Glad the piece resonated, Tom! You're right to point to this recurring theme in the WoC universe (although I suppose I'm mostly the culprit). To your question of whether practice must be linked to religion, I think the answer is yes. In Lefebvre's attempt to make liberalism into a belief system, it still lacked regular ritual and it's no…
Glad the piece resonated, Tom! You're right to point to this recurring theme in the WoC universe (although I suppose I'm mostly the culprit). To your question of whether practice must be linked to religion, I think the answer is yes. In Lefebvre's attempt to make liberalism into a belief system, it still lacked regular ritual and it's not clear to me how secular ideologies can sustain ritual among enough people. The gruel is too thin, ultimately. All the alternatives to religion: yoga, wokeness, Elks clubs just haven't been as successful. Thanks for the rec on David DeSteno. He reached out to me about my recent Foreign Affairs article on "secular stagnation" (https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/secular-stagnation-hamid-divine-economy) so hopefully we'll get to talk more.
Shadi: I think you would find de Steno's "How God Works" interesting. It's claims are empirical, like your claims based polls and voting cross-sections, but in a different way. He builds his case on studies.
Along those line, I like the Foreign Affairs piece, but I would counsel some caution on the "deaths of despair" theme. We all find good lines hard to resist. But there are researchers who think that Angus Deaton and Anna Case's characterization of their research was a case of grabbing for headlines. Myself, I wonder whether the fentanyl epidemic is a reprise of the methamphetamine wave of a few years back, a far-deadlier drug ripping through much the same population. And "Methland" was still highly churched.
And I think you underestimate the network of "practices" that make people nostalgic for small-town America. There was church, yes. But also church bingo, service clubs, little league, bowling leagues, scouts -- even the Elks and Polish clubs and the VFW and American Legion. Many of these supports have declined in parallel, perhaps because the towns themselves are declining relative to the urban/suburban/exurban mass. The megachurches of the exurbs attempt to cover almost all of these support modalities. They sell connection and involvement, not just meaning. How well this works for people, compared to the good old days, I'm not sure -- but the churches themselves are hugely successful with this model.
Glad the piece resonated, Tom! You're right to point to this recurring theme in the WoC universe (although I suppose I'm mostly the culprit). To your question of whether practice must be linked to religion, I think the answer is yes. In Lefebvre's attempt to make liberalism into a belief system, it still lacked regular ritual and it's not clear to me how secular ideologies can sustain ritual among enough people. The gruel is too thin, ultimately. All the alternatives to religion: yoga, wokeness, Elks clubs just haven't been as successful. Thanks for the rec on David DeSteno. He reached out to me about my recent Foreign Affairs article on "secular stagnation" (https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/secular-stagnation-hamid-divine-economy) so hopefully we'll get to talk more.
Shadi: I think you would find de Steno's "How God Works" interesting. It's claims are empirical, like your claims based polls and voting cross-sections, but in a different way. He builds his case on studies.
Along those line, I like the Foreign Affairs piece, but I would counsel some caution on the "deaths of despair" theme. We all find good lines hard to resist. But there are researchers who think that Angus Deaton and Anna Case's characterization of their research was a case of grabbing for headlines. Myself, I wonder whether the fentanyl epidemic is a reprise of the methamphetamine wave of a few years back, a far-deadlier drug ripping through much the same population. And "Methland" was still highly churched.
And I think you underestimate the network of "practices" that make people nostalgic for small-town America. There was church, yes. But also church bingo, service clubs, little league, bowling leagues, scouts -- even the Elks and Polish clubs and the VFW and American Legion. Many of these supports have declined in parallel, perhaps because the towns themselves are declining relative to the urban/suburban/exurban mass. The megachurches of the exurbs attempt to cover almost all of these support modalities. They sell connection and involvement, not just meaning. How well this works for people, compared to the good old days, I'm not sure -- but the churches themselves are hugely successful with this model.