First, a Crunchie confession: This past summer, my family and I ate at a McDonald’s in Bologna, the food capital of Italy (If you ask an Italian where to find the best food in Italy, they’ll cite their hometown. But they’ll all rank Bologna second). Is there a worse Crunchie sin? What can I say—we were in a hurry. I’m glad that’s off my chest.

Second, an amusing tidbit came to mind as I read Rod’s exasperated explanation of official Crunchy Con TV-watching policy —Walker Percy loved to watch ‘Love Boat.” The lesson here, as I think Rod would be the first to say, is that watching TV is not in itself a sin (duh!). If your family can watch TV without losing its soul, great. Maybe you’re raising your kids to be media critics—little Marshall McLuhans. Maybe pop culture just rolls off their backs without any harmful effects. Every family, every child, is different. But woe to you if you know pop culture, TV, the internet, whatever, is damaging the spiritual, cultural, psychological well-being of your family and you do nothing. Crunchie hell for you.

Third, I also agree with Ross. I can imagine a culture of death that’s efficient and well-oiled and endures for a long time—See Brave New World. See The Matrix. See maybe China.

As to Rod’s question about what “it”—Crunchy Conservatism—really means. I think Caleb is right, that the defining principle of the book is that man does not live by bread alone.

Which leads me back to my initial post, and my belief (sorry for the drumbeat here) that for those Crunchies who are Christian, our faith obligates us to extend our principles beyond our families, and our local communities, to the entire body politic (and to the world). For if we are our brother’s keeper, then we are obligated to act at every level within our power to oppose sins against life, and against solidarity. For Catholics, the catechism is clear on this (and for others, see Aristotle). If indeed the Democrats are the party of Lust and the Republicans are the party of Greed, then we need to work politically to change that. I know we’ll be dealing with this later on, but a number of posts seemed to imply the opposite.