In this final video in the series on Christopher Lasch’s The Culture of Narcissism, I deal with parts of Chapter 10, especially Lasch’s indictment of therapeutic bureaucratic authority and his explanation for the failure of US progressives to champion working people. … More Christopher Lasch on the Betrayal of Progressives (7-Video)
Christopher Lasch’s 8th chapter in The Culture of Narcissism deals with changes in relationships, sex, marriage and family at the time he was living. Many of the points he makes are still worth considering. … More Christopher Lasch on “Sexual Combat” (6-Audio)
Christopher Lasch’s 8th chapter in The Culture of Narcissism deals with changes in relationships, sex, marriage and family at the time he was living. Many of the points he makes are still worth considering. … More Christopher Lasch on “Sexual Combat” (6-Video)
A preview of what’s coming up in three weeks’ time–a new series on Eugene McCarraher’s The Enchantments of Mammon, a new book published by Harvard University Press. … More The Enchantments of Mammon–What’s Up Next (Preview-Audio)
A preview of what’s coming up in three weeks’ time–a new series on Eugene McCarraher’s The Enchantments of Mammon, a new book published by Harvard University Press. … More The Enchantments of Mammon–What’s Up Next (Preview-Video)
This video deals with Chapters 6 and 7 in Christopher Lasch’s The Culture of Narcissism. While Lasch is critical both of how Americans teach their youth and how they parent, he doesn’t place all the blame on schools, teachers and parents. Rather, it’s the overly specialized bureaucratic capitalist system that necessitates a particular kind of education, the kind that puts out docile worker bees, and an absentee and guilt-ridden parenting that gives authority over to the child raising expert apparatus of the state and the economy. Everyone involved gets paid, if badly, but no one does a particularly good job. … More Need a Nanny? Lasch on Narcissistic Education and Parenting (5-Audio)
This video deals with Chapters 6 and 7 in Christopher Lasch’s The Culture of Narcissism. While Lasch is critical both of how Americans teach their youth and how they parent, he doesn’t place all the blame on schools, teachers and parents. Rather, it’s the overly specialized bureaucratic capitalist system that necessitates a particular kind of education, the kind that puts out docile worker bees, and an absentee and guilt-ridden parenting that gives authority over to the child raising expert apparatus of the state and the economy. Everyone involved gets paid, if badly, but no one does a particularly good job. … More Need a Nanny? Christopher Lasch on Narcissistic Education and Parenting (5-Video)
Christopher Lasch wrote a chapter in The Culture of Narcissism on the state of American sports. He thought that spectator sports like football and baseball served a special social/cultural function that was being undermined by two things: the tendency to turn sporting events into spectacles attracting fans with little interest in the actual sport, and the use of sporting events to promote nationalist political ideology more than appreciation for the game. He faced critics of sport who were arguing that spectator sports needed to be downplayed in favor of sporting events that involved more people at more levels of ability. Lasch’s reasons for defending a purer appreciation of professional sports is interesting–such events are an activity that should fall squarely in the realm of play, in a world in which too much of our time is managed and channeled into “safe and productive” activities, even when we are not at work. Lasch’s defense of the zone of play is an interesting takeaway from his chapter on sports in The Culture of Narcissism. … More Christopher Lasch on Sports (4-Audio)
Christopher Lasch wrote a chapter in The Culture of Narcissism on the state of American sports. He thought that spectator sports like football and baseball served a special social/cultural function that was being undermined by two things: the tendency to turn sporting events into spectacles attracting fans with little interest in the actual sport, and the use of sporting events to promote nationalist political ideology more than appreciation for the game. He faced critics of sport who were arguing that spectator sports needed to be downplayed in favor of sporting events that involved more people at more levels of ability. Lasch’s reasons for defending a purer appreciation of professional sports is interesting–such events are an activity that should fall squarely in the realm of play, in a world in which too much of our time is managed and channeled into “safe and productive” activities, even when we are not at work. Lasch’s defense of the zone of play is an interesting takeaway from his chapter on sports in The Culture of Narcissism. … More Christopher Lasch on Sports (4-video)
I was first exposed to classical conservative thought in graduate school when I took a class on Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France. The fact that we devoted an entire semester to that one 18th Century work gave me lots of time to contemplate the significant difference between the views expressed in it … More Classical Conservatism as a Resource
Political Philosophy 