Back to the Past

For this weekend’s Ruminant, hop into Jonah’s somewhat underwhelming time machine that goes only to ...

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For this weekend’s Ruminant, hop into Jonah’s somewhat underwhelming time machine that goes only to the past – because, after all, “the future doesn’t exist.” Why is Jonah driving through the setting of a Mark Twain story? Why do conservatives look to the past for better times (even when the past is largely worse), and why do liberals look to a nonexistent future? Why are both left- and right-wing kids trying to make the entire world like a college campus? And who is Gabriel Kolko, and why does Jonah find him “useful”?

Show notes:

–      Jonah’s desert adventures

–      The week’s first Remnant with Tevi Troy

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  1. Avatar photo
    Denise Cote

    Covid be damned! I really need this to be over so I can meet Jonah in person. I laughed way too much during the musings about Amazonians.

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    Ben Connelly

    The line about thinking you’re a genius because you don’t have class on Fridays made me laugh out loud. So true. As a relatively recent college grad, I can say your indictment of students was spot on.

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    BW

    May be on me for just coming back from vacation and listening to a Ruminant, or on your lack of coffee/cross country trek. But I felt like your discussion on David’s Remnant on free speech and college campuses felt 1/4 baked. Or I just couldn’t track what your argument was. No biggie if it’s not touched on later, but I’ve always been able to understand what point you were trying to make (which is probably a bad thing).

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  4. Cecilia

    I attended a women's college and can confirm --I'm speaking of the straight women-- when men weren't around, zero effort was put into hair (including shampoo) and "unstructured" clothing took over. BUT we still shaved our legs...there are some things that are just too ingrained.

    Gay women were clearly dressing for women and choosing clothes/shoes/accessories that gave out particular messages. Some leg-shavers, but the majority no.

    And everyone--gay and straight---wore a ton of jewelry.

    And everyone --gay or straight--wore a ton of jewelry.

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    Robert Knudson

    It should come as no surprise that students who are reared on strictly normative theories with no positive value will fight to prescribe these norms where possible, if only because they have not learned theories which can positively describe the world and need the norms they are instructed in to be imposed in order to justify any value from their education.

    This isn't to discount normative education; merely to note that normative education distinct from broader cultural norms only provides value as personal morality. This can be a good thing, but not for tens of thousands of dollars in debt.

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    Richard Grebenc

    I appreciate your take on the filibuster, but one thing stands out that needs correction (at least from the perspective of many Democrats). Countering the claim that this device is a relic of Jim Crow, you said that the filibuster is often used on legislation that has nothing to do with race. Well, for the Dems in question, this view is simply incorrect. If mathematics can be framed as racist, and we live in a systemically racist society, then everything can be seen in the context of race if so desired. So, when the filibuster is used by the GOP, it must be racially motivated, whatever the issue may be.

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    Mkapnick

    Its clear this "Griswold" family vacation has been good for Jonah. Though decaffinated, he seemed in good spirits. While no one would confuse him with Tony Robbins, I thought the last many minutes this Ruminant felt like, well, a pep talk--Jonah style. I liked it personally. Hopefully the Griswolds make it back to DC without incident. : )

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  8. M M (Lee)

    Hi Jonah, I have a concrete solution for mass shootings. Done and done.

    Imagine merging the concepts of Air Marshals; the National Guard; Reagan's statement that the best offense is a good defense (didn't he say that?); and Switzerland's history of never having been invaded because all the men have weapons, are trained, and a bound to defend their community. (And isn't Israel also like that, essentially?)

    In the U.S., what we need is a scenario in which almost anywhere you go, there is probably someone there (in the store, the theatre, school, etc) who is officially trained to carry a weapon and expected to defend against a mass shooter or other violent criminal (Air Marshal concept).

    We would make the program large, voluntary, and across society, (a la the National Guard), in which citizens volunteer to be trained and are allowed to carry a weapon wherever they go, in order to defend against mass shooters (or other violent criminals perhaps).

    As in Reagan's belief in a strong defense and the Swiss plan for preparing the citizenry to defend itself, criminals and mass shooters would be less likely to attack Wal-Marts, grocery stores, theaters and schools if there is a high probability that someone a few feet away from them is armed and trained to take out the shooter.

    If we trained say 2% of society to carry a weapon and operate within a National Guard-style government service, that would mean at any given public place, on the average one out of every fifty people present would be trained, armed and prepared to intervene, a la Air Marshalls, to dispatch any criminal or mass shooter. Voila, problem solved!

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    Kevin Johnson

    Good and fun, again. On freedom of speech on campus, you make good points about norms. A Bigger problem than free speech, I think, is the indoctrination against free speech and the slamming closed of the Overton window. An incredible number of reasonable, debatable positions are increasingly dismissed as bigotry. Young people bring this Stalinism into society. Good people are unwilling to confront the hysteria, but they don’t buy it either. It will not end well.

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      Richard Grebenc

      Yes. The problem is that, too often, the restrictions on speech are not implemented equitably (if I may use that fraught word). But how can this be achieved if moral norms are relative?

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    CP

    Re: The DC Amazons— Have you really been married for this long, Jonah, and not realized that women dress up primarily for each other?

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      CynthiaW

      I agree. People engage in status competition for a lot of different reasons and in a lot of different ways. A society of women with no men around would probably dress competitively in some unexpected ways, but the basic features of all competitive consumption would apply. Novelty, rarity, expense, and class/factional identifiers would be elements. Some items would display functionality, while others would show off the fact that they don't have to be functional.

      It would be interesting to see what a cultural historian and a good designer would come up with.

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