The Galli Report: 12.11.20
The new normal is not abnormal, The WEIRD traditional family, the plight of Nigerian Christians, and how government really works.
The New Normal is Normal Apparently
Most of us living through these times believe things are falling apart, from the decline of the family, to sexual ethics, to bitterness in politics, to unchecked greed, to pandemics—I could go on. But I’ve been seeing more stories about how the period in which we boomers, anyway, grew up was an exceptional moment in American life. Two recent articles argue that thesis.
1. “There Will Be No ‘Return to Normalcy’: Americans think of the postwar liberal consensus as our national normal. In reality, it was anything but that,” by Kevin Williamson at The National Review:
Americans talk about the postwar years — the Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy years — as though they were a kind of golden age. They weren’t, and damned few of us would be happy with the political settlement that existed then: The Left may cheer the high statutory tax rates of the time, but actual tax collections in those years were almost exactly what they are today, and as much as 80 percent of that Eisenhower-era tax revenue was spent on the military and national security, with entitlement and welfare spending kept to a small share of outlays. There was some movement on civil rights — Eisenhower signed a civil-rights bill in 1957 and sent the 101st Airborne to Little Rock to keep the peace as the schools were integrated — but the country remained segregated by and large. In 1950, a third of U.S. households had no indoor plumbing.
But this is the era that commands the sentimental attention of the American mind. The postwar years are our national definition of normal, even though they were anything but that. Of course, there are things to admire about the ways and means of the past: I have a soft spot for the era in which it was considered unseemly for gentlemen who wanted to be president to campaign for the position and the old, retiring style of Calvin Coolidge. Dueling and dying from staph infections I can do without.
2. "The ‘Traditional Family’ is WEIRD (and Revolutionary): On the origins of liberal democratic values in the Western Church’s social engineering,” by Musa al-Gharbi at Arc:
American liberals often charge that Christians seem unusually preoccupied (even obsessed) with sex and sexuality, and have a bunch of strange hang-ups about marriage and family structure.
Conservatives, meanwhile, argue that the “traditional family” lies at the core of Western Civilization, and that weakening foundational norms around sex, marriage, and child-rearing would likely have destabilizing and adverse effects on affected societies and cultures.
The WEIRDest People in the World, a new book by Harvard anthropologist Joseph Henrich, suggests that both parties in this debate are onto something, even as it casts the entire conversation in a different light.
The Plight of Our Nigerian Brothers and Sisters
I’ve been meaning to suggest an article on the horrific things transpiring in Nigeria, to raise awareness and as a call to prayer. One piece that outlines the tragedy better than most is “The Mass Murder of Nigerian Christians: The world is determined to look away from a horrific campaign of killings being perpetrated in Africa under the name of Islam.”
How Government Really Works
This 18-minute, no nonsense video—"The Rules for Rulers”--compressed a lot of political science into a brief and comprehensible space—and is entertaining to boot (at least to me).
Grace and peace,
Mark Galli
markgalli.com