Was The Brady Bunch Crunchy?
Part of me admires Rod Dreher's honesty about his personal life, his willingness to admit online to lifestyle choices that perhaps undermine his credibility as a spokesman for a sensiblity that is (we are told) more authentic, more human, and more moral. His obvious humility partially mitigates his repeatedly painting with an overbroad brush; it makes this habit no less indefensible, but it makes it hard to loathe such an obviously nice guy.
I'm not quite sure he's always successful resisting the temptation to imply things that aren't entirely true; he writes that the end of multiculturalism would be good for the left, "even if I never do vote for a Democrat," implying that he hasn't already crossed that particular bridge.
Nevertheless, Rod Dreher is an honest man.
An honest man who has a maid.
Today at his blog, Rod wrote how he believes the media has a poor grasp of the illegal immigration issue because their jobs aren't at stake. He continues by writing a sentence that I can't believe he wrote.
Wow. I mean, wow.
Words fail me. The guy who focuses on permanent things and whose wife is a stay-at-home mom, the guy who has written ad nauseum about organic food and the Benedictine monks, the guy who's pilloried mainstream conservativism as an ideaology of greed has a maid.
If the Crunchy Con himself has a maid who comes by once a week, just who are the greedy conservatives who are missing the point of life? The ones who have a maid that come by twice a week? The ones with a maid and a butler?
Or the ones who don't have "hired help" but live in the suburbs?
I'm not quite sure he's always successful resisting the temptation to imply things that aren't entirely true; he writes that the end of multiculturalism would be good for the left, "even if I never do vote for a Democrat," implying that he hasn't already crossed that particular bridge.
Nevertheless, Rod Dreher is an honest man.
An honest man who has a maid.
Today at his blog, Rod wrote how he believes the media has a poor grasp of the illegal immigration issue because their jobs aren't at stake. He continues by writing a sentence that I can't believe he wrote.
All we have to worry about is losing our gardeners and maids (I say "we," but I don't have a gardener, and the maid who comes once a week is American; the point is, the class hit hardest by illegal immigration is Not Our Own, Dear).
Wow. I mean, wow.
Words fail me. The guy who focuses on permanent things and whose wife is a stay-at-home mom, the guy who has written ad nauseum about organic food and the Benedictine monks, the guy who's pilloried mainstream conservativism as an ideaology of greed has a maid.
If the Crunchy Con himself has a maid who comes by once a week, just who are the greedy conservatives who are missing the point of life? The ones who have a maid that come by twice a week? The ones with a maid and a butler?
Or the ones who don't have "hired help" but live in the suburbs?
posted by Anonymous at 5:26 PM
17 Comments:
Kudos to you bubba for reading through the reams of dreck to find that gem. but doesn't everyone have a maid once a week? : )
Here's my personal favorite Rod excerpt for today -- and yes, these sentences did really appear next to each other, in the same paragraph:
"Within a minute or so, down came the south tower. Headed back to home in Brooklyn, I thought, 'Maybe I should bring Julie a croissant?'"
The irony is that the crunchy lifestyle as prescribed by Rod -- slow food, homeschooling etc. -- is extremely labor intensive for the stay-at-home wife. Hence the maid! It's too much work to be crunchy, so you've got to outsource some of it.
wonder of Caleb knows about the maid, and if he thinks having a maid is "not quite fully human".
PS: Note how Rod emphasizes the domestic arts as proper realms for crunchiness. Nowhere does he suggest that his job as an editor is anything less than crunchy! No, it's the woman's time that is taken up with chopping vegetables, gardening, homsechooling etc. Rod still goes to the office everyday and works on a computer, goes to "'do's", has lunch with people he finds interesting (and therefore deems "crunchy"), etc. His life remains as 21st C. as ever.
Declare yourself crunchy, but outsource all the hard labor it entails (including outsourcing a good chunk of it to the wife). Now THAT'S the good life.
The problem with CCism as a "set of guidelines" is that Rod is way too specific in the book about policies, practices, types of houses or foods that he likes or doesn't. Like the rabbit-punch at Tom Delay or the fact that the goal of "saving the Republican Party" is emblazoned on the front cover. And, yes - I am judging a book by its cover because it has such a god-awful long title.
Bubba, could you send me your email address sometime? Mine is on my profile. Thanks.
Bubba
This is John T. I followed your post back to here. I made a reply to you as promised earlier today. I wanted you to know in case you don't visit Rod's post again.
FYI, I am creating a blog about self sufficiency. Would you mind checking it out? I would rather have an objective dissenter's view than a bunch of friends saying its great when its not.
http://www.immaculatedirection.blogspot.com/
I am a CC. I don't know what Rod what doing a decade or so ago, but I was doing the crunchy thing. I guess I am stuck with that title. I don't like it that much, it sounds unthreatening. All we are trying to accomplish on my blog is how to be self sufficient. Our intention if we can pull it off is to start a business, and make money. We are chronicling the effort, to help others and ourselves.
here's another song i "wrote", in honor of dan larison. thank you in advance for your plaudits:
you say gnomikon
i say gnomeekon
you say physikon
i say physeekon
gnomikon
gnomeekon
physikon
physeekon
let's call thelema off
HA! That's great, Kathleen, as always. Especially since this whole train wreck is now all about the meanings of words like choice and freedom.
I'm done - seriously - Larison represents the shark jump. This has nothing to do with conservativism anymore. The moonbats are swarming, the inmates are running the asylum. Etc.
FWIW, the Washington Post has an article about Dreher and Crunchy Conservatism.
Regarding the day Dreher had the post reporter over: I recall that very day Dreher was expounding about how hard watching the twin towers fall had been for him -- "I was there! I saw it with my own eyes!" (yeah Rod, so did a few million other people). Appallingly, Dreher ended that anguished post with a cute note that a reporter from the WAPO style section was coming over for dinner that night. cut to that evening when a washington post reporter comes over for dinner ... and the reporter concludes they seem HAPPY! well, of course. Rod was giddy -- more publicity for his book, and the chance that all his dreams might come true if this WAPO reporter baptizes Rod's lifestyle as the harbinger of some amazing movement.
So yeah, the reporter saw happy Rod. Clearly, anguished Rod ("Oh, I can't stay catholic! Oh, 9/11 was so hard on me!") was offstage that night.
Bubba, be assured it takes a lot to get in my crosshairs. Dreher is like a vintage wine of my pet peeves -- narcissism together with 1) with intellectual pretension and 2) an unshakeable presumption of one's own virtue and 3) an insatiable craving for attention. (ooh, guess what everybody! I'm THIS CLOSE to converting to orthodoxy. -- aren't these decisions, which are supposed to be agonizing, usually made in the bosom of the family without public input? or does that just happen in the land of the mature?).
bubba, in a way Rod is right -- Rod had no choice but to tell the reporter, since the reporter was there about Rod's book, and Rod's book is clearly all about celebrating the particularities of Rod (Rod's protestations notwithstanding).
Once again we circle back to the question of whether the book should have been written. Too bad Mark Shea thinks the book is peachy keen, but Dreher's "Yoo hoo! conversion taking place over here!" blog post is not. Perhaps in witnessing Dreher's latest antics (love that word, ANTICS) Mr. Shea will see the error of his ways defending Rod's book.
I'm giving John T.'s blog a thumb up. Although still in it's infancy, reading it and exchanging a few emails with John convinced me that he's so far definitely avoiding the many pitfalls which Rod has dug for CCism, namely the slash & burn rage against the Repubs, kitchen sink politcal platform, dime-store theology, threatening to quit everything & warmed over political correctness that to me identifies Captain Crunch at this point.
(Yes, ANTICS, ANTICS - very woody word indeed.......)
Bubba, I read the book (in horrified fascination at the local barnes and noble in one of those skeevy armchairs. would never buy). It is a series of anecdotes, there are no cohesive arguments whatever. In it, as in his blog, Rod always disclaims that he is doing what he is doing ("I don't mean to say that wearing birks like I do is the important point here blah blah blah") Trust me, the book contributes nothing to Rod's arguments, he is just dodging you. (of course you knew that).
love how he is accusing you of obsessing! I guess he thinks "patience and attentiveness in a prolonged argument = obsession". In that case, the inverse must be true -- "writing slapdash books featuring a series of vignettes starring people one thinks are cool (including oneself) = supreme mental balance".
Oh, hi Rod! not obsessively checking us out again, are you?
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Dreher wrote,"Good grief, Bubba, would you at least take the time to read the dang book? Lord have mercy, but you are starting to obsess. I am ignoring you because you are turning into a crank. Go read the book. They have it at your library. You don't even have to pay for it. Then come back with your questions. You might find I have answered them in the book."
Dang! Lawd have mercaaayyy! When Drehah gits all southern folksy, that's when you got his back up against the wall and he's snarling mad. Oh, and he calls you a cheap, obsessive "crank".
This will have to be quick since I am on a forced big corporate Fortune 300 death march at work. Yes, it's Saturday and yes I will work Sunday. I am not a fast writer, but I can type at the speed of light being a techie. First, I am so grateful for the constructive criticism from Pauli and Bubba. For Pauli, I think that my blog is correctly described as crunchy Catholic, and not an attack on certain Cons. Thanks for the plug too! Very kind words. For Bubba I agree with your criticisms and in today's post and tomorrow's post I was more clear that the reason for our journey toward self sufficiency is to be more Christ focused. Bubba, remember the state's got my daughter and next year will have my son. I work all the time, my wife is at home with youngest but it gets harder to make ends meet. The choices are very limited now. (Yes I have them and I am acting to make it better.) I agree with your criticisms but time hangs over us like the Sword of Damocles. So it makes it hard to change the status quo. We just want some peace so we can worship together.
I bought the book. We all went to the store together as a family to look for it. I read the back jacket cover on the way home. The bulleted manifesto. I saw the point and purpose of the angst. I re-wrote them in my head with the intention of posting the new CC Manifesto. I read the ones inside the book and thought better of it because they are different there. Less controversial (at least to me). I would have made family number 1. Long story short I read the 1st chapter. So far the Dreher's experience and our experience track real close, except at one time I was a semi-crunchy agnostic libertarian. My CCism maps my faith and our current state of mind is a direct result of our faith for sure. Rod is speaking to me in my language. My wife and I are R.C. our effort are a direct result of our faith. I will read further. I don't like the name Crunchy Con, I do not think that I am uniquely positioned to see political things in a new and better light because I am suspect of big corporations, like beauty, and desire sacramental meals. I still love the RC Cola & Moon Pie quote. Back to the kids, in the last two years I've seen nothing but stressed out over worked people who have no time for their families. A lot of it including ours is self induced. I plan to fix it and if someone wants to see how it goes, then they are welcome. But by no means should any of you feel morally inferior because of our lifestyle. I stay clear of politics as much as possible. How do I see the parties? One party supports and promotes organizations that want to sell me and my family petroleum based fertilizer, and one party supports and promotes organizations that want to turn me and my family into organic fertilizer. Enough said, I have to serve Mordor now, while I still add value. For the next six weeks or so I will be very busy, if I can I will try to blog with you when I have time. If not continue to have a blessed Easter, and the peace of Christ be with you all in your magnificent dissent!
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