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CATEGORY: FAMILY (14 MIN)
In honor of Valentine’s Day, this week’s Intercollegiate Review highlights three articles about the building blocks of our nation: marriage and family. Claiming that marriage is an old-fashioned mode of affairs has become a trendy position for many cultural elites. But you might notice something odd about these people—most of them are married.
For The Atlantic, Brad Wilcox shines a light on this hypocritical state of affairs in the West. He opens with an informal survey of his college students at UVA. He asked them if having extramarital babies was morally acceptable. The vast majority said yes. But a whopping 97 percent of those same students also said they planned to marry and then have children.
This disconnect, according to Wilcox, represents a larger trend in America. He cites another survey which found that nearly 70 percent of college-educated liberals are married. Yet less than a third of that group believed children are better off with married parents.
Wilcox notes that some scholars are beginning to come around to the dangerous effects of lower marriage rates on the U.S. He then suggests three steps for our nation to take in order to avert those effects.
Discover those steps in Wilcox’s article with our free guest link here.
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Weekly Poll
RESULTS: 2/8/24
Last week, we asked: Do you think overregulation has caused administrative bloat within companies? Here are the results:
[A] Yes - 97.1%
[B] No - 2.9%
[C] Unsure - 0%
Should elites advise young people against alternative familial structures (having children out of wedlock, intentional single parenthood, polyamorous relationships, etc.)?
[A] Yes
[B] No
[C] Unsure
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CATEGORY: FAMILY (10 MIN)
In his article, Wilcox mentions a commentator named Rob Henderson. Henderson has a degree from Yale and a Ph.D. from Cambridge. He’s had a life pretty much anyone seeking to enter the academic world could only dream of. Yet his life started in poverty—foster care after being born to a single mother who struggled with drug addiction. Now, he wants to tell the story of America’s other lost boys.
In his Substack, Henderson describes his own story and connects it to what he sees as a challenge “nearly impossible to overcome:” the instability created by broken families. Henderson notes that boys in particular suffer the most from split or shattered households. They have high rates of unemployment and incarceration and low rates of college attendance.
Henderson then dispels the myth that this can all be chalked up to poverty, citing studies which indicate that poor boys in stable homes are less likely to abuse drugs than wealthy boys in unstable homes. And drawing back on his own story, Henderson says male role models were the ones who had the most positive effect on him during his darkest days. Without fathers to serve as those models, he writes, America’s boys will continue to suffer.
Read Henderson’s entire piece here.
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CATEGORY: PODCAST EPISODE
Paul Robinson joins us this week to discuss his book, Russian Conservatism.
Listen as Paul, Marlo, and Tom delve into the evolution of Russian conservative thought spanning the early nineteenth century to the contemporary era. Paul traces philosophers, politicians, and figures' significant contributions across the Imperial, Soviet, and post-Soviet periods. By exploring cultural, political, and socio-economic conservatism in Russia, he asserts that these ideas provide valuable insights into both Russia's historical trajectory and its current state. Furthermore, it suggests that understanding Russian conservatism is crucial for anticipating the nation's future developments and indicating potential influences, whether positive or negative, in the years ahead.
Texts Mentioned:
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CATEGORY: PODCAST EPISODE
In this episode of American Moment's podcast, Moment of Truth, Saurabh Sharma and Nick Solheim sit down with John A. Burtka IV, President & CEO of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute and author of Gateway to Statesmanship, to discuss:
- America's best and worst statesmen from Thomas Jefferson to Donald Trump
- pertinent advice for those in power from Xenophon to Churchill
- ISI's plans to counter the Ivy League and build an elite conservative network
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41st Annual Viennese Waltz Ball
February 17th, 2024
Join ISI on Saturday, February 17th, at The Organization of American States for the 41st Annual Evening of Viennese Waltzing.
It will be a night of silk top hats, furs, dance cards, champagne, and flaming crepes as more than 200 couples recreate the sumptuous balls of turn-of-the-century Vienna.
Join us in Washington, DC >>>
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Gateway to Statesmanship Book Launch with Johnny Burtka
February 22nd, 2024
Join us for an enlightening evening at the Linda L. Bean Center as we celebrate the launch of the much-anticipated book, Gateway to Statesmanship: Selections from Xenophon to Churchill. This event starts at 6:00 PM with a welcoming reception, offering a chance to mingle, enjoy refreshments, and prepare for an evening of intellectual discussion.
As the reception winds down, we transition into a compelling panel discussion featuring Enrique Pallares and Joseph Prud’homme, renowned for their deep insights into political and philosophical thought. This discussion will delve into the book’s exploration of statesmanship, not just as a political art but as a comprehensive study of human thought and action.
Join us in Wilmington, DE >>>
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Conservative Book of the Year Award Ceremony and Reception
March 15th, 2024
The Intercollegiate Studies Institute proudly announces Chris Rufo as the winner of the 2024 Conservative Book of the Year Award for his exceptional work, America’s Cultural Revolution: How the Radical Left Conquered Everything. This book stands as a beacon of insightful analysis and thought-provoking commentary in today’s dynamic cultural landscape.
Join us for an evening of recognition and celebration at the prestigious National Press Club on Friday, March 15, as we honor the Conservative Book of the Year. The ceremony will commence at 6 PM, starting with a cocktail hour from 6:00 – 7:00 PM that offers attendees a chance to mingle and discuss the thought-provoking works of our finalists. The award ceremony and acceptance speech will follow from 7:00 – 8:00 PM.
Join us in Washington, DC >>>
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Because our student editors and writers are bravely bringing conservative ideas to their campuses, we’re highlighting their efforts here.
Pomona Professor Investigated for Discrimination, Takes College to Court via The Claremont Independent
“In December, Pomona College English professor Aaron Kunin began publishing excerpts from the manuscript of his upcoming book Weird at My School on Substack. The posts are about Pomona's investigation into two of his colleagues’ allegations against him. According to Kunin’s account, the professors claimed he was guilty of ‘race-based and sex/gender-based discrimination, harassment, and retaliation’ after he advocated for standard procedure at a meeting in 2019.”
John Mearsheimer Presents Realist Perspective via The Irish Rover
“The Notre Dame International Security Center (NDISC) hosted John J. Mearsheimer, the R. Wendell Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, for a lecture entitled ‘War and International Politics’ on January 30.”
Save the Tents via The Stanford Review
“As Family Weekend approaches, Stanford administrators use the guise of student safety to shut down the pro-Palestine and pro-Israel demonstrations in White Plaza.”
Kimberlé Crenshaw To Give Martin Luther King Lecture at Sage Chapel via Cornell Review
“Alumna Kimberlé Crenshaw ‘81 has been invited to deliver the annual Martin Luther King lecture on Monday, Feb. 19 in Sage Chapel. Crenshaw was credited in coining the term ’intersectionality’ in the context of fashioning legal remedies.”
Editorial: Our coverage led to IUPUI cancelling their BDSM event. Now they need to take responsibility for their actions. via The Collegiate Commons
“On Monday, The Collegiate Commons broke the story that Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis planned to invite a ‘local expert’ with disturbing online activity... to promote BDSM to students. The event was purposefully vague and the IUPUI Office of Health and Wellness Promotion withheld any information about the presenter until we pressured them. It is telling that a day after we published that information, the IUPUI Office of Health and Wellness canceled the workshop.”
The Collegiate Commons’ original story about IUPUI’s campus BDSM workshop has been picked up by the The Daily Mail and The New York Post. |
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CATEGORY: FAMILY (8 MIN)
Although a tremendous wealth of data indicates the importance of a stable family to a country’s health—indeed, to the world’s health—global elites continue to encourage trends that destroy the family. They discourage motherhood, promote irregular family arrangements, and don’t urge fathers to stick around. And for children lost due to these trends, the government steps in as a mock parent instead.
For this week’s Intercollegiate Review archive, Austin Ruse targets what he calls “Davos-man,” playing on the location of the World Economic Forum’s meetings. He accuses global elites of setting the family up to fail so that citizens will have less stability and become much easier to “push around.” Ruse blames the rise of pornography, the sexual revolution, and no-fault divorce for perpetuating this instability in our nation.
The main point of Ruse’s article is to review a book called Against the Great Reset: Eighteen Theses Contra the New World Order, which was edited by Michael Walsh. Ruse appreciates Walsh’s criticism of the modern artist, who refuses to battle the totalitarian elites as artists used to do. But he calls out Walsh for missing the root problem.
“We are weakened and ripe for plucking by the People’s Republic of China and Davos-man, and any of our enemies, because we have succumbed to the lure of a new sexual ideology that has destroyed our families and turned us into a nation of lonely singletons,” Ruse writes.
Read his full piece here.
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Thought of the Day:
“In the celebration of the Sacrament [of Matrimony], the spouses give and receive each other, declaring their willingness to welcome children and to educate them. On this hinges human civilization, which cannot be defined as anything other than a ‘civilization of love.’”
- Pope John Paul II
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Join ISI’s new Alumni Giving Club
It’s never been easier for you to support our mission—and stay part of our community—with ISI’s new Alumni Giving Club!
For just $19.53 a month, you can join the fight and “pay it forward” by educating the next generation for ordered liberty.
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