Ethics is Everywhere, But Politics is Not: A Midterm Elections Protest
Housekeeping Notes! Links! A Brief Interlude Between Series!
In this edition, I look at the notion of the “personal as political”, which wants (rightly) to say that our lives are connected to larger shared aims and purposes. In the US, it’s Election Day, a day which dominates our minds with its own self-importance.
But I suggest that notion should be replaced with something richer: that ethics, not politics, is connected at all times and all places with the personal. The drive to have our private actions matter corporately is half-right, but it’s the moral life that infuses all of our lives, not the political.
It’s why it’s important to turn over ordinary things from the perspective of the moral life: ethics is not simply what we do when we hit hard times, but what we are learning to do and be all the time. Special reference to one of our kids’ recent favorite things, The Mysterious Benedict Society.
Some Housekeeping:
I’ve added a new “chat” feature to the newsletter. Periodically, I’ll drop a question in there for discussion—no pressure, just food for thought stuff. To participate in the chats, you’ll need to download the Substack app. This will be the only time I’ll ever indicate that an app would be helpful. But in truth, the Substack app is actually good—I subscribe to a few newsletters (more below), and part of how I find them is through the recommendations of other newsletters.
Our next subscriber-only book chat will be on Abigail Favale’s The Genesis of Gender. It’s a really provocative book, in all the good ways, and one which I’m looking forward to talking with others about. Tentative date is December 6th, and details and Zoom link will be sent to paid subscribers before then.
Some Recommendations:
In the spirit of recommending other things through the Substack app, I want to highlight four recent pieces, found from newsletters I follow:
“How Moneyball Ruined Everything”—if you love baseball, this is a sobering read about how stats-counting makes a game into a technology, and ultimately undermines the reason we love games. Discussed at Joe Blogs, written by the best baseball writer going, Joe Posnaski. His Baseball 100 book is just wonderful.
“Data on a Post-Dobbs World”—real-time impact of post Dobbs case on abortion. From Your Local Epidemiologist, who translates high-level health and epidemiology info into normie talk. A real breath of fresh air during COVID.
“Pathologies of Attention Economy”—an examination of how attention is the new currency, for economics and really for all of life. Everything is about getting eyeballs to watch. From Michael Sacasas’ The Convivial Society, who I’ve linked to before here.
And in the spirit of today’s little audio, “Culture War By Other Means”, by Leah Libresco Sargent of Other Feminisms.
There’s a ton of great work being done on various Substacks. Go print them off. Take them outside with a cup of coffee. Get off social media doomscrolling and take advantage of the good fruit being done out there.