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
Connect with Alexsandra & Ross
Nori
Nori on Facebook
Nori on Twitter
Nori on Medium
Nori on YouTube
Nori on GitHub
Nori Newsletter
Email hello@nori.com
Nori White Paper
Subscribe on iTunes
Carbon Removal Newsroom
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
S2E39: The cost of climate repair vs. COVID-19—w/ Sir David King & Rick Parnell
S2E38: Carbon-negative carpet?! How Interface trailblazes—w/ Erin Meezan, VP & Chief Sustainability Officer of Interface, Inc.
S2E37: The New Yorker's new climate anthology, The Fragile Earth—w/ coeditors David Remnick & Henry Finder
S2E36: YIMBY for forest fires? Fire tornadoes?!—w/ Daniel Duane, author of November's WIRED cover story
On losing everything to the climate crisis except for hope—w/ Diego Saez-Gil of Pachama
S2E35: Matthew Yglesias tells us why climate people should root for One Billion Americans
VERGE 20 is going virtual! See you there!—w/ Jim Giles, Conference Chair of VERGE Food & VERGE Carbon
S2E34: How Nori works with farmers–w/ Rebekah Carlson, Nori's Agriculture Supply Lead
Nori is hiring a UX Designer!
S2E33: Sailing in the age of climate change—w/ John Kretschmer, author and sailor
Nori closes our $4M seed round and a new round of hiring begins
S2E32: Chasing a Job with Purpose (in carbon removal)—w/ Heidi Lim, Chief of Staff at Opus 12
S2E31: Kiss the Ground doc live on Netflix!—w/ Gabe Brown, regenerative farmer and rancher
The Electric Election 2020 Roadtrip w/ Benji Backer of The Conservation Coalition
S2E30: How to "think little"—w/ Mary Berry, Executive Director of The Berry Center
S2E29: Jonathan Safran Foer on meat, & his book We Are the Weather
S2E28: How many jobs will a direct air capture industry create?—w/ John Larsen of Rhodium Group
S2E27: Are grasslands overshadowed by charismatic megaflora?—w/ Chris Kerston of Savory Institute
S2E26: How to Burn a Goat: Farming with the Philosophers—w/ Dr. Scott H. Moore, author
S2E25: The DAC-up plan for climate change—w/ Dr. Jen Wilcox of Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Insight Story: Tech Trends Unpacked
Zero-Shot
Fast Forward by Tomorrow Unlocked: Tech past, tech future
Lex Fridman Podcast
The Unbelivable Truth - Series 1 - 26 including specials and pilot