Posted on 10/01/2006 6:35:05 PM PDT by grey_whiskers
Ordinarily, a person's family size wouldn't be any of my business. However, Mr. Dreher identifies himself as a "natalist," a family-first ideologue, even to the point of believing that the government should subsidize that lifestyle over others. He's also written about how difficult NFP is, which suggests that the two-child family was deliberately chosen, and some other value chosen in the place of offspring.
My very strong opinion is that the "crunchy-con" thing is simply the glorification of personal preference, a shallow ideology that elevates appearance over content.
This is not to say that the Drehers aren't outrageously swell people! It's only that I find his socio-political-religious intellectual construct, based on his published writings, to be lacking in coherence and consistency.
Mr. Whiskers, going back to your original post, I'd say that you're a "Dreherite" only if you think that the government should subsidize your health-and-fitness choices at the expense of others.
(Truth in advertising: I make my own granola and use flax-seed oil. I wear SAS sandals in the summer and loafers in the winter. And Brooks sneakers; I couldn't run in Birkenstocks with my weak ankles.)
Have to bike to work--I think it'd be better for the government to subsidize (not MANDATE) prevention rather than pay through the nose for those who didn't take *some* effort to stay healthy. That's better than subsidizing 350-lb bozos for their years of killing themselves, after they have diabetes, etc. etc., at *MY* expense.
(Bike paths, subsidized vitamins and routine preventative physicals, that kind of thing. Give incentives to nudge the free market...you just inspired another opinion piece.)
Cheers!
You both have made excellent points. Mr. Whiskers, I believe you were talking about "taking back" conservative (and conservation) issues that the lefties stole from us, and Tax-Chick, you are objecting to Dreher's idea of government sponsorship of a particular lifestyle. Both your viewpoints have great merit, but I don't believe they are irreconcilable.
(Full disclosure: herb-tea drinking, yoga-practicing, environmentalist vegetarian Republican here, LOL!)
My own opinion that "Crunchy Con" was an interesting and thought-provoking small article prematurely expanded into a thin and loosely-reasoned book, lacking sufficient muscle tone to carry the ideological position it defends. It does read, in places,like a style piece asking for a more quirky and refined consumerism.
Rod's better than that. Some of his stuff at Dallas Morning News has verged on heroic.
I'll save my free-market screed for the response to that piece, then :-).
I've been impressed with some of his writing, too. He reminds me of Peggy Noonan - at their best, they're really good, but using facts and reason to direct emotion and intuition is not their strength.
Rather than "outing" my dear wife's Crunchy-Connitude, I'll just let her comment on her own when she gets home.
[crickets . . . abject silence]
Hell yeah!
And gingko biloba...and fish oil capsules...and Super Opti-Vue (with Lutein!)...and exfoliating loofah sponges (it's twue)...
Thanks for the ping.
TTW (Totally Tag Worthy)
LOL... Frankly, if someone has issues with my crunchy connitude it's their issue. I'm not in anyone's face telling them what to do. So happens I do own a pair of birkenstocks because stepping in skunk poo isn't cute.
I'm a crunchy con if there ever was one.
I do yoga at work in between breaks. It saves my back because I'm a nursing aide. I'm getting back into the green tea thing because I'm all about life extension using the most natural means available. I'll never eat meat again ever for health and ethical reasons either. I do happen to run into a lot of liberals who are surprised at my granola crunchiness though.
Yoga is the ONLY thing that keeps my neck flexible, and keeps my stress level down.
The crunchy con label appeals to me, but it sounds like where Dreher and I part ways is that I am NOT a big consumer. I'm into doing it myself, doing for myself, and making do with what I have, or less. My parents and my hubby's parents were children of the Depression, and many of their "frugal" ways must have rubbed off on me.
FReepmail to follow in a bit.
No, that's liberalism: I resisted becoming a crunchy-con for a LONG time simply because I suspected it of being a "shallow, personal glorification" thing.
I only accepted it when I found on empirical grounds, that there were elements of it which had a great deal more substance than I had ever suspected.
See also this link.
Cheers!
I think you're confusing what is indeed factual, such as the benefit of certain nutritional supplements, with the ideology that claims certain foods, shoes, or other consumer products are "conservative" in a special way.
Not exactly; it is just that, "stereotypically", conservatives are against 'dainty' things like organic food, or non-traditionally-Western approaches (chiropractic, acupuncture, yoga, etc.); such historically being the province of hippies.
(See this Victor Davis Hanson thread on Europe for a loose example of the stereotype.) Cheers!
"don't think that just because someone has failed ONE of your weirdness tests, that they will fail ALL of them. Free Republic ought to be proof of that :-)"
Well said!
I'm still thinking on this. I think what gets me about Mr. Dreher's writing on the subject is that he seems to think his particular decisions on diet, exercise, clothing, housing, etc., are Anointed, while the rest of the world - shopping at Wal-mart, living in tract subdivisions, drinking beer in lawn chairs in their driveways - are the Unenlightened.
(Anoreth says we really want to drink cheap wine in the driveway.)
Although he's only hinted at the idea that the redneck trash should be required by the government to subsidize his Chosen ways, I think the urge to coerce is there, and I'm not comfortable with calling it "conservative."
(Ping, Steve, related to our exchange on the Sowell thread.)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.