On Wednesday night, our recently formed ISI Young Alumni Association in DC held their first major event, “Conservatism on Tap.” This will be a monthly series, supported by ISI, to bring young conservatives together in DC in a social setting. The venue for the talk was the Brickskeller, which is one of the coolest, most collegial bars in DC. The bar claims to have over 1,000 beers from around the world, “the largest selection of beers from around the world.”
ISI Faculty Associate, Patrick Deneen (Professor of Government from Georgetown) was the speaker and he spoke on the topic, “Vocation and Modern Society.” He talked about how finding one’s life calling is more difficult in today’s modern society and the talk was very deep and hit on a lot of points. But, I think one that stuck out to me was how the idea of “place” (or space) is quite different in America, especially today, as most Americans move around, travel more frequently and never do come to grips with their “restlessness.”
Over 80 people showed up in a space that really fit about 60 comfortably. About 55 free drink tickets were handed out, which taught us that we’ll need to start limiting the RSVPs for the next one and for future events, which is scheduled for August 8th at the Brickskeller. William Saunders of the Family Research Council will be speaking on the topic, “The Roberts Court – Lessons from the hearings, the 2006 term, and what to expect in 2007.” Should be good.
Kudos to Evan Baehr, Cindy Searcy, and Brendan Steinhauser for setting this all up. They are trying to create a post-college intellectual environment for young conservatives who wind up in that most un-conservative place, the District of Columbia.