Eric Scheske

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Counter-Conduct

Counter-Conduct

Modernity is molded by the left hemisphere. It could be argued that modernity is, by definition, the culture built by the left hemisphere. As a result, folks these days tend to have atrophied right hemispheres that need to be reinvigorated in order to flourish. Part of that effort requires a revolt against the presumptions of left-hemispheric culture. The revolt is "counter-conduct," a term borrowed from M. Foucault (but used slightly differently. Counter-conduct clears the path for flourishing.

Shatter Zones and Jellyfish Tribes

Shatter Zones and Jellyfish Tribes

A fellow-Generation X'er channels my thoughts almost precisely. The first third of this must-read essay recounts the problem. The last two-thirds offers a possible response ("shatter zones" and "jellyfish tribes") to the black hole State that sucks in everything near it. Kingsnorth's

Bill Kauffman has Never Owned a Cell Phone

Bill Kauffman has Never Owned a Cell Phone

Kauffman sightings have grown increasingly scarce. It's too bad. He's great. His most recent offering at The Spectator is mediocre (by Kauffman standards), but it's worth posting for the lede itself: he couldn't order a bagel at an airport because he doesn&

Michel Foucault

Michel Foucault

I can hardly imagine a person more unlike me than Michel Foucault. Flaming homosexual (note the strong contrast!), Communist, French. But man, the more glimpses I get of him, the more I like him. Thaddeus Russell first explained Foucault's appeal, so I decided to start learning about him.

Aristotle to Aquinas to Pieper: Leisure Solves Nothing. That's What Makes it Counter-Conduct

Aristotle to Aquinas to Pieper: Leisure Solves Nothing. That's What Makes it Counter-Conduct

In the tradition that runs from Aristotle through Aquinas to Josef Pieper, leisure is not a solution to anything, but an alternative way of being in the world. In Pieper’s formulation, leisure “runs at right angles” to the practical pursuits of work and achievement. Leisure and Liberality | Elizabeth C.

The New Right Surges . . . in Lower Manhattan?

The New Right Surges . . . in Lower Manhattan?

From The New Statesman

The Difference Between Rebelling Against the Establishment and Rebelling Against the establishment (small "e")

The Difference Between Rebelling Against the Establishment and Rebelling Against the establishment (small "e")

My Dad was fiercely conservative. A full-blown WASP, albeit of the first-generation sort, his parents having migrated from Russia shortly before 1917. We used to drink beer at a local dive bar and discuss sundry (and sudsy) topics. During one conversation, I told him I was reading On the Road

We Need to Resist the World of Pure Action

We Need to Resist the World of Pure Action

Last week, Michael Osterholm went on the Joe Rogan Experience for the second time. Osterholm, some might recall, went on Rogan early in the pandemic. Later Rogan guests decried him as a “chicken little” who was just trying to hawk his book. Osterholm said things that turned out to be

Three Ways Human Beings are Conducted, According to Foucault

Three Ways Human Beings are Conducted, According to Foucault

The government of men: an activity that undertakes to conduct individuals. Pastoral power: concentrates the activity of conducting individuals in religious institutions. Governmentality: an activity that is located in the direction of political institutions. See Michel Foucault, Security, Territory, Population (Picador, 2007), xix (introduction by Arnold Davidson).