A few weeks ago, the corner of right-wing social media preoccupied with political philosophy was atwitter with discussion of the pseudonymous writer N.S. Lyons’s long new essay, “The China Convergence,” which examined the developments and similarities of the U.S. managerial regime and the Chinese party state. Adding online writerly personality to online writerly personality, Charles Haywood, who writes regular book reviews at his website “The Worthy House,” reviewed Lyons essay for The American Conservative. Haywood writes, “It is no doubt true that managerialism today seems to have conquered the world, to a degree that we cannot imagine an alternative. But that is a failure of imagination, and a failure to understand history.”

In his column this week, managing editor Jude Russo considers the prudence of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s announcement that he will open an impeachment inquiry against President Joe Biden. Russo: “There are plenty of curious episodes and details in the Biden family’s doings that merit an explanation to the American people; yet setting the machinery of impeachment in motion ensures that legislative priorities will be shelved to secure, in the best case scenario, an indictment that will be dead on arrival in the Democrat-controlled Senate.”

And you might have noted the most recent fabrication scandal in the social sciences, the allegations of fraudulent research by Harvard Business School’s Francesca Gino. In a past life as an academic, Bradford Tuckfield collaborated with Gino on a field experiment with a corporate partner. Review of that work indicates no alteration of results, but Tuckfield takes the occasion to reflect on the idol and temptation of ambition in an essay titled “Making It (Up) In America.” Amazed that several of Gino’s fabrications occurred after her tenure, Tuckfield asks,  “Why take the risk when she already had money, acclaim, and job security at the top of her field? Wasn’t tenure at Harvard enough?”

This is my final missive to you as web editor of The American Conservative. On Monday, I start a new position as research director for the Center for American Renewal. I’ll remain a contributing editor here at TAC, so this is not the last you will read of me, but I thank you for being such a loyal band of readers, and for allowing me to share a few impressions with you each week. Keep an eye out next week for a new weekly email, and stick around for more of the best commentary on Main Street conservatism.

Best,
Micah Meadowcroft
Web Editor

―Russell Kirk