatives wondering how to fight back. Many Americans seek to curb the excesses of the transgender movement, the destruction of marriage, and the persistence of abortion in states which allow it. But what is the best way to remake the country?
In his new book, Regime Change: Toward a Post-Liberal Order, Patrick Deneen puts forward a new pathway for America, proposing a regime change that relies on a new elite class to balance out the populace at large. These elites would create a more stable and less liberal society which better fosters human flourishing, according to Deneen.
Deneen backs his claim by arguing that by mixing the populace (or “demos”) with the party of the few, their respective best virtues could emerge to the forefront. Each group’s vices, meanwhile, would diminish due to natural checks. He points to thinkers like Aquinas, Polybius, and Aristotle for this reasoning.
Meanwhile, Deneen notes that liberalism on both the left and the right has blocked this needed change from taking place. Continuing his argument from Why Liberalism Failed, Deneen says a post-liberal order must emerge soon.
Read the full excerpt in Compact right here
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CATEGORY: ISI NEWS (4 MIN)
Pitt officials violate First Amendment rights
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“Alliance Defending Freedom sent a letter Monday to the University of Pittsburgh to inform it that the $18,734 security fee the university charged the Intercollegiate Studies Institute and the university’s College Republicans chapter violated the student groups’ First Amendment rights....
‘What happened at the University of Pittsburgh is a tragedy. College is a partnership between students and faculty rooted in mutual respect, friendship, and the pursuit of knowledge,’ said ISI President Johnny Burtka. ‘The university violated this sacred trust by inciting a riot that threatened the lives and liberties of students peacefully assembled to discuss and debate ideas. This dereliction of duty is unacceptable in a free society, and ISI will fight to ensure it never happens again.’”
Read the full press release here
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and help ISI fight for free speech by joining our Freedom and Virtue Club
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ISI’s 70th Anniversary Gala &
Linda L. Bean Center Dedication
September 28th, 2023
This fall, join us at our 70th Anniversary Gala
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featuring Tucker Carlson, Kevin Roberts, the president of the Heritage Foundation, and Linda Bean, entrepreneur and philanthropist. Together these are some of the most influential figures in America today.
We will also host a pre-event panel featuring longtime friends of ISI including Annette Kirk (Russell Kirk Center), Gene Meyer (The Federalist Society), Ed Feulner (The Heritage Foundation), and Dan McCarthy (ISI), discussing the 70th anniversary of three conservative classics: Russell Kirk’s The Conservative Mind, Leo Strauss’ Natural Right and History, and Robert Nisbet’s The Quest for Community.
We will have a lobster dinner in honor of Tucker and Linda’s mutual connection to the state of Maine and seating will be limited to 150 guests. Our VIP ticket holders will have the chance to meet ISI trustees and event speakers in a private reception beforehand.
Reserve your tickets here
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Join us in Wilmington, DE >>>
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Because our student editors and writers are bravely bringing conservative ideas to their campuses, we’re highlighting their efforts here.
What Eisgruber Got Wrong About Free Speech and the University
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via The Princeton Tory
“But Eisgruber’s departing message was misguided for its substantial focus on political activism and its departure from the core purpose of Princeton and universities like it: truth-seeking and the production and dissemination of knowledge.”
RIP, President Robert Zimmer (1947–2023), UChicago’s Free Speech Crusader
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via The Chicago Thinker
“Free speech, as Zimmer’s 2016 Wall Street Journal op-ed observes, allows students to ‘master how to recognize complexity, to argue effectively for their positions and to reconsider and challenge their own beliefs.’”
CATEGORY: CULTURE (16 MIN)
A story-shaping savant
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Some today may only remember Tom Wolfe for his book The Right Stuff, a tale of NASA’s astronaut program which became a movie and a TV show. But others remember him for the indelible mark he left on American culture, for his unique and attractive writing style, and for his genius storytelling.
In this week’s Intercollegiate Review
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archive, Titus Techera recounts Wolfe’s career and echoes Michael Anton’s call for a new star conservative writer. Techera discusses Wolfe’s development of New Journalism, the compelling telling of nonfiction stories which relate moral truths. He argues that Wolfe promoted true masculinity and conservative values through his writing.
“Wolfe’s writings should be understood as exhortations to patriots to throw off servitude to liberal pieties and restore America using the resources he always pointed to, which have been so long ridiculed and then forgotten that they might as well be ancient,” Techera writes.
Techera reminds us that stories have an exceptional amount of power in a society, because they can earn a writer goodwill rather than sinking his credibility—if the story is good. That’s why Wolfe was so successful, and it’s why Techera and Anton think we need a new Wolfe today.
Discover Techera’s entire piece right here
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Read Now
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Thought of the Day:
“One of the few freedoms that we have as human beings that cannot be taken away from us is the freedom to assent to what is true and to deny what is false. Nothing you can give me is worth surrendering that freedom for.”
- Tom Wolfe
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