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
