The Aaron Renn Show

Dr. Benjamin Mabry joins me to discuss his essay on anti-managerial aesthetics. We will discuss what aesthetics are, why the approach promoted by "dissident right" figures like Curtis Yarvin won't work, and why we should reject the idea of a top 20% vs. bottom 80% of society in favor of an aesthetic scaled to speak to both the elite and the average citizen. Anti-Mangerial Aesthetics...

In this month's newsletter, Dr. Benjamin L. Mabry discusses the importance of aesthetics, as well as sharing perspectives on what an aesthetic that would provide a genuine alternative and rival to the dominant managerial aesthetics of our culture today.    He describes the aesthetic mode of managerial society, which is based on an imperial mode in which there's a sharp boundary between r...

Much of the language we use today can be divided into two categories: compliant and defiant. Compliant language - like DEI or ESG - signals agreement with the current elite consensus. Defiant signals some level of disagreement or rejection of that consensus. Defiant language today often uses terms and imagery that are alien to American to American political and cultural tradition. "Nationalis...

This month's newsletter explains why American Christians, in particular evangelicals, having been reduced to a disfavored minority in the negative world, need to start acting like minority. That is, they need to focus much more on their own internal community strength and health - their private good. This is how all minority groups have always behaved.  This doesn't mean ignoring mission...

I review a few perspectives on strategic decision making, including Jim Wilson's application of the "strategic point." As a bonus, we'll talk about what you can learn from the Big 10 conference signing on USC and UCLA.

Some thoughts about the reversal of Roe. vs. Wade.  This includes observations on the unintended consequences of violating norms, why the moral vision of the pro-life movement has been more effective than the utilitarian arguments advanced by conservatism generally, the power and importance of a generational perspective, and why a total abortion ban may not be as popular with the American public a...

Online men's gurus typically use a version of the "hero's journey" or the "rags to riches"  to sell you on their products. They tell you how they hit rock bottom, then transformed themselves, then created the amazing life they have today. You too can have that life - if you follow the same script. This is a powerful narrative structure and completely legitimate to use...

This month's newsletter is a repost from a new Substack called Kennaquhair on the missing heroic feminine. The author explores the nature of archetypal stories and explains why the feminine heroic archetypal story has been under-developed.  He also explores the nature of the heroic feminine through the character of the Biblical Miriam, and gives other examples of this archetype.  The failure...

Paul Vanderklay and Bethel McGrew join me to discuss my three worlds of evangelicalism framework and their perspectives on the current state of the evangelical church in the US. This interview will be streamed live in front of an audience at an event in Wheaton, Illinois. Paul Vanderklay's Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGsD... Bethel McGrew's Substack: https://bethelm...

The desire for a transcendent connection to the past and future is a primal human desire. We want to know where we came from. We want to know that we will be remembered in the future, that the experience and possessions we've accumulated will live on in and with others. Our world, which is explicitly liberationist, attempts to destroy these longings and organic connection to a lineage beyond...

Michael Anton has a new essay talking about conservative funding of art and journalism. I discuss this, as well as reiterate my points about conservative organizations not being especially interested in primary or ethographic research either. But even with funding or institutional support, there also has to be the talent to take these projects on, and the desire to seek truth, not just confirm pre...

The idea of American exceptionalism has long blinded us to our country's legitimate faults. Having said that, activists attempt to use America's faults to morally debilitate its people in order to accomplish their own agenda.  As Americans, this is our country. We can love it for that alone, without any further justification. We don't have to apologize for America and how we feel ab...

Reflections on the differing perspectives of people at the cultural center and the cultural periphery. Very successful people and those in the cultural center tend to have a more positive view of society and are less likely to support fundamental or outside the Overton Window change. The Three Worlds of Evangelicalism: https://www.firstthings.com/article/2022/02/the-three-worlds-of-evangelicalism

Evangelicals often take a dismissive or even smug attitude towards the decline of the mainline denominations. They'd be will served instead to ask themselves some tough questions like, "Why isn't the same thing going to happen to us?"

If, as I laid out in newsletter #63, we live in a managerial society in which power resides in large institutions, how should we think about localism and localist movements?  I examine this question in the latest podcast. Newsletter #63: Understanding the Managerial Revolution - https://aaronrenn.substack.com/p/newsletter-63-understanding-the-managerial County Before Country Conference: https://ww...

Andrew Crapuchettes founded the job board Red Balloon to connect employees with jobs at companies that did not have a Covid vaccine mandates. It's grown rapidly and become a place for both companies and employees looking to focus on business and avoid politics in the workplace. He joins to discuss today's job market and how workers can navigate it. Visit Red Balloon: https://www.redballo...

Many people subscribe to James Davison Hunter's view that cultural change is driven by elites and institutions in the cultural center. That's a generally true statement, but can easily mislead us into thinking that all change must originate with elites.  While elite buy-in may be necessary to institutionalize change, the ideas themselves can originate on the margins. I explore this by lo...

An introduction to James Burnham's concept of the managerial revolution, or how managers and bureaucrats came to dominate society (vs. old school business owners or political leaders). We discuss industrialization's revolution in scale that created the managerial class and the transformations wrought by managerialism. We also cover managerialism's limits and weaknesses, and key less...

Many things in life are a product of dualisms like chaos and order, yin and yang, hot and cold, change and preservation. Unlike with good vs. evil, these are not simple opposites, but principles that need to be integrated. The right balance is not a static one for all time, but depends upon the needs of the time. I discuss this principle using immigration as a case study.  Immigration is not a mat...

Stephen B. Clark, author of the landmark book Man and Woman in Christ, joins me to talk about that work and its creation. We will also discuss the Catholic charismatic renewal movement and the Sword of the Spirit intentional communities that Clark helped create and which have informed his work. Buy Man and Woman in Christ: https://www.amazon.com/Man-Woman-Christ-Examination-Scripture-ebook/dp/B098...

New Census Bureau population estimates for 2021 show the lowest year of population growth on record, with 3/4ths of counties having more deaths than birth, and around a third of metro areas losing population. In this podcast I discuss how the US has entered what appears to be a "demographic winter," what the drivers are, and what it means for the country. Subscribe to my newsletter: http...

A reader who lives in cities and likes living in the city wrote to ask whether it is possible to be a conservative in the city given all the rhetoric about conservatives moving away from the city, homesteading, etc.  I explain why the answer is Yes, and why a rural life is not suitable for most conservatives. 

This podcast is the audio edition of the March 2022 newsletter. It is about the oft-overlooked virtue of self-mastery. We cannot allow ourselves to be enslaved to appetites, tossed here and there by the waves, or manipulated into pursuing other men's missions rather than our own.

This week's short podcast looks at one of the biggest "gotchas" people try to use in response to criticism, namely that it's impossible to know the motives of the person being criticized. I discussed why it's valid (if imperfect) to infer motives from actions, but also suggest some alternatives to avoid this common comeback.

People frequently say, obviously with hyperbole, that America is becoming a Third World country. Yet if we look at one of the stereotypes of the Third World - as places with unreliable electricity - are are indeed becoming more Third World like. Our electric grid is increasingly unreliable, and larger numbers of Americans are installing backup generators to deal with it. This episode explores the...