The Aaron Renn Show

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What We Can Learn from the Rosenberg Case Jul 06, 2021

Show notes

It's been 70 years since Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were found guilty of spying for the Soviets and sentenced to death. The left continues to discuss this case and argue that the Rosenbergs (or at least Ethel) were victims of injustice. We can learn patterns of left-wing behavior from observing this case, including that they are relentless and never give up, that they are loyal, and that they use ever shifting rhetoric that often "disguises their power levels." I discuss these patterns and then apply them to show how we might expect the sexuality debates in the PCA (Presbyterian Church in America) to play out over time (in part).
Links to articles about the Rosenberg case.
London Review of Books: How Utterly Depraved - https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v43/n13/deborah-friedell/how-utterly-depraved
NYT: The Rosenbergs, 50 Years Later; Yes, They Were Guilty. But of What Exactly? - https://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/15/weekinreview/nation-rosenbergs-50-years-later-yes-they-were-guilty-but-what-exactly.html
The Guardian: The Rosenbergs were executed for spying in 1953. Can their sons reveal the truth? - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/19/rosenbergs-executed-for-spying-1953-can-sons-reveal-truth
NPR Boston: Why Ethel Rosenberg Should Not Be Exonerated - https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2017/01/05/julius-rosenberg-soviet-spying-mark-kramer
Wikipedia: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_and_Ethel_Rosenberg
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Classical Education Is Not Enough Jun 29, 2021

Show notes

Conservatives and Christians are very enamored of classical education. Studying the classics, the American founding, etc. are important things to do. But there are other important areas that people living in today's world. These items, including intersexual dynamics, the impact of industrialization, the revolution in scale, and the implications of mass media are often understudied. This leaves conservatives with key blind spots.
This episode also includes further thoughts on playing for keeps and whether or not pastors should use packaged sermons, research assistants, or other help.
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Playing for Keeps Jun 22, 2021

Show notes

Darren Beattie once noted that "there is a profound psychological gulf between playing for scraps and playing for keeps." This podcast is a short discussion of how people on the left play for keeps while too often conservatives seem to be playing for scraps.
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What Does It Really Mean to Be Red Pilled? Jun 15, 2021

Show notes

People on the internet throw the term "red pilled" around a lot. It obviously derives from the film the Matrix. But how should we think about the term and what it means? I discuss in using the examples of the statistics I've highlighted about how women initiate around 70% of divorces, doomsday cults, the Matrix, and Plato's Republic. To be red pilled involves some sort of painful disconnecting from beliefs that have shaped our reality or identity. This is difficult to do, which is why we need to think as much about how we deliver information as what information we are delivering.
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A Different Kind of Conservatism Jun 08, 2021

Show notes

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.
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A Man In Full Jun 01, 2021

Show notes

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-uni
Nancy 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-20
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The Decline of the Gentleman May 25, 2021

Show notes

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-american
The End of the Gentleman: https://www.aaronrenn.com/p/the-end-of-the-gentleman
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The Consequences of the Fall of the Establishment May 18, 2021

Show notes

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/
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The Evolution of the American Upper Class May 11, 2021

Show notes

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/
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The White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) Establishment May 04, 2021

Show notes

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/
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