Links to Consider, 5/21

Robert VerBruggen on parenting trends; Dan Williams on Big Disinfo; Eric Cohen on American Jews and campus protests; Frank Furedi on students then and now

Robert VerBruggen writes,

The less life demands two specialized roles to operate a home, the less mandatory it becomes to have two parents present. Or, as the economists Adam Isen and Betsey Stevenson once argued, marriage becomes less of a necessity focused around Becker-style “production,” and more of a way to share in the consumption of disposable income.

Earlier, he cautions,

I would like to take a step back and explore some major theories as to why marriage fell and single motherhood rose to begin with—trends that date back half a century or more.

One can argue about the relative importance of each of the following factors, and I make no pretense of offering a comprehensive explanation of these enormous, complex social phenomena. My overarching point is this: The pro-marriage movement must grapple with the massive societal shifts that drove marriage’s historic decline—many of which are, for all practical purposes, irreversible—if they hope to make concrete plans and set realistic goals for restoring the institution through public policy.

What about the role of government welfare?

Quite frankly, it beggars belief that rising public support had nothing to do with the rise of single motherhood. The government in fact paid for something and got more of it. But nailing down the extent of the contribution is hard, and it may be small.

Pointer from Rob Henderson. Also, Henderson writes, based on his reading of Jonathan Haidt’s latest book,

When countries are attacked, they are infused with a strong sense of purpose, suicide rates drop, and researchers find that decades later, people who were teens during the start of the war show higher levels of trust and cooperation.

Think about the U.S. after Pearl Harbor or Israel after October 7.

Dan Williams writes,

disinformation experts could stick to very narrow definitions of disinformation and insist on an extremely high degree of certainty before classifying content as false, harmful, and deceptive. Moreover, they could strive to build communities of experts that are ideologically and politically diverse to avoid the risk that classifications are biased by one specific political perspective.

Unfortunately, neither of these things characterise Big Disinfo.

…Contrary to the self-image of many experts, researchers, and fact-checkers, the post-2016 preoccupation with—and panic about—disinformation is shaped and sometimes distorted by political values and ideology.

I put this in the context of status-driven syndrome. Institutions select for people who are driven by status acquired within the institution. This selects for conformity and fosters suck-up cultures. It is the nature of such institutions to seek to crush narratives that reflect badly on their leaders, who are the ruthless winners of the internal status competitions. In the current context, this urge to crush dissident narratives manifests as the War on Disinformation.

I watched this speech by Eric Cohen, a Jewish conservative, about campus unrest and how Jews should respond. His peroration includes,

we as Jews and As Americans still know the difference between civilization and barbarism. The current assault against the Jews is not driven by irrational prejudice. It is deeper and more purposeful. The Jews represent everything the enemies of American civilization seek to destroy: the moral code of the Hebrew Bible, which the anti-Jews seek to replace with woke secularism or radical Islam; the culture of meritocracy which the anti-Jews seek to replace with the false Justice of the new diversity equity and inclusion regime; and the belief in National sovereignty which the anti-Zionists seek to destroy in the name of UN style utopianism

He champions what he calls The Exodus Project, which means that Jews should abandon the Ivy League altogether and instead attend colleges in the South and elsewhere that are welcoming.

In a deeper sense, he is calling for Jews to abandon their erstwhile progressive allies and adopt conservative allies instead. I agree, having made that journey myself. There are certainly strands of American conservatism that trouble me. But I can feel comfortable arguing among conservatives. I believe that they have a sensible core. Not so with the social justice activists. I think of their brand of progressivism the way that Cohen thinks of the Ivy League, as beyond salvation.

Eleven years ago, when I first wrote The Three Languages of Politics, I would not have felt this way. But then I watched the cult-like phenomena of DEI and gender fluidity. By the time that the social justice activists came out as pro-Hamas, I was not even surprised.

Frank Furedi writes,

In the 1960s and 1970s students were regarded and treated as qualitatively different to school children. The ethos that prevailed in this era was distinctly anti-paternalistic. Once they entered the academic world they were presumed to be adults rather than children. Today when institutions of pastoral care, students’ welfare, counseling and guidance have an all pervasive presence on campuses it is worth recalling that in the 1960s students were expected to more or less able to fend for themselves. In contrast, we live in an age where universities highlight their commitment to student welfare and promise parents that they will keep their children safe.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the rules on campus governing sexual conduct were thrown out. In the 21st century, the nannies have come back with new, strict rules.

It is not possible to fully understand the conformist turn of campus life and the lack of respect for free speech without locating its roots in the infantilisation of campus life.

I think of the Vietnam War protesters as wanting to argue with their parents. I think of the Gaza protesters as too intellectually feeble to argue with anyone.

substacks referenced above:

@

Student Gaza Protestors Are The Foot Soldiers Of The Cultural Elites

@

Debunking Disinformation Myths, Part 2: The Politics of Big Disinfo

@

Spectator TV, Parasite, Neuroticism