A philosophical streetfight is raging in American conservatism right now, pitting aging partisans of William F. Buckley and Ronald Reagan’s Cold War/libertarianism/social conservative ‘fusionism’ against younger ‘post-liberal’ upstarts with little interest in any of that. A curious affair, the debate represents efforts to answer anew some of the oldest and most basic question in Western political philosophy, questions like what is prior, the state or the individual? and are there universal moral values to which governments can be held accountable?, and what are the conditions of the legitimate use of state power? It also represents an unsettling development in contemporary politics. Keep reading…

A curious thing came of growing awareness of the ways mistreatment of children was too often tolerated so long as it was passed off as ‘punishment.’ First came a growing discomfort with the very idea of punishing children, and then, in time, to a shift to talk of first natural, and then logical ‘consequences’ as an alternative. The idea, to be very brief, was that children learn to manage their behavior better when they are allowed to suffer their unenjoyable results. Let the world be the heavy here, parents were told, thereby sparing yourself the burden of knowing you are using your authority to impose your will on vulnerable youngsters by punishing disobedience. Keep reading…