Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Compassionate conservatism is usually dismissed on the American political left as an empty slogan intended to mystify the real roots and aspirations of conservative politics. However, churches and a variety of conservative religious organizations now conduct well-coordinated and effective compassionate pedagogies on contested social issues such as sexual and reproductive rights. Political theory can intervene in reductive readings of political strategy by elucidating the effects of both compassionate pedagogies and political opponents’ claims of dissimulation. Here, I examine conservative compassion as it is put to work in Christian right compassion campaigns on sexuality. I use the work of novelist Ayn Rand to analyze a variety of features of these campaigns, but especially the fixing and defending of boundaries between those who deserve compassion and those who do not. I argue that Rand provides a fruitful analytic for understanding how Christian conservative leaders carry out a politics and pedagogy of compassion.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Understanding the pathways toward violence and serious delinquency remains a challenge for social scientists. It remains unclear the extent to which the pathways to violent behavior are distinctly different from general criminal offending. In the present study, we build on the foundation of developmental psychology and criminology to assess the extent to which the pathways into offending are distinctly the same or different for violent versus general delinquent behavior. We rely on semi-parametric Poisson mixture models (SPMM) to examine the developmental progression to general delinquency and violence among RAND’s Adolescent Outcomes Project (AOP), a longitudinal study of 449 delinquent adolescents. We discuss the implications of these findings for theory and prevention.

Publication Type: Paper (prepared oral presentation)
Abstract: Fifty years ago in August 1958 a hot-button word, “surrender” suddenly surged into congressional debates. Within weeks Congress had passed and Eisenhower signed legislation to outlaw spending Federal money on the study of ways a war might end. Other events converged on Congress at the same time. Less than a year earlier the Cold War had intensified as Soviet success with Sputnik made the US feel backward and vulnerable for the first time. Sen. John Kennedy, in launching his Presidential campaign, chose that moment to make his key speech on “missile gaps,” accusing Republicans of being soft on defense. Meanwhile the Arctic transit of the submarine Nautilus demonstrated for all, especially the Soviets, that their northern coastline was no longer fortified against US warships. As military confrontations intensify, talk of peace making can seem unpatriotic or worse.

This paper will explore the language and accusations made during the Congressional debates. It will lay out the step by step process by which the impetus for the ban followed the publication of RAND scholar Keckskemeti’s book on peace-making in World War II, and it will discuss evidence that the Federal ban had an actual impact on further discussions and research into ways wars come to an end.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Emma Goldman?s and Ayn Rand?s theories of ethical egoism demands unconstrained personal autonomy. Problematic: need for guidance, excesses of freedom. Corrective: social ethic. Problematic: coercive, precepts and conveyance of ethic.