A Cynical Man

Habit building on speaking truth.

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Snowbound in the depths of Pennsylvania, Jonah invites the inimitable Yuval Levin back to the Remnant for a philosophical yet accessible conversation on the responsibilities we face as members of a free society. What’s the best way to approach political and civic life in the United States, and how should we treat our institutions? For that matter, why is cynicism harmful? Can higher education be fixed? And is the internet damaging democracy?

Show Notes:

– Yuval’s page at AEI

– A Time to Build, still available from all good booksellers

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  1. Avatar photo
    Steven Potter

    As always, anytime Yuval Levin shows up on the podcast it's going to be a great discussion. This is the content I'm here for.

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  2. Pohl

    This one was stellar. I enjoyed the musings. I would also love to hear Yuval’s thoughts on a modern Thomistic political conception such as Jacques Maritain’s. Their differences would be illuminating.

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  3. Rand.Briggs

    It is not quite the case that the East India Company used the British Army. The East India Company had its own army.

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  4. Phillyex1

    This thought occurred to me during the discussion about social media distortion. Not only does it make fringe people think they have a lot more followers than they do, but, it also makes people think the nutcases on the other side are more common than they are. You see a hundred tweets about drag Queen story hour and it makes you think they are in every library in the land.

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    Napalaska

    A fabulous episode! I especially enjoyed the discussion about an hour in where Yuval talked about technology creating networks where needs can be met without requiring socialization, and where roles are ephemeral. Unlike an institution, which requires you to play a more permanent social role face to face, a network space enables “functional loners” to exist and even thrive, as they engage in transactions that require no “eye to eye” contact with a non-virtual human. The clarity of Mr. Levin’s presentation of these ideas and their pernicious effects is remarkable.

    And, not incidentally, I also enjoyed the conversation about the dangers of cynicism.

    Speaking of cynicism, and on a more somber note, it’s hard not to be a little disheartened, and maybe a tad bit cynical, after hearing the latest about Ben Sasse. I am being sincere. Whenever I talk to my progressive friends about politics (most of my friends are center left or just plain left), I say I’m politically homeless because, as Reagan said about Democrats, I didn’t leave the Republican Party, the party left me. However, I used to tell them as recently as a few weeks ago, there was one Republican worth rooting for and standing behind: Ben Sasse. This guy, I would tell my friends, is the future of the Republican Party. Shame on me for being so naive.

    Mr. Sasse asked the citizens of Nebraska for their votes and was given them. In return, he implicitly promised to serve six more years as one of their Senators. He also appeared in public (like on the 500th podcast of the Remnant, which was yet another demonstration of his decency, intelligence, humor, depth of knowledge, etc.) and, to me anyway, was asking people to stand behind his ideas about how to make our country and politics better. And how he, working in the institution of the Senate, could make those ideas a reality. Instead he quit, ceding the field to the likes of Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio.

    I think I understand the tradeoffs involved in Mr. Sasse’s decision and ultimately have to respect the choice he made. I just wish he would have finished serving his second term, doing what he could, with what he had, where he was, as Mitch Daniels did, before racing to the (supposedly) greener pastures of academia.

    Speaking of Mitch Daniels, his possible return to politics may be the antidote to cynicism and despair. Shame on me for being so naive?

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  6. Payette

    Excellent discussion! And thought-provoking comments!

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  7. Kathywilk

    Very thoughtful discussion. Yuval is always a good guest.

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  8. Bascoms31

    Thanks for having Yuval. I also find him extremely helpful.

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    Kurt S

    This conversation was such a welcome breath of fresh air that I've starred it in my Overcast app (something which I've never done before) so that I can listen to it again, perhaps periodically. As Anne W said below, it's a "soul cleanser" indeed.

    If I had one suggestion for future discussions of academia (I am myself an English prof), it would be to think through more clearly the distinctions between elite universities which undoubtedly inform and dominate the discourses of other institutions, and the state & municipal universities and community colleges where most Americans who go to college earn their degrees. There's trickle down, but there's also dilution and sometimes outright though perhaps quiet refusal to adopt more radical views. Often this is not because administrators and faculty don't share those ideologies but simply because they are constrained by the students and communities that they serve.

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    Daniel Jett

    I really can’t get enough of discussions like this this is why I subscribe. There is something so euphonious about Yuval’s voice. So easy to listen to.

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    1. 555websters

      Your use of one of the most sweet-sounding words in the English language compels me to forgive your run on sentence.

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    2. Ellisrt1031

      If you had Sarah and Yuval...what voices

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        Daniel Jett

        I like Sarah, she is very smart and good at providing an alternative, feminist POV to the organization’s conservative orientation (which is a good thing in my mind). But to me, she sounds like Lucy Van Pelt from the Peanuts cartoons. It’s not her voice that does it for me.

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