Bonus Episode: Bronze Age Decius?

Very enjoyable. More like this please, particularly over cigars and drinks.

Right-wing members of my cohort have a massive cynicism problem. They know that what the left's offering is poppycock; they know that civilization is going to pot; they know that the old civic and religious teachings contain some deep truth. But they've been marinated in the same stew of ironic postmodern detachment as everyone else. Try as they might, they can't quite force themselves to believe in anything. Their attitude is something like this:

"Leftists are hysterical; conservatives are cucks. Socialism doesn't work. Capitalism doesn't work. Everything is terrible, and there's nothing we can do about it. So, let's amuse ourselves with memes, video games, and 4chan trollery. And marijuana brownies, too. YOLO!"

What can the conservative establishment say to such people?

Morning Kephalithos,

If I am understanding you, the current culture/political structures aren’t working as you would like them to. What would a better working culture/politics look like. I am 72, so the part of the culture/politics that seems broken to me is that the common definitions of a good life have been set aside, fragmented, or found to be a sham or unworthy. The common path used to be, go to school, get a job, get married, have kids. The job was a vehicle for paying bills. One may have identified with one’s job but one’s friends, colleagues, came from different parts of society. The boomers did have their revolutionary idealists who believed in “Imagine nothing to kill or die for”, but in the end I think many thought “meet the new boss, same as the old boss”, was more accurate, and our expectations that life would have a sunny future were set aside. And some thought “Eve of destruction” wasn’t absurd. Thinking about the post WWII generation, I think that they felt that life had gotten better. So do you feel our cultures best days are past, and what were the causes of this decline?

Good podcast. In the 1960s, I knew well Capt PVH Weems who was one of the pioneers of airplane navigation. He taught Lindbergh celestial navigation. He also was strongly into physical exercise. Here he is with the Lindberghs and with my parents.

Kephalithos (View Comment):

Right-wing members of my cohort have a massive cynicism problem. They know that what the left’s offering is poppycock; they know that civilization is going to pot; they know that the old civic and religious teachings contain some deep truth. But they’ve been marinated in the same stew of ironic postmodern detachment as everyone else. Try as they might, they can’t quite force themselves to believe in anything. Their attitude is something like this:

“Leftists are hysterical; conservatives are cucks. Socialism doesn’t work. Capitalism doesn’t work. Everything is terrible, and there’s nothing we can do about it. So, let’s amuse ourselves with memes, video games, and 4chan trollery. And marijuana brownies, too. YOLO!”

What can the conservative establishment say to such people?

You can start by telling them capitalism does work, having in recent decades engineered the greatest lifting of millions of people out of poverty in the history of the world.

If they refuse to believe you, beat them over the head with Steven Pinker!