The American Conservative

If you’re in or near Las Vegas for this weekend, join TAC editor Daniel McCarthy, columnist Jack Hunter, and associate publisher Jon Utley for a panel discussion on ”Liberty or Empire: America, Israel, and the Tea Parties.” Part of FreedomFest at Ballys Las Vegas, the panel will take place Saturday at 4pm in Palace 1/2.

Wednesday’s Mike Church Show, broadcast on Sirius XM radio, will feature a segment with Stephen Tippins, the author of TAC‘s new cover story, “Anti-Social Network.”

Tippins’s story, which appears in the August issue, takes the reader on a journey through the brave new world of social networking. One night at a bar with friends, he suddenly sees how life online has radically reshaped our social encounters: Read More…

TAC contributor Eamonn Fingleton has long questioned the idea that the 1990s were a “lost decade” for the Japanese economy.  Now he’s challenging two popular proponents of that thesis to a public debate in Washington, D.C.—and he’s willing to donate $10,000 to charity if they accept the challenge.

The offer has gone out to economists Robbie Feldman, the chief Japan economist for Morgan Stanley, and Ed Lincoln, the former chief advisor on Japanese economics to ambassador Walter Mondale.

On his website, Fingleton partially blames the idiosyncrasies of Japanese society for propagating the “lost decade” thesis to Westerners:

Let me speak plainly: no one of any commonsense in Tokyo has ever placed much credence in the story of the first “lost decade,” let alone the second. They have kept their views to themselves, however, because Japan is not a place where people lightly contradict the elite bureaucracy on anything, let alone on a fundamental public relations theme that has been systematically projected into the foreign media for twenty years.

While it may seem amazing that crucial facts can be swept under the carpet in this way, the Japanese bureaucracy’s almost magical ability to impose self-censorship not only on Japanese citizens but even on Japan-watching foreigners has been well documented (see, for instance, Ivan P. Hall’s Bamboozled: How America Loses the Intellectual Game With Japan and Its Implications for Our Future in Asia).

Among the many issues not reported on by the Western media is the protectionist Japanese auto market:

… the fact is that with the exception of two luxury German marques, foreign cars remain completely marginalized and the aggregate foreign market share has been kept at 4 percent for decades (irrespective of whether the yen is high or low).

Will Feldman and Lincoln agree to debate Fingleton?  If they do, it will be a victory for all the so-called heterodox economists who are eager to challenge today’s economic dogmas—many of which are responsible for the current crisis.

If they don’t, it will still be a victory for those willing to question today’s economic status quo.

Dr. Peter Haworth, friend of TAC and Front Porch Republic, has called scholars interested in tradition, place, and ‘things divine’ to form a new Ciceronian Society in pursuit of these areas of study. The society’s inaugural conference will take place next weekend in Jefferson’s ancestral home of Charlottesville, Virginia.

In Peter’s words,

The Ciceronian Society facilitates the development of academic conferences that explore the many and various topics related to our core themes of Tradition, Place, and ‘Things Divine.’ Ultimately, we hope that papers delivered at Ciceronian Society Conferences can find a publishable home in our sister journal: ANAMNESIS.

Our first conference is this March, 17-20th. It will be located at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. Additional details about the conference can found on the Conferences page.

For more information, you may contact Peter Haworth or visit the Ciceronian Society’s web page.

The cover story of the March issue of The American Conservative is now available online. Brian Kaller, an American expat in Ireland, finds parallels between Ireland’ s economic crisis and America’s precarious fiscal position. According to Kaller, the Irish “have seen many crises in their lives—devaluations, coups, civil wars, fuel shortages, and famines—and, yes, it can happen here. The age of abundance might already be coming to an end.” Kaller warns that a coming transition to a post-crash life without the luxuries expected by postwar Americans ensures that austerity in this country will not be as smooth as Ireland’s.

We also present a special preview of TAC‘s upcoming April 2011 issue. In “Don’t Party Like It’s 1989,” Leon Hadar dispels comparisons of the uprisings in the Middle East to the democratic transitions of Eastern Europe after the fall of the Soviet empire. What we’re facing today is much less hopeful and more akin to an earlier era, Hadar argues:

The lessons of the democratic revolutions of 1848 may be instructive. The uprisings in Paris, Milan, Venice, Vienna, Prague, Budapest, Krakow, Munich, and Berlin, led by members of the middle classes and the intelligentsia, failed to transform the existing order and replace it with democratic and liberal institutions. In fact, the political upheaval helped expose the conflicting interests and values of the intellectuals and professionals who led the revolts and the workers and the peasants whose support they had failed to win. The result was a successful counter-revolution launched by the ruling elites in France, the Austrian Empire, and Prussia. Conservative forces were able to consolidate their power for many years to come and at the same time initiated limited and gradual reforms to placate the restive population.

There’s still a high level of uncertainty regarding the Egypt and the broader Middle East, and Hadar’s thoughtful analysis is a good place to start understanding the bigger picture.

I just returned from an eleven day trip to Israel, Palestine and Egypt.  I hope to write about it at greater length: the situation is tremendously depressing, as Israel is carrying on a kind of slow motion ethnic cleansing, severing the Palestinians from Jerusalem but various bureaucratic measures and home demolitions.  It is sad both for itself–to see the extent to which Palestinian every day lives are regulated  by Israelis with guns; for the peace process–because there will be no peace unless the Palestinians and Muslims world in general have some access to Jerusalem, which is a holy city for Muslims and Christians, as well as Jews.  And because America, as Israel’s only ally and benefactor, makes all this possible–indeed encourages it by the supine nature  of its dealings with Israel.

For the meantime, I’d like to call DC area TAC readers attention to an event at Busboys and Poets in Washington DC, this coming Sunday at 9:30AM.  Mondoweiss blogger (and TAC contributor) Philip Weiss and several of his co-authors will be discussing his recently published book on the Goldstone Report, its reception, and implications.  For those of you who don’t know it, Phil publishes one of the most penetrating blogs in the country–mostly about Israel and Palestine, but also   about Jews and Christians, the American media, the power of the Israel lobby, Jewish identity, and related subjects–in short, quite a lot of ground, in a voice that is subtle, searching, and quite unique.

I’ll be a guest (resident reactionary, I call it) this week at the blog of Seattle’s progressive free weekly The Stranger. I have no connection to the blog; the week was a Christmas gift, auctioned off for charity. Here’s my first post, excerpted below, which recycles my post last August on Omar Thornton as a resentment-driven lunatic appropriating the standard American race narrative. And on MLK day no less! If you do visit there, please be civil, regardless of the tone set by the readership. At the moment they are apoplectic, but mostly about my long-windedness and mere presence in their lair. This might get a little weird.

kinesis, n a movement that is a response to a stimulus but is not oriented with respect to the source of stimulation
[1913 Webster]
Ten days ago a madman, having legally acquired a handgun, killed six unsuspecting innocents. The Democratic Party, assisted by the braver elements of the national media, sprung into action, quickly wrestling the First Amendment to the ground and disarming it before it could do more damage. Alas, the culprit has escaped, spirited away by his longtime associates Hate and Intolerance, no doubt. Fear not; speech posses are combing the hinterlands even now in search of malicious metaphors and savage similes. Needless to say, these suspects should be considered armed and dangerous. In the event that you come into contact with one, make no attempt to engage it, avoid ear contact and back away slowly before fleeing to your nearest progressive cable news outlet or blog, where you can report the encounter. Don’t be a hero. That’s what we put Keith Olbermann in pancake make-up for.
But above all, just as Fox News and the DHS dutifully advise regarding the terrorist threat of such criminal masterminds as the Liberty Seven and donkey-borne Taliban in the Pashtun hinterlands: be afraid, be very afraid. Always. And trust in the government. Always. Just as in those heady days following 9-11, we are advised to “watch what we say”. The parallels between this and that panic make a handy and instructive analog for the confused citizen. Meanwhile, working with heroic speed, experts have already fashioned a new standard for acceptable public rhetoric–if it’s capable of provoking a raving lunatic it is illicit. Make a note of it.
This has been necessarily expanded from the original focus on white male Republicans, who nonetheless retain their place atop the hierarchy of hysteria. This all will take some getting used to, I know, but one can always observe Mom’s advice–if you don’t have anything nice to say, drown your hatemongering words and yourself in your acidic spittle, you fascist bigot. And if you’re incapable of recognizing what might set off a lunatic, you are the lunatic.

Above all remain calm; our enlightened betters are valiantly fighting to will into being this “new reality” that will have “changed everything”. They know what they’re talking about. Recall the media’s uncanny prophesy that AIDS “changed everything”, delivering us from our libertine sexual ways; that 9/11 “changed everything”, bringing the nation together finally; and of course the post-partisan transformation of Barack Obama’s presidency ushering in a new era of domestic tranquility and world peace. These are the people who saved you from Saddam Hussein’s killer drones and WMD labs, remember. Despar not of their wisdom and sobriety.

Erik Kain recently interviewed yours truly about the curious name of my blog and the political tradition (or at least tendency) behind it.

Astute observers will see from our pop-up ad that supporters who donate $200 or more to The American Conservative this Christmas can get a signed copy of Bill Kauffman’s superb book Ain’t My America: The Long, Noble History of Antiwar Conservatism and Middle-American Anti-Imperialism, a great gift for the season of peace and goodwill.

All contributions of any amount are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law, so this is also a useful way to adjust your year-end taxes while helping TAC continue to deliver the best in traditional conservatism (and much more). Even the smallest gift helps sustain the magazine and website and gives us the chance to bring you even more thought-provoking content in the New Year.

If you enjoyed Jack Hunter’s recent “Conservative Case for WikiLeaks” or Jim Bovard’s “Assassin Nation,” Jordan Smith’s recent essay on John Lennon or George Scialabba’s look at T.S. Eliot, make a gift to TAC so we can keep going strong.

Two friends of TAC have lately produced very interesting interviews: Reid Buckley, whose new book is The Idiocy of Assent, talks to the Daily Caller; while Eric Garris, webmaster and founding father of Antiwar.com, discusses war and peace with the Daily Bell. Good reads both.

Yours truly was interviewed by the Daily Bell a while back; that chat is online here.