Reading, Watching 03.10.24
Illusions, Noble and Ignoble
This is a regular feature for paid subscribers wherein I write a little about what I’ve recently been reading and/or watching. Hope you enjoy!
Readers may have noticed that there were no posts in the past week. I apologize for this, but I’m approaching deadline for a big piece and that’s been taking up most of my focus. This week’s installment is a little brief and some of the content in this newsletter relates to research for that project, which is about my family’s history. Once I file—next week, inshallah—I’ll return to your regularly scheduled programming.
I also have to do a little more shameless self-promotion. This past week, two interviews I did about When The Clock Broke were published: One, with
for his great Substack The Tourist, and the other, in Publishers Weekly, alongside their review. Once again, the book is available for pre-order.First of all, the plot against America. Not the Philip Roth novel, the literal plot against America. A while ago I referred to The Claremont Institute as a conspiracy against the republic. Yes, that may sound a bit Bircher of me, but just look what these same people are up to now. Talking Points Memo reports prominent members of Claremont are among the leadership of a secret society called “Society for American Civic Renewal:”
The members identified by TPM don’t necessarily fit the profile of the disaffected, disgruntled loner or the amped-up, testosterone-fueled militia types often found on the paranoid right-wing fringe. TPM’s reporting has identified as SACR members the president of the influential, Trump-aligned Claremont Institute, Harvard Law grads, and leading businessmen in communities scattered across America.
Group members hold a distinct vision of America as a latter-day ancient Rome: a crumbling, decadent empire that could soon be replaced by a Christian theocracy. To join, the group demands faithfulness, virtue, and “alignment,” which it describes as “deference to and acceptance of the wisdom of our American and European Christian forebears in the political realm, a traditional understanding of patriarchal leadership in the household, and acceptance of traditional Natural Law in ethics more broadly.” More practically, members must be able to contribute either influence, capability, or wealth in helping SACR further its goals.
“Most of all, we seek those who understand the nature of authority and its legitimate forceful exercise in the temporal realm,” a mission statement reads.
Once in the group, the statement says, members can expect perks: “direct preferential treatment for members, especially in business,” and help in advancement “in all areas of life” from other members.
It’s a vision of society which doesn’t just extend back before the Obergefell decision on same-sex marriage or before the sexual revolution of the ‘60s and ‘70s, before the Civil Rights movement or even before World War II. It goes back further, beyond living memory: to the late 19th century, before the Progressive Era opened the floodgates to what the group regards as a long corruption of America’s founding principles.