"These young intellectuals call themselves—like pitch-perfect nineteenth-century Romantics—“sensitive young men.” At the after-parties they discuss metaphysics. Despite this being a D.C. social event, I don’t know where they work. It’s obvious, however, that some of the best congressional offices on the Hill, several conservative magazines and the D.C.-area universities are well represented. I do know, though, what they think about free will and contingency, ancient history and EU regulatory disputes. Among them I’ve heard discussions of twentieth-century espionage and historical intrigues and quotes from Kissinger, Freud, Kierkegaard, Homer, Virgil, Montesquieu and the Federalist Papers. They revive the best parts of their undergraduate curricula and try their best to cultivate serious intellectual lives. They also impose strict rules, among them a complete prohibition against phones on the debate floor.
Outside their meetings, they’ll read whatever they think is honest, real and intellectually meaningful, no matter where it is published. They send Jacobin articles to each other when they find an interesting point of convergence; when I send them articles about the post-liberal right from mainstream outlets, they vigorously debate me on the merits of those criticisms, sometimes laughing at how out of touch and dated most of the analyses are. They ask to get off the waitlist for the debates and intellectual events I host for a think tank. In my role there, I’ve been trying to create broad-minded, politically mixed and philosophically vigorous discussions. These young men are a few of our most enthusiastic attendees, and give me qualitative feedback on the ideas at our events, regardless of whether the speakers lean right or left.
A couple members of this debating group even introduce me to an essay in The Point, about love: “Lovers in the Hands of a Patient God.” I’m touched by it too—it’s the first essay I’ve read that treats love and sex as meaningful and sacred from a secular, liberal perspective. I cried several times when I read it. "
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