Iqra’i

I got a phone call this morning: “Did you see the Times? Read the David Brooks column — Will’s in it!”

On further inspection, this turned out to be Will Wilkinson, not Will Wilson (more famous, less my boyfriend), but the point of the column remains: the unconventional young writers are the future of intellect in American conservatism.^[1]

…most of these writers did not rise through the official channels of the conservative or libertarian establishments. By and large, they didn’t do the internships or take part in the young leader programs that were designed to replenish “the movement.” Instead, they found their voices while blogging. The new technology allowed them to create a new sort of career path and test out opinions without much adult supervision.

As a consequence, they are heterodox and hard to label. These writers grew up reading conservative classics — Burke, Hayek, Smith, C.S. Lewis — but have now splayed off in all sorts of quirky ideological directions.

There are dozens of writers I could put in this group, but I’d certainly mention Yuval Levin, Daniel Larison, Will Wilkinson, Julian Sanchez, James Poulos, Megan McArdle, Matt Continetti and, though he’s a tad older, Ramesh Ponnuru.

…now excuse me while I add some blogs to Google Reader.