Some of the most amusing posts Peter Lawler used to write for the old Postmodern Conservative blog were ones where he’d brag about himself or his friends for an accomplishment. Usually these accomplishments had to do with a talk someone had given at a conference or a good point someone had made that needed reinforcing. If Peter wanted to brag about one of his own articles he would make a joke of it, saying “look at ME,” with a capital “M” and “E.”
At first I did not get what that was a reference to, because I was born in the 1980s. As I later learned, the great writer Tom Wolfe (a favorite of Peter’s) had called the 1970s the “ME Decade” for its (almost ridiculous) narcissism. That stress on the notion that “it’s all about ME” is the natural counterpart of a culture of individualism where “I” look up to no moral or religious authorities. That’s what Tocqueville argued, so it was quite fitting for Peter in his typical way to make a joke out of it.
Before I get to ME, let me talk about what the rest of the POSTMODERN CONSERVATIVES have been up to in the past few years.
Titus Techera, our fearless leader on this new POMOCON Substack, has recorded podcast after podcast reviewing movies on postmodern conservative themes. I joined him for a DIE HARD CHRISTMAS episode a couple years back that I think went pretty well.
Speaking of culture, Carl Eric Scott continues to have interesting things to say about popular music. I hope to read and think alot more about music again as we get this POMOCON Substack going.
James Poulos, the true musician of POMOCON, has teamed up with my friend Matt Peterson and the Claremont Institute to create The American Mind. They do a great podcast and blog. He also published his own book on Tocqueville in 2018: The Art of Being Free: How Alexis de Tocqueville Can Save Us from Ourselves.
Paul Seaton has written many excellent reviews for the Liberty Law Blog, including a review of the posthumous book Peter Lawler cowrote with its editor, Richard Reinsch. That book was called A Constitution in Full: Recovering the Unwritten Foundation of American Liberty, and it mainly focused on Orestes Brownson.
Pete Spiliakos still writes many articles at NRO; Peter Lawler used to always say that Spiliakos knows what’s going on in mainstream politics more than just about anybody else.
For my money, Dan Mahoney is a must read author right now too. His articles on the Marxist roots of the “intersectionality” stuff were clutch during the summer of 2020 riots. Mahoney is also editing Peter Lawler’s old journal now, Perspectives on Political Science, which we should all try to contribute to more, I think.
Along the same lines, Ralph Hancock continues to do the invaluable service of translating from French to English the greatest living political philosopher of our time, Pierre Manent. Natural Law and Human Rights: Toward a Recovery of Practical Reason will be a book we should return to over and over on this blog.
Last but not last (I am surely leaving some POMOCONS out), I like to read each and every thing published by Carson Holloway, especially his pieces for the Public Discourse blog. His book Hamilton versus Jefferson in the Washington Administration is the best thing written on the founders in recent memory.
That’s about it I think. Wait, I forgot to tell you about -ME-! I was never one of the contributors to the old POMOCON blog like the guys mentioned above, but a humble commenter. But reading POMOCON while writing my dissertation at home in Arkansas circa 2013 had a lasting effect on my thinking and my soul, I dare say. What was more important than connecting through cyberspace during those years though is that I have since had the chance to become friends with Peter Lawler and some (though not all) of the POMOCONs in real life. There is life offline, after all. Several young upstart Catholic professor friends and I counted Peter Lawler as a mentor (Matt Peterson, James Patterson, Tom Harmon come to mind), and we are still grateful for it.
But basically, I took on multiple jobs as an adjunct and high school politics teacher in the Dallas area, until I finally got my first R.J. (“Real Job”) as associate professor here at the University of St Thomas in Houston. That adjunct work is a young man’s game, let me tell you. I don’t think I could have done it many more years, and thank God to have the job that I do.
But that job won’t distract me from thinking Postmodern Conservative thoughts on this blog in increasing measure I hope. Just as long as it’s not all about ME.
Wonderful C.J. Humble thanks. Very glad you'll be on-board!
I should point out that there were one or two times that James Ceaser contributed to Postmodern Conservative, and there were a handful of regular posts, and many scores of excellent comments, from John Presnall. While we talked about Mahoney and his work, I can't recall him actually doing a post. Ditto Paul Seaton, although he was a regular and very helpful commenter. Flagg Taylor, who has developed into a major scholar of Eastern-European dissidence against communism, and co-edited with me the book Totalitarianism on Screen, contributed posts from time to time also.
As to James Poulos, the story as I can recall it is that he plagiarized/paid-tribute-to a phrase in Lawler's early book, Postmodernism Rightly Understood, for the title of his two-year (?) super-brilliant (occasionally indecipherable) blog The Post-Modern Conservative, which Peter then plagiarized/paid-tribute-to back with the title of our blog, which began late 2010 or early 2011 as Postmodern Conservative, hosted at initially at First Things, and moving to NRO in 2014. Poulos's book on Tocqueville is a must, and many of the best podcast-moments with The American Mind are due to him.
I agree with you about Holloway's book on the 1790s--I once organized a conference on the theme of it. And while his All Shook Up is out of print, it's one of the punchiest/wisest conservative takes on popular music. It would be fantastic if he contributed!