The Aaron Renn Show

In this final podcast installment looking at the fall of the old WASP establishment, we'll compare sociologist E. Digby Baltzell's conservative defense of organic social hierarchy with today's movement conservative that rejects social distinctions.Subscribe to my newsletter: https://www.aaronrenn.com/

This episode looks at the implications of the fall of the WASP establishment by looking at the life and career of J. Irwin Miller, a WASP industrialist whose commitment to and investment in his town of Columbus, Indiana helped make it the Rust Belt city that never rusted. The town never went into decline and remains a top architectural destination in the United States due to Miller's leadership.Miller was also an important national figure. The first lay leader of the National Council of Churches, an advocate for the Civil Rights Act, a leader in divestment from South Africa over Apartheid, and board member of AT&T, Yale, the Ford Foundation, and the Museum of Modern Art.Recognizing his caliber of leadership, Esquire magazine featured Miller on its cover with the caption, "This man ought to be the next president of the United States."Miller's life illustrates a tradition of leadership and community service that's largely disappeared in the wake of the collapse of the establishment.The Atlantic (written by me): The Rust Belt Didn't Have to Happen - https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/12/the-rust-belt-didnt-have-to-happen/603523/Esquire: Is it too late for a man of honesty, high purpose, and intelligence to be elected President of the United States in 1968? - https://classic.esquire.com/article/1967/10/1/is-it-too-late-for-a-man-of-honesty-high-purpose-and-intelligence-to-be-elected-president-of-the-uniNancy Kriplen: J. Irwin Miller: The Shaping of an American Town - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0253043816/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=theurban-20Subscribe to my newsletter: https://www.aaronrenn.com/

Conservatives today bemoan the fact that men no longer behave as gentlemen. Yet their exhortations on the topic are without effect. E. Digby Baltzell's writings on the American upper class shed light on this decline of the gentleman. He notes that an upper class establishment, as American had until the 1960s, made the social, moral, and behavioral codes of the upper class normative, or at least aspirational for society at large. The end of the establishment meant that those standards also went out the window.It's also the case that the gentleman's code as we understand it was a product of the Anglo-American upper class and especially the Victorian era. It was not universal. This period had organic social hierarchy, patriarchal families, and significant restrictions on female behavior, all of which those who argue men should behave like the gentlemen of that era reject.The largely Boomer social conservatives bleating about being a gentleman should be ignored. Instead, we as men should start thinking about the social norms that we want to have in our groups in the 21st century.Rediscovering E. Digby Baltzell's Sociology of Elites: https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2021/02/rediscovering-e-digby-baltzells-sociology-of-elites/Trad Cons Are the Enemy of the American Man: https://www.aaronrenn.com/p/tradcons-are-the-enemy-of-the-americanThe End of the Gentleman: https://www.aaronrenn.com/p/the-end-of-the-gentlemanSubscribe to my newsletter: https://www.aaronrenn.com/

This episode in my series on the historic Protestant Establishment in the United States looks at the role the collapse of that establishment played in many of the dysfunctions of our age. These include the erosion of political norms, the decline of the gentleman, the fading away of the ethos of "fair play," the rise of charismatic politicians like Trump, and the decline of trust in institutions.Rediscovering E. Digby Baltzell's Sociology of Elites: https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2021/02/rediscovering-e-digby-baltzells-sociology-of-elites/Subscribe to my newsletter: https://www.aaronrenn.com/

This episode discusses the evolution of the American upper class from a local and familial to a national and associational community. It describes the nationalization and industrialization of the US in the post-Civil War era.  And it explains the challenges faced by the old WASP establishment leading up to its demise in the 1960s: managerialism, ethno-religious exclusion, and the failure to take up leadership positions in society.Rediscovering E. Digby Baltzell's Sociology of Elites: https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2021/02/rediscovering-e-digby-baltzells-sociology-of-elites/Subscribe to my newsletter: https://www.aaronrenn.com/

Social class has fallen off the radar in America, but remains key to understanding many of the problems we face today in society. This includes everything from the erosion of political norms to men no longer behaving as gentlemen.These problems are traceable in part to the fall of the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) establishment. Sociologist E. Digby Baltzell, who popularized the term WASP, predicted many of these problems years ago. In a new podcast series starting today, we will examine his work and what it tells us about America.In this episode we will define and distinguish between the elite, the wealthy and the upper class. We well also talk about what it means to be a well-functioning (aristocratic) vs. poorly-functioning (caste) upper class. And we'll define authority and establishment, looking at what makes for a well-structured (establishment) and poorly-structured (caste) elite. Finally, we'll talk about the very specific meaning that the term WASP itself has.These categories are fundamental to understanding what has happened to America since the decline of the establishment. In future episodes we'll trace some of the consequences of this.Rediscovering E. Digby Baltzell's Sociology of Elites: https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2021/02/rediscovering-e-digby-baltzells-sociology-of-elites/The Rise of the “Establishment,” and Its Impact Today: https://www.niskanencenter.org/the-rise-of-the-establishment-and-its-impact-today-with-aaron-m-renn/Subscribe to my newsletter: https://www.aaronrenn.com/

The decline of Mainline Protestantism, that is the historically prominent American Protestant denominations, had profound consequences for America and American Christianity.  Mainline Protestantism was how Christianity was integrated with and represented in society as a whole. With the decline of the mainline denominations, America ceased to be a Protestant, and ultimately Christian nation.This podcasts describes what Mainline Protestantism is, the origins of the term "mainline", the nature of their decline, their role in the sacred order of society, what may have led to their decline, and the consequences for the church and society.David A. Hollinger, "After Cloven Tongues of Fire: Ecumenical Protestantism and the Modern American Encounter with Diversity": https://academic.oup.com/jah/article-abstract/98/1/21/873365Subscribe to my newsletter: https://www.aaronrenn.com/

Everybody likes to beat up on fundamentalists. I grew up in a rural, fundamentalist, pentecostal church. And while I am not a fundamentalist today and think they get a lot of things wrong, they also have some virtues we should appreciate. In this episode is discuss the power of a simple, naive faith, and the willingness to embrace and teach unpopular doctrines.Subscribe to my newsletter: https://www.aaronrenn.com/

The Gospel Coalition is the flagship organization of the New Calvinism movement. They hold their major conference every two years in Indianapolis. Since I'm now back in Indy and they were meeting in person here despite Covid-19, I decided to attend and check it out.This podcast was recorded in the middle of the conference to share a few observations about it, and the New Calvinism movement generally. The conference showcases two of the great strengths of the movement: its intellectual orientation (serious people talking seriously about serious things) and their excellence in public speaking.  For further reference:Noah Smith on experts who lie: https://noahpinion.substack.com/p/yes-experts-will-lie-to-you-sometimesMy interview with sociologist Brad Vermurlen on New Calvinism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNA0ic1asbwSubscribe to my newsletter: https://www.aaronrenn.com/

In their book Metaphors We Live By, George Lakoff and Mark Johnson noted how our language, and very way of perceiving the world, is saturated with metaphor. We use the metaphor "Love is war," for example, when describing someone as a relational "conquest."Metaphors, analogies, etc. are a helpful and essential way of making sense of the world.  But the metaphors we live by can, as with "love is war," import ways of thinking about issues that may not be entirely healthy.In this podcast we examine metaphors used for understanding race relations in America, and how we might be able to positively reframe our challenges using a different metaphor for thinking about them.Buy Metaphors We Live By: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0226468011/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=theurban-20Subscribe to my newsletter: https://www.aaronrenn.com/