The Aaron Renn Show

There's a low grade moral panic about the state of Generation Z, fueled by bizarre Tik Tok videos, stories of teen girls suffering depression from not getting enough likes on Instagram, etc. But moral panics over the degeneracy of the youth are recurring features of our society. The hippies, the goths, etc. surely inspired similar reactions. This is not to say that all is well with Generation Z. They have had too much unfiltered, unrestricted access to social media technology, but if the past is a guide, there will be something of a correction going forward as parents and societies try to foster a healthier relationship between kids and technology. Just as many of the hippies ended as yuppies, many of these Generation Z kids will surely end up much different in mature adulthood than they are today.

Women initiate the vast majority of divorces. It used to be that women felt the need to give a justification for divorcing their husbands. For example, they might say that he was emotionally abusive or neglectful. But today they increasingly no longer feel compelled to do that. Recent articles in the New York Times from Lara Bazelon and Vogue about the British singer Adele feature women proudly stating that they divorced husbands who did nothing wrong for purely selfish reasons. These powerful culture shaping organs are broadcasting to women that openly divorcing for selfish reasons is acceptable. They no longer need have a reason to dump their husbands.Lara Bazelon: Divorce Can Be an Act of Radical Self-Love: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/30/opinion/divorce-children.htmlVogue: Adele on the Other Side: https://www.vogue.com/article/adele-cover-november-2021Amazon Alexa Superbowl Ad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxNxqveseyISubscribe to my newsletter: https://www.aaronrenn.com/

In my previous podcast series on American conservatism, I observed that they have a pattern of jumping into the breach to try to defend their opponents from the consequences of those opponents' own ideology. For example, they defended the school administrators against the student radicals of the 60s when the administrators themselves were liberals implacable hostile to conservatism. In fact, some of those university leaders had previously trashed William F. Buckley over God and Man at Yale.We see this pattern persist into the present, most recently on display last week when New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the city would eliminate gifted and talented programs in the city's public schools. Conservatives were outraged. I discuss this reaction and what it reveals about conservative patterns of behavior.Subscribe to my newsletter: https://www.aaronrenn.com/

The upper class and the intellectuals have always particularly loathed the middle class. The novels of Sinclair Lewis or the essays of H. L. Mencken exhibit this mindset. Conservatives, whose social base and principal character is middle class, have pushed back against this, celebrating middle class values.  It's worth considering, however, whether there is something to the critique of the middle class. Middle class values too often revolve around small pleasures and respectability that fatally compromise their ability to politically or culturally engage with the world.My article on Grand Rapids: https://www.city-journal.org/html/manufacturing-comeback-15833.htmlSubscribe to my newsletter: https://www.aaronrenn.com/

American conservatives rarely read or engage with leftist thought outside of the mass media. This is a weakness because if they did do so, they'd find that serious thinkers on the left are often very smart and have important insights about our world. This includes people often stigmatized as bogeymen (by people who have never read them) like the postmodernists or the Frankfurt School.This podcast talks briefly about a couple of insights from Herbert Marcuse's book One Dimensional Man.  Although an extremely difficult read, this 1950s work makes many observations about Western society that remain as relevant as ever and must be confronted by anyone seeking to change the system.Subscribe to my newsletter: https://www.aaronrenn.com/

If you made a list of what a right wing fantasy utopia would look like for someone with localist leanings, you'll discover that the only people who have successfully produced those environments are on the left.  In this podcast I examine the cultural contradictions of conservative values, showing how in practice the values of conservatives themselves have produced some - not all, but some - of the dysfunction in which they live. Subscribe to my newsletter: https://www.aaronrenn.com/

Americans are relocating, for economic, political, religious, or lifestyle reasons. But what should we think about when we think about moving? This podcast examines a number of factors to consider: whether you having a historic connection to or family in a place, economic prospects, costs and whether you can really afford to live there, whether you actually like it (not just think you'll like it), and whether you can find a church you like there.Subscribe to my newsletter: https://www.aaronrenn.com/

Mars Hill Church collapsed suddenly. The American backed Afghan regime collapsed almost instantly as America withdrew. The Berlin Wall fell unexpectedly in 1989 and the Soviet Union collapsed at a time when few expected it.Sudden collapse of organizations and countries does happen. Could it happen to the United States? In this episode I examine both sides of the question and how to think about the dynamics of collapse.Dietrich Dörner: The Logic of Failure - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0201479486/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=theurban-20Lionel Shriver: The Mandibles - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/006232828X/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=theurban-20 Subscribe to my newsletter: https://www.aaronrenn.com/

This week I weigh in with some initial thoughts on the Christianity Today podcast The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill. Although there are some legitimate critiques of the way CT has positioned the materials, complementarians need to accept that Mark Driscoll legitimately does reflect poorly on the movement as a whole.Freddie deBoer: Who Tells Them Things They Don't Want to Hear? - https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/who-tells-them-what-they-dont-wantNewsletter #7: Accountability for Failure - https://www.aaronrenn.com/p/newsletter-7-accountability-for-failureSubscribe to my newsletter: https://www.aaronrenn.com/

What are people saying about you when you aren't in the room? Everybody has a rap sheet. The only question is whether we know what's on ours. Unless we know what people really think of us, we have no opportunity to improve on our weaknesses. In this podcast I share some of the personal, painful feedback I received.  I also discuss ways you can look for good feedback for yourself. And philosophies about how to deal with our weaknesses.Subscribe to my newsletter: https://www.aaronrenn.com/