The American Spectator

home
ADVERTISEMENT
Print Email
Text Size

The Spectacle Blog

This year’s national meeting of the Philadelphia Society was my first.  William Campbell of LSU invited me (a young-ish faculty member of Houston Baptist University) after reading a piece I wrote on libertarians and conservatives for the Acton Institute.  I am very thankful for the opportunity and enjoyed the event very much.  The list of attendees was really quite impressive and people were generally interested in and open to others. 

At each meal I sat with a different group of people and found the conversation rewarding.  There was a strong sense of fellowship and collegiality.  I felt that individuals who offered divergences of opinion were treated respectfully and well.  It was, in the best sense of the word, scholarly.

However, I write to offer a suggestion.  To me, the panels shaded too much to the hall of famer/veteran side and not enough (or even at all) to rising, young talent needing an opportunity to demonstrate what they can do or what new things they have to say.  A meeting of this kind would represent a great way for the distinguished members to identify talent and then to figure out how to promote the careers of young people who can seek to build on the previous generation’s successes. 

For every paper delivered by a long-standing member who is confident in what he has said and is ready to say it again, there are young people who will work their brains out for a chance to present something impressive to people they respect.  The leadership needs to figure out how to move national meetings in that direction to a greater degree.

topics:
Conservatism

View all comments (3) |

Pingback| 3.30.09 @ 12:40PM

The Philadelphia Society and New Orleans, Part II — But As For Me links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

The Philadelphia Society and New Orleans, Part II — But As For Me .addtoany_subscribe img{border:0;} .addtoany_share_save

Related Blog Posts

More Blog Posts by Hunter Baker

http://spectator.org/blog/2009/03/30/the-philadelphia-society-and-n

ADVERTISEMENT

SPONSORED LINKS

FLASHBACK TO: 1995

Clip of the Day

Most Popular Articles

Foreign Policy as Farce

Jed Babbin | 6.17.13

The IRS Immigration Fraud Scandal

Jeffrey Lord | 6.18.13

The Biggest Fool of All

Doug Bandow | 6.17.13

Can Liturgical Music Be Saved?

Patrick O'Hannigan | 6.17.13

Revenge of the Fruitcakes

Peter Hitchens | 6.17.13

Obama's Climate of Intimidation

Matthew Sheffield | 6.18.13

The Mole in Don Draper

James Bowman | 6.17.13

Whither Suburbia?

Steven Greenhut | 6.18.13

ADVERTISEMENT