Do you have strong bonds with a faith community or civic organization? How about a book club or sports league? Do you live near your parents? How well do you know your neighbors? In Why Liberalism Failed, Patrick Deneen makes the communitarian argument that liberalism’s failure lies in its success. In the pursuit of individual autonomy, we have alienated ourselves from each other and the environment.
Jeffrey Howard is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief at Erraticus, an online publication focused on human flourishing. On this episode, Jeffrey joins Alexsandra and Ross to discuss the ideas in Deneen’s book and compare how communitarians and liberals see the world.
Jeffrey offers his take on the downside of liberalism’s success, describing our growing isolation and dependence on government interventions or markets—as opposed to each other. Listen in to understand the limits of communitarianism in terms of scale and learn how a communitarian might approach climate change.
N.B. Ross & Jeffrey both regret not discussing the work of John Rawls with regard to contractarianism and as an avenue to criticism of communitarianism.
Key Takeaways
[1:43] How communitarians see the world
Meaning comes from communities (particulars vs. universal) Comfortable with locally driven interventions
[7:54] The three different types of communities
Place Memory Psychology
[10:02] The fundamentals of liberalism
Non-relational beings not beholden to communities See nature as something to conquer + control
[12:47] How liberalism impacts communities
Uncomfortable making demands on one another Leads to alienation, thin community bonds
[19:22] Patrick Deneen’s argument re: the loose relationships of liberalism
Turn to government interventions, market means Takes intention to develop friendships in new place
[28:35] The downside of liberalism’s success
Hollowed out civic and social institutions Associations temper extremes in human nature
[35:01] The consequences of liberalism for individuals
Growing alienation, loneliness (discard if unproductive) Lack of emotional intelligence + general distrust
[37:39] A communitarian take on climate change
Skeptical of commodification of nature Lose something when don’t know where food comes from
[43:20] Jeffrey’s solutions for brain drain in small communities
Advocate for completion of hero’s journey Remote work
[51:15] Jeffrey’s argument against the romanticizing of travel
Carbon footprint Can’t escape problems to ‘find yourself’
[56:21] A communitarian approach to solving climate change
Need thousands of local Green New Deals Unify to build something together vs. top-down approach
[59:31] The best critiques of communitarianism
Too limiting to individual freedoms Give to person most in need (vs. person in community) Local solutions won’t scale quickly enough
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Resources
Erraticus
Jeffrey on Twitter
Why Liberalism Failed by Patrick J. Deneen
Books by Wendell Berry
Front Porch Republic
John Stuart Mill’s Harm Principle
David Hume’s ‘Of the Original Contract’
Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville
The Quest for Community: A Study in the Ethics of Order and Freedom by Robert Nisbet
Francis Fukuyama
Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community by Robert D. Putnam
Wendell Berry’s Port William Novels & Stories
How the Bible Actually Works: In Which I Explain How an Ancient, Ambiguous, and Diverse Book Leads Us to Wisdom Rather Than Answers—and Why That’s Great News by Peter Enns
Wendell Berry Farming Program at Sterling College
Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress by Steven Pinker
Seattle Salsa Congress
Joseph Campbell
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert
Charlie Deist’s Green New Deal Article
Blacksheep on RCC EP076
Peter Singer on Effective Altruism
S3E47: The state of blue carbon in carbon markets—w/ Kevin Whilden of SeaTrees
S3E46: Methane removal?! AKA Methane is having a moment—w/ Erika Reinhardt of Spark Climate Solutions
S3E45: Mixing Fast and Slow Carbon: The Nori Blended Tonne—w/ Radhika Moolgavkar, Nori's Head of Supply & Methodology
S3E44: Is it time for Second-Generation Direct Air Capture? —w/ Sampo Tukiainen of C-Fix
S3E43: How to get your garden ready for climate change—w/ Sally Morgan, coauthor of The Climate Change Garden
S3E42: Carbon removal funding and dealflow in the XPRIZE/Circular Carbon Network report—w/ Nikki Batchelor & Ongeleigh Underwood
S3E41: Whole animal butchery, nose-to-tail eating, & climate—w/ Kevin Smith, butcher & owner of Beast and Cleaver
S3E40: PlantVillage is working to scale biochar in Africa–w/ Dr. David Hughes
(A Spotify video podcast!) What goes into making a carbon removal meme?—w/ Nori's Memelab
S3E39: Wyoming's Project Bison: Carbon Removal in Fossil Fuel Country—w/ Nicholas Kusnetz, Inside Climate News
Wide Sargassum Sea (and carbon removal robots!)—w/ Seaweed Generation's Mike Allen & Patricia Estridge
S3E38: Where are the campy cli-fi series? Why do we only have literary climate fiction?!—w/ Daniel Backer, author
S3E37: Sandor Katz on Fermented Foods & Climate Change—w/ Sandor Ellix Katz, author of The Art of Fermentation
Financial Innovation within Carbon Removal (& EHR!)—w/ Peter Olivier, Head of New Markets at UNDO
Carbon Capture & Carbon Removal: Friends or Foes?—w/ Gagan Porrwal of GE Gas Power's Carbon Solutions
S3E36: Why We Need More Sh*tty First Drafts in Carbon Removal—w/ Adina Mangubat & Tito Jankowski of AirMiners
How to Get Carbon Removal Startups the Support They Need!—w/ Neesha Mirchandani of Impact Stars
S3E35: Climate Change vs. Artisanal Cheesemaking—w/ Andy Hatch of Uplands Cheese
S3E34: The Environmental Impact of WWII in the Pacific Theatre—with Ian W. Toll, author of The Pacific War Trilogy
S3E33: Time to Think... Small? Not Everything Must Scale—w/ Todd Myers of the Washington Policy Center
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