Brandon Marcus
@brandonjmarc
Brandon Marcus
An unpatriotic left has never achieved anything. A left that refuses to take pride in its country will have no impact on that country's politics, and will eventually become an object of contempt.
Opinion | The Unpatriotic Academy (Published 1994)
Like every other country, ours has a lot to be proud of and a lot to be ashamed of. But a nation cannot reform itself unless it takes pride in itself -- unless it has an identity, rejoices in it, reflects upon it and tries to live up to it. Such pride sometimes takes the form of arrogant, bellicose nationalism. But it often takes the form of a... See more
Opinion | The Unpatriotic Academy (Published 1994)
after-nationalism-being-american-in-an-age-of-division.pdf
LinkWe live “after nationalism,” in the sense that our public discourse is characterized by appeals to various and potentially incompatible conceptions of the nation…The decision of the future is between acceptance, however grudging, of messy, frustrating plurality and pursuit of a unity that continues to elude us. After Nationalism
... See moreNo modern society has escaped the phenomenon that sociologist Peter L. Berger called “pluralization.” In other words, its members do not merely embrace different moral, religious, and political perspectives—a condition that was thoroughly familiar to the ancient world. We also recognize that we face choices among a range of viable (if not equally
... See moreChastising the academic community for its indulgence in debunking and provocation, McNeill defended “public myth.” “A people without a full quiver of relevant agreed-upon statements,” he wrote, “accepted in advance through education or less formalized acculturation, soon finds itself in deep trouble, for, in the absence of believable myths,
... See moreAs historian Andrew Hartman has documented in his study A War for the Soul of America, which takes Buchanan’s speech as its point of departure, the culture war was fought on fronts including crime, sexual morality, and environmental policy. To a striking degree, however, it revolved around education. For culture warriors on the right and left,
The rise of generative artificial intelligence, as both a practical technology and a popular obsession, crystallises Big Tech’s cultural takeover. AI turns reading and writing into automated industrial routines, optimised for speed and efficiency. It instrumentalises intellect, allows the critical and creative work of the mind to be outsourced to... See more
How Big Tech killed literary culture
... See moreCreedal nationalism was an attempt to explain the continuity of American institutions despite the transformation of its population. The nation could absorb so much immigration, liberal theorists reasoned, because its essence lay in ideas rather than in blood, soil, or religious confession. Unlike European nations, argued philosopher John Dewey,