Russellarbenfox

LATEST ARTICLES ( 599 )

• Still Processing the Day Before Yesterday

  

  Yesterday I did as I have regularly done for 16 years now, and replaced my Wednesday morning, post-Election Day classes with an open conversation, to which I... Read more

  Posted on 08 November 2024 SOCIETY

• Not a Mea Culpa, But Like Unto It

  When Trump won in 2016, I was genuinely flummoxed—disappointed and angry and frustrated as well, of course, but mostly just confused. It signaled the breakdown... Read more

  Posted on 06 November 2024 SOCIETY

• Some Thoughts on the Republican Donald Trump, and All the Other Republicans,...

  

  [Note: this is a long and very party-centric set of musings for the day before the presidential election ends and the real electoral and legal chaos begins.... Read more

  Posted on 04 November 2024 SOCIETY

• Dear Mormon Voters of the American West (But Actually, Mainly Just Arizona):...

  

  [Cross-posted to By Common Consent] The presidential election campaign will come to an end 50 days from today. A lot could change in 50 days, but probably won’t. Read more

  Posted on 16 September 2024 SOCIETY

• Two Short(ish) Thoughts About Socialists and Other Nice People to My North

  

  Minnesota isn't Ontario, of course, and Tim Walz isn't a secular Jew and bass player who became passionately devoted to hard and progressive rock in the late... Read more

  Posted on 14 August 2024 SOCIETY

• How Informational Overload Destroyed American Democracy (Maybe)

  

  [A slightly different version of this essay appears in Current.] James Davison Hunter's new book, Democracy and Solidarity: On the Cultural Roots of America’s... Read more

  Posted on 14 August 2024 SOCIETY

• 20 Years of In Medias Res

  

  Remember this image? Of course you do. Everyone does. Especially those of us who had already been blogging for years (in my case, five of them) by the time it... Read more

  Posted on 13 August 2024 SOCIETY

• Thoughts on Dallmayr and a Different Post-Liberalism

  

  [Cross-posted to Front Porch Republic. Also, a blog note: it's been over 10 years since I last used this space to think at length about a philosopher or theoris... Read more

  Posted on 05 August 2024 SOCIETY

• Thinking About Music, Age, and Being Politically Surprised by Summer

  

  I stopped by Wichita’s main library the other day, looking to pick up some cheap media from the summer clearance sale, because I still use the sorts of... Read more

  Posted on 24 July 2024 SOCIETY

• On Fascists, Jesus, and Woody Guthrie

  

  I’m awake early this morning, thanks to a headache, after going to bed late last night following 2 ½ hours of talking about yesterday’s terrible news at a... Read more

  Posted on 14 July 2024 SOCIETY

• Justice Together: Pushing for Justice One City and One Step at a Time

  

  [A version of this piece has appeared in Kansas Reflector and Religious Socialism.]Back on May 9, something remarkable happened in Wichita, something similar... Read more

  Posted on 21 May 2024 SOCIETY

• On George Scialabba and the Left Conservative Possibility

  

  [A version of this piece is cross-posted to Current] How might one politically categorize the following statement?[M]y apparently disparate-sounding worries.... Read more

  Posted on 19 April 2024 SOCIETY

• Thinking About Wendell Berry's Leftist Lament (and More)

  

  [Cross-posted to Front Porch Republic] Wendell Berry’s sprawling, uneven, brilliant, and sometimes frustrating The Need to Be Whole: Patriotism and the History... Read more

  Posted on 10 April 2024 SOCIETY

• Why Even Uneventful Primaries Are Better Than Raucous Caucuses

  

  [This is an expanded version of an Insight Kansas column which appeared in the Wichita Eagle today, March 22, 2024] When my wife and I went to vote last Tuesday... Read more

  Posted on 22 March 2024 SOCIETY

• Do We Really Not Need Another Hero? (Thoughts About Dune)

  

  Exactly a week ago, I and bunch of local Dune-loving friends caught Denis Villeneuve's Dune Part 2 in IMAX. It was glorious--a fantastic, rousing, compelling... Read more

  Posted on 11 March 2024 SOCIETY

• What the Constitution Says About Parents, Public Schools, and Students' Gender,...

  

  [An expanded version of a piece which appeared in the Wichita Eagle and elsewhere on February 27, 2024.] What does the law actually say when it comes to a... Read more

  Posted on 27 February 2024 SOCIETY

• Some Thoughts on Martin Luther King, Mormonism, and the Unfinishable Christian...

  

  Minerva Teichert, “Christian Converts” (1949-1951), Brigham Young University Museum of Art [Cross-posted to Religious Socialism] Martin Luther King, Jr. Read more

  Posted on 15 January 2024 SOCIETY

• Songs of '83 Special: "Puttin' on the Ritz"

  

  Before I call this year to an end, just one more hit. My obvious and unstated foundation throughout this whole year is that I love the popular music of 1983. Read more

  Posted on 31 December 2023 SOCIETY

• The 10 Best Books I Read in 2023

  

  Andrew Bacevich and Daniel Sjursen, eds., Paths of Dissent: Soldiers Speak Out Against America's Misguided Wars. This is a fine and often (though not always)... Read more

  Posted on 29 December 2023 SOCIETY

• The 10 Best Movies I Watched in 2023

  

  As always, this is a list of the best ten movies I watched for the first time this year, whether they came out in 2023 or not.First Cow. Read more

  Posted on 27 December 2023 SOCIETY