The Global Community is a Fantasy

In M arch 2019 a group of Catholic and Catholic-adjacent writers and academics issued a manifesto titled ‘Against the Dead Consensus’ (which I hereafter abbreviate ADC). As one of the signatories to that manifesto, I admit to being surprised at the way a single clause—“we embrace the new nationalism”—has come to define the document within certain intellectual circles. ADC is first and foremost a statement about conservatism. It critiques the corrosive afterlife of “warmed-over Reaganism” within conservative circles across multiple dimensions including social class, the family, and democracy. Yet public debate has chosen to define the document as a discourse on nationalism. An open-letter response, ‘Against the New Nationalism’ (hereafter abbreviated ANN), is the most prominent reaction of this kind. Published in August in Commonweal magazine and signed by nearly two dozen tenured professors at some of the country’s most prestigious academic institutions (ADC doesn’t even count half a dozen professors), this second manifesto is dedicated to a critique of all those “eager to embrace nationalism as compatible with Christian faith.” Read Full Article »