The following story was found among the many records of the Hillsdale Admissions Office. Dated Wednesday, 17 October 2012, it is an account of an exchange between a soon-after fired student ambassador and a prospective student and his parents. Reader discretion advised. I knew to pay attention the moment I heard his voice echo through the 2nd floor hallway of Strosacker. One part soothing or … Continue reading Admissions Office Records by Andy Reuss
Junior Ian Atherton is an English major and Vice President of Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity, where he oversees the house’s internal affairs. He took a break from schoolwork and intramural sports to sit down with The Forum to discuss his winning short story, “Lemons”. F What’s your normal writing process? Do you have one? Lemons was a funny one—I needed to submit a writing sample … Continue reading Interview with the Author
Lemons. There are, on occasion, in a small glass bowl to the left side of the iced tea, lemons in our college cafeteria. That. That, my friend, is how you can tell that there are donors, or parents, or prospective students in town. The details, the small things—they really do count. Who knows, lemons really could be what convinces an all-state athlete, with a 4.0 … Continue reading Short Story Contest Winner—"Lemons", by Ian Atherton
If you’re reading this column, I am going to assume that you are, on some level, desperate. Fear not, would-be hipsters! This is a good thing. All true hipsters are closeted gluttons for peer validation. Just try defending a mainstream artist while your indie kid test subject of choice is surrounded by sneering, denim-clad henchmen and you’ll see what I mean. The first rule: avoid … Continue reading Tragically Hip—Five Simple Rules for Gaining Indie Cred by Sarah Albers
Paul Gottfried is not impressed by the Straussian project. His latest book, Leo Strauss and the Conservative Movement in America, is part history, part polemic, and part intellectual version of Mythbusters. For anyone confused by the Straussian debate that occasionally rears its head on our campus, this book is a great place to start, but a terrible place to end. Gottfried presents an adequate overview … Continue reading Lambasting Straussians by Brett Wierenga
Today’s America is a bitterly polarized society. When people argue politics, they do so presuming that to disagree the other person must either be stupid or malevolent. If someone is prominent in an opposing party, their motivations immediately become suspect; anything they propose to do is considered a conspiracy to destroy goodness and trash America. Whenever something bad happens, it becomes either part of “their … Continue reading A Discourse on Discourse by James Inwood
This article is adapted from a lecture given by Mr. Meadowcroft to the Fairfield Society. You all have a vocation. Not just a future calling for future fulfillment. You have a vocation now. And while you each possess a unique vocation, one that you will fail or succeed in fulfilling someday, now, in this time and place, you share the call to be a student. Whatever … Continue reading The Obligation of Perfection by Micah Meadowcroft
Two fundamental beliefs guide conservative thought. Namely, that human nature is immutable and that one may distill the precepts of natural law by observation of this permanent nature. Early progressives began by moving away from the idea of natural law, then finally denied the permanence of human nature altogether. Man, in the eyes of liberalism, is an organism fully integrated into society. He is a … Continue reading The Insufficiency of Convention by Sarah Albers
Modern civil government has two essential parts. The first part is the collection and disbursement of state funds to support the government and any additional causes the public deems worthy. The second part is the enforcement of laws and regulations. Hillsdale College seeks to instill the virtue of self-government in the student body, but it does not implement a full understanding of this idea. We … Continue reading The Need for Further Self-Governance at Hillsdale by Luke Adams
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