Postmodern Conservative.

First Things Latest

Well. It's been a while, hasn't it? Who knows who drops by these old pages nowadays. If you do, however, you'll possibly be delighted as I am that Pomocon has moved -- again, and, God Willing, for a bit longer this time -- to First Things, and there is back in action.

There are many to thank and praise, as usual, for the latest step on our zig-zaggedy path. But drop on by the new digs, settle in as we do, and stick around for the ride. As ever, the biggest thanks of all goes to you, the reader, without whom all of this is silliness.

J

Pomocon Lives

Bigger. Better. Stronger. Where else?

As you'll see, we've just pushed Pomocon @ Culture11 out of the nest. Over the next several weeks, archives will be migrated, URLs will be forwarded, and sidebars will be populated. I'm majorly excited, and you'll be too.

Vaya con dios!

Milestones

Thanks to all of you, in August Postmodern Conservative experienced its sixth month of consecutive growth in traffic and by far its best-ever month in visits (over 12,000) and page views (over 17,000). It really is my pleasure to continue to be 'worth' reading...even if Yglesias is largely right about the relative insignificance of the bloggerati. 

Which brings me to another milestone. As you've likely noticed, I've joined Culture11 as its founding political editor. After several years now of stubborn independence and freelancing, if I've created the impression that I've been waiting for the right venture to come along before thinking of hopping aboard, that's the right impression. 

Not that political journalism isn't being done professionally and well in this town -- of course it is. But all too often, the Washington echo chamber is too well-sealed, too scripted, and too insulated from the world, including the rest of America, at large. C11 is the right vehicle to change that, and I'm proud to be working toward that end -- as well as others, like really public philosophy and also general amusement -- with what sure feels like the best team in the business.

So to that end, you'll be seeing my blog post content coalescing very strongly over at C11's staff blog, lovingly named The Confabulum. I've wound down my posting at Doublethink, which is awesome and, I know personally, will carry on in fine, indeed, better, style. And, here, as suits the nature of this transition, I'll be kicking off the fall by linking to the goings-on there, to be sure that Postmodern Conservative readers don't miss a beat. Friends, associates, update your links, and I'll see you at C11.

10,000

Another month, another Life Event. Thanks in no small part to the championship-level interactivity of Patrick/Andrew Appel/Sullivan, Demophilus, David Frum, Shawn Macomber, and Megan McArdle, ye olde Pomocon has surpassed 10,000 visits for the month of July, making it one for the Intertubes Record Books. Thanks, readers. You make it all worth a slightly less nightmarish while than Yglesias' existential abyss suggests.

Our Most Glorious Triumph Yet

Kim Jong-Il, perhaps, should start a blog. Instead of presiding over famine, low productivity, and international isolation, and culminating his rule by blowing up minor but no doubt painful extensions of his ego, he could (somewhat) lower his expectations and...sooner or later...report, as I do now, four years months of glorious, exceptional growth, with June's Most Gloriously Highest Page Views Statistic topping it all off. By the time we march forward in unbreakable union across the gleaming threshold of July, this number is unquestionable and certainly guaranteed of ensupering 13,000 individual units.

Above all, however, we must thank the Crew of Worthies, whose infinite suns of infinite brilliance should truly shine forever in the Great Firmament. Most joyfully, we may take final proof from the great performance of the Worthies that Kim must open his society and democratize his nation to reap the full bounty of permanent productivity and growth!

Back

(1) Over the next few days, I'll be getting back into the swing of things here as the Crew of Worthies eases out of the hipness and brilliance that has been their hallmark. Large public thanks to Helen, John, Shawn, and Will. I've loved having them around and I'm sure you have too.

(2) This month a few pieces of note have appeared here and there. In case you've missed the links over at Doublethink, here they are:

A blueprint for the McCain candidacy [The Guardian]

The technology of memory [The New Atlantis]

(3) Hopefully in short order the sidebar situation will be magically repaired as well.

Blogging Madness

Before turning the helm over to the Pomocon Crew of Worthies! for an unprecedented fortnight or so away from the 'puter, it seems fitting to take a step back and say, Don Rumsfeld-style, my goodness. 2,078 posts, over 113,000 vists...it's been a busy few years. A fresh debt of thanks is owed to you, the readers: May has been Postmodern Conservative's second biggest month ever -- despite the stiff competition which has debuted this year at The American Scene and Doublethink Online. You make the insanity worthwhile.

It's probably not an exaggeration to remark that bloggers, especially on the right, are needed now more than ever. Courtesy of the past eight years, the Republican Party has wound up in fairly dire straits and even the basic meaning of conservatism has been thrown into question. It's a relief and a privilege to be part of the blogversation that's started to take place among the young right, but everyone recognizes that much work is left to be done and things will get worse before they get any better. Of course this is exactly the sort of sweeping but nonlethal catastrophe that every rising political intellectual wants to wind up in; so let's make the most of it, for the sake of Western civilization if not our own selves.

In that spirit, I'm trying to be a little more systematic, frank, and concentrated about rolling out my own political theory. If Fear and Loathing in Georgetown is any indication, I've been just a bit too coy about what I imagine postmodern conservatism specifically to be. Don't expect any manifestos anytime soon, but do expect a continued series of ruminations along the lines of this defense of elitism, improvisation, and the meaning of conservatism. Also expect a deepening of the lines of attack you've come to know and love against people like Michael Gerson and Austin Bramwell.

Sixteen Days of Glory

You know you've really made it as a blogger if you can abandon your laptop for two weeks without coming back to see that your blog has in turn been abandoned by what you'd coaxed yourself into thinking of so recently and so fondly as your readership. But this is really only possible if you've befriended some helpy heroes who also happen to like blogging. I am fortunate to enjoy several such friends and colleagues -- who will transform into Pomocon Guest Star Bloggers! beginning on June 1st.

Starting on that date, for approximately sixteen days, all the Olympian summer excitement you've come to expect will be dealt out in spades by Shawn Macomber, Helen Rittelmeyer, John Schwenkler, and Will Wilson. They are all incredibly credible writers and brilliant mental talents, and I owe them much gin and grapefruit. As for you, dear readership, roll out the red carpet!

Pantheism and Catholicism: The Fateful Encounter

One of the few things Alexis de Tocqueville most underrated was the affinity in contemporary times between Catholicism and pantheism. I know this may be a revolting and outrageous idea, or allegation, to a fair number of friends and/or readers. But I have thought it over and have decided to move forward with it. For now I can only point you to The Immanent Frame, specifically to William Connolly's brief for pantheism (though he doesn't call it this), one of the plainest, frankest, and 'best' (yes, because it's Nietzschean) that I've seen in a while.

My main concern is that Taylor, and Catholics like him, are inclined to cede vast amounts of territory to the main thrusts and attitudes of the pantheist creed -- most importantly, the holiness of all love, in all its physicality, as an immanent and transcendent experience of peaceful yet powerful becoming in time -- as long as the Church and the Nicene Creed are kept intact. For at least a handful of Protestants, this amounts to something resembling worst nightmare territory. For what it's worth.

Six Sexy Figures

Today Postmodern Conservative hit 100,000 visits, tolled from whenever I started taking this blog more or less seriously and learned how to embed SiteMeter script. A big thank you goes to everyone who has impacted editorial policy here by:

(a) weathering several months of mindbending and oracular Philip Rieff-related content;

(b) appreciating the quirk of pomo conservatism that involves writing from that perspective without definitively describing it in an easy-to-reference meta-post;

(c) enjoying the gradual rise to prominence of blogging on such gripping issues as Kate Moss's cocaine habit, a dancing sea lion, and naked Lindsay Lohan;

(d) joining the Yale Mafia;

(e) permitting within the Department a colossal amount of free speech for a grad student in politics (enough to hang oneself with!);

and most importantly

(e) linking and commenting with a maximum of enthusiasm and a minimum of crudeness -- especially when it comes to the critics.

The definitive piece on pomoconnery will come out eventually, but in the interim this Pomocon Pledge will have to do:

Pledge

As modernity hurls fresh novelties this way, expect the same old reaction: some will be rejected, some will be worked through like the problems they are, and some will be accepted as is. Despite general good cheer, celebrations will be infrequent and at arm's length. Eclecticism may sometimes be risked, but not on principle, and never at the risk of meta-eclecticism. Vaya con dios!