Freedom or Order? Why We Should Be Paying Attention to Tensions in Conservative Thought

Toxic individualism. The phrase captures one feature of our era here in the United States: the apotheosis of individualism, or as Paul Krugman in the New York Times put it in a column last July: the cult of selfishness.

Try this for a definition: toxic individualism results when the individual is separated from a higher moral order, and the individual then becomes the location for the sacred.

Recent history suggests four different strands that, in and of themselves are not bad, but which, in excess and out of balance, develop toxicity: anti-Communist anti-collectivism of the Cold War; 60’s liberal celebration of self-expression; Reaganist anti-government ideology; and consumerism. Would you add more, or tell a different story?

Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities.

In short, we want to foster conversations, develop habits, and create communities that are grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light.

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Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.

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