RamistThomist
Puritanboard Clerk
Richards, Jay W. Fight the Good Fight: How an Alliance of Faith and Reason Can Win the Culture War.
Talking about culture war is dangerous. Such discussions usually degenerate to “Evangelicals are supporting Trump!” Meaning is the first casualty. There are other ways to talk about the culture war, ways including rational discussion and science. Jay Richards, senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, provides us with a handy tool to rebut globalist elites.
Richards is able to transcend the current debates over whether Trump is good or bad. Richards calls out elites like Russell Moore and David French. While they make good points concerning Trump’s morality, their message comes across as “Lord, I thank you that I am not like this Trump-voter.”
For or better or worse, however, elites have always been the drivers of culture. It is they who have the resources and overlapping networks.
Reason
We can only fight the good fight if we commit ourselves to Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. This means those transcendentals must be objective, knowable, and communicable.
Law
In promoting liberty and law, Richards, following the Augustinian tradition, defines liberty as the power to do what you ought to do.
Marriage
Richards observes that “student loan debt is a more solemn covenant than legal marriage” for Americans today. Much of his chapter on marriage echoes earlier jeremiads than warn that with the fall of marriage we will see the fall of civilization. Too true, so there is not much more to add, save the amusing comment that “evolution seems to favor religious families.”
Children
Main idea: children are a natural result of sex, and children function best in families. As one writer said, “A healthy culture requires a healthy marriage culture” (David Popenoe, Disturbing the Nest).
Although Richards correctly notes that small government and the market are the best environments, he critiques libertarians for ignoring the family. The family undergirds the values that “protect individual rights” (Richards).
Education
Main idea: “Education should guide [children] to the Good, the True, and the Beautiful.” “It should provide not just knowledge, but wisdom and virtue.”
Now, instead of asking “Is it true?” we now ask, “Does it work?”
Equality
No one applies “equity,” defined as “equal outcomes,” across the board. Doctors do not make the same as cashiers.
Main idea: “the free market ‘nudges’ people to move capital to meet other people’s needs.”
“Labor is a cost of doing business, and wage laws are price controls on labor.” They will always marginalize the poor. One man’s wealth does not make another man poor. Wealth is not a stable “pie” somewhere. It is fluid.
Poverty
Key point: “In almost one hundred biblical passages about the poor, not one of them mentions the government.”
Main idea: “Over time, government welfare tends to do more harm than good because it tears through a web of overlapping jurisdictions of responsibility.”
How is Wealth Created?
Main idea: “Socialism detaches income from performance.”
Key idea: Because developing countries lack property rights, they remain poor, among other reasons. “The right to property channels and orient our actions in wealth-enhancing ways. It changes the way we view ourselves and the world around us.”
“New wealth comes from how we represent, inform, and transform matter–and by minds working together.”
“Free economies discourage miserliness and encourage its near opposite–enterprise.”
Free Enterprise
Main idea: “Economic value is in the eye of the beholder.”
In one of his metaphors, Richards compares prices to information. A socialist planner (or a government bureaucracy) would have to be omniscient, knowing all the desires of all its people. Assuming that such does not work, one must instead use prices as an index for what people will pay for a good. How much they pay suggests how badly they want it–but only at that moment.
Globalism and the threat of Communist China
Main idea: Expanding circles of trade lead to increased standards of living. Buying only local, by contrast, limits access to resources needed for life.
Key idea: “Global trade is about the spread of economic freedom. We made the mistake to think that the free market would erode China’s communism. Rather, China avoided many of the Soviet Union’s mistakes. “Instead of state-owned farms, it built firms”--and these firms invested in Western markets.
Scarcity
Key idea: “The stone age came to an end not for a lack of stones, and the oil age will end, but not for a lack of oil.”
Conclusion
Richards has given us a timely survey of the different fronts. He advocates neither retreat nor dominion. For all of its problems, the classical liberal model we have inherited works. Market economies and limited government have lifted people out of poverty. Aside from a few quotes from Thomas Paine, this book is excellent.
Talking about culture war is dangerous. Such discussions usually degenerate to “Evangelicals are supporting Trump!” Meaning is the first casualty. There are other ways to talk about the culture war, ways including rational discussion and science. Jay Richards, senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, provides us with a handy tool to rebut globalist elites.
Richards is able to transcend the current debates over whether Trump is good or bad. Richards calls out elites like Russell Moore and David French. While they make good points concerning Trump’s morality, their message comes across as “Lord, I thank you that I am not like this Trump-voter.”
For or better or worse, however, elites have always been the drivers of culture. It is they who have the resources and overlapping networks.
Reason
We can only fight the good fight if we commit ourselves to Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. This means those transcendentals must be objective, knowable, and communicable.
Law
In promoting liberty and law, Richards, following the Augustinian tradition, defines liberty as the power to do what you ought to do.
Marriage
Richards observes that “student loan debt is a more solemn covenant than legal marriage” for Americans today. Much of his chapter on marriage echoes earlier jeremiads than warn that with the fall of marriage we will see the fall of civilization. Too true, so there is not much more to add, save the amusing comment that “evolution seems to favor religious families.”
Children
Main idea: children are a natural result of sex, and children function best in families. As one writer said, “A healthy culture requires a healthy marriage culture” (David Popenoe, Disturbing the Nest).
Although Richards correctly notes that small government and the market are the best environments, he critiques libertarians for ignoring the family. The family undergirds the values that “protect individual rights” (Richards).
Education
Main idea: “Education should guide [children] to the Good, the True, and the Beautiful.” “It should provide not just knowledge, but wisdom and virtue.”
Now, instead of asking “Is it true?” we now ask, “Does it work?”
Equality
No one applies “equity,” defined as “equal outcomes,” across the board. Doctors do not make the same as cashiers.
Main idea: “the free market ‘nudges’ people to move capital to meet other people’s needs.”
“Labor is a cost of doing business, and wage laws are price controls on labor.” They will always marginalize the poor. One man’s wealth does not make another man poor. Wealth is not a stable “pie” somewhere. It is fluid.
Poverty
Key point: “In almost one hundred biblical passages about the poor, not one of them mentions the government.”
Main idea: “Over time, government welfare tends to do more harm than good because it tears through a web of overlapping jurisdictions of responsibility.”
How is Wealth Created?
Main idea: “Socialism detaches income from performance.”
Key idea: Because developing countries lack property rights, they remain poor, among other reasons. “The right to property channels and orient our actions in wealth-enhancing ways. It changes the way we view ourselves and the world around us.”
“New wealth comes from how we represent, inform, and transform matter–and by minds working together.”
“Free economies discourage miserliness and encourage its near opposite–enterprise.”
Free Enterprise
Main idea: “Economic value is in the eye of the beholder.”
In one of his metaphors, Richards compares prices to information. A socialist planner (or a government bureaucracy) would have to be omniscient, knowing all the desires of all its people. Assuming that such does not work, one must instead use prices as an index for what people will pay for a good. How much they pay suggests how badly they want it–but only at that moment.
Globalism and the threat of Communist China
Main idea: Expanding circles of trade lead to increased standards of living. Buying only local, by contrast, limits access to resources needed for life.
Key idea: “Global trade is about the spread of economic freedom. We made the mistake to think that the free market would erode China’s communism. Rather, China avoided many of the Soviet Union’s mistakes. “Instead of state-owned farms, it built firms”--and these firms invested in Western markets.
Scarcity
Key idea: “The stone age came to an end not for a lack of stones, and the oil age will end, but not for a lack of oil.”
Conclusion
Richards has given us a timely survey of the different fronts. He advocates neither retreat nor dominion. For all of its problems, the classical liberal model we have inherited works. Market economies and limited government have lifted people out of poverty. Aside from a few quotes from Thomas Paine, this book is excellent.
