ECONOMIC REFORMS AREN’T ENOUGH, AMERICA NEEDS POETRY, TOO: Writing for Law & Liberty, Micah Mattix, literary editor of the American Conservative, points to Rod Dreher’s excellent “Live Not By Lies” as well as Christopher Lasch’s classic Revolt of the Elites, Flannery O’Connor’s “Wise Blood, “and even Robert Penn Warren of the Southern Agrarians as a line of American analysts making the point that, just as the individual life devoted entirely to acquiring more things is eventually empty, so, too, is a nation of individuals who view the pursuit of happiness as consisting entirely of material goods and security.

It’s a point worth pondering, though I would argue that poetry, understood in the classical sense, is not the end in itself, but a worthy waypoint. See also Glenn’s post below pointing to Brent Hamachek’s explanation that those who believe in economic freedom are now the dissidents in the Land of the (Once) Free.