Joey Hiles @joeyhiles1 Twitter profile

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Joey Hiles

1 year

Friends, I wrote an essay on Alexis de Tocqueville, one of my favorite authors, and America’s loneliness problem. If you have a minute, give it a read! A big thank you to the editors at @Plough for helping me improve the piece!

Why Are We Lonely?

Joey Hiles writes that ironically, isolation is something many Americans have in common. Why do we feel so alone? Tocqueville has answers.

www.plough.com

Plough Quarterly

@Plough

1 year

Why Are We Lonely? Ironically, isolation is something many Americans have in common. Why do we feel so alone? Tocqueville has answers. @joeyhiles1

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

2 years

Walking around my old college campus, it’s so apparent that much of the longing that adults feel for their college days is because it was the only time in their lives when they lived in close knit, walkable communities, saw friends everyday, rarely got into cars

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

2 years

Fixing the North American built environment is a big part of the solution. We have very few walkable places. But that’s not the whole solution, it runs deeper. In my own case, I’m lucky enough to live in a walkable place. But my friends are scattered across the country

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

2 years

We’re encouraged on all sides to move and move again. For a better job, another degree, more money, a change of scenery, etc etc

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

3 years

If you care about the inner world of philosophy / literature, then you should also care about the external spaces of the physical world. The built environment in America is an experiment gone awry. It encourages isolation and is antithetical to the good life. A thread 🧵

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

2 years

I have a much longer tweet thread that goes into a lot more detail about the causes of this phenomena if you are interested

Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

3 years

If you care about the inner world of philosophy / literature, then you should also care about the external spaces of the physical world. The built environment in America is an experiment gone awry. It encourages isolation and is antithetical to the good life. A thread 🧵

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

2 years

And yes, many many people did not have this or any experience of college. Many people had responsibilities and hardships that make this tweet look silly. It’s not a universal experience. It’s a particular, and yes — privileged — take, that nonetheless rings true for many

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

2 years

Well this really took off. Yes, some version of this has been said many times before. I heartily agree that it’s not the most original tweet. But perhaps it’s taken off so much because it’s true for a lot of people and speaks to an unresolved sense of loss

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

6 days

Had to cancel my LA Fitness membership once. Called them => nope, must be in person. I came in, => nope, manager has to be there. Any manager? => Nope, only the special manager. When's he in? => Vacation for the next few weeks. But I move before that? => Tough. Great company

More Perfect Union

@MorePerfectUS

6 days

BREAKING: The FTC has announced the “click-to-cancel” rule that will require companies to let you cancel any product as easily as you registered. Long, difficult cancelation processes will be illegal. If you signed up with a click, they’ll have to let you cancel with a click.

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

6 months

I want to work this one Dostoevsky quote into everything I write, no matter the subject, just like Zelig: always fitting in but always there

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

7 months

Isabel and I are thrilled to announce that we are expecting our first child in early August! 🎉

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

2 years

@theonlyaugie Haha yes very good, because walking here is the same as walking here

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

1 year

@drumm_colin Have probably never disagreed with a tweet more than this in my whole life haha

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

1 year

I think I agree with Nietzsche that without Christian theology, the modern moral project — equality, human dignity, tolerance — is foundationless; that modern moral systems smuggle in Christian presuppositions. What is the counter argument to this?

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

2 years

@zipzephir_deb Yea I get this, it’s a totally fair critique of what I said. If I had more space in the tweet, I would’ve qualified the statement to reflect that I’m expressing the position of someone who lived on campus, which is of course not reflective of all or even most college students

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

1 year

"Guys I've got a cool new idea for a city" – Le Corbusier, presenting the worst idea ever constructed in human history

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

10 months

@skooookum “Sorry guys, can’t make it tonight, bogged down at work”

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

3 months

On Saturday Isabel and I became parents to a baby boy!

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

2 years

A perfect syllabus

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

5 months

Counseling with Joey

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

3 years

The best place to dip your toe in the water is with these videos ( @notjustbikes ). See how other countries do this better than us, and how we could emulate them. It also helps to start with a visual of better places.

Suburbs that don't Suck - Streetcar Suburbs (Riverdale, Toronto)

Watch this video ad-free on Nebula: https://nebula.tv/videos/not-just-bikes-suburbs-that-don-t-suck-streetcar-suburbs-riverdale-torontoCar-dependent suburbs ...

www.youtube.com

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

1 year

Professor told me he once cornered Robert Putnam at a conference and asked : “is there anything in Bowling Alone that Tocqueville didn’t already know?” “No”, said Putnam

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

3 years

Then read this short but insightful essay about how our house design preferences reflect and shape what we value. The move from front porches to back patios is a microcosm for the larger problem of our movement away from other people. ( @FrontPorchRepub ).

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

2 years

@theonlyaugie

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

2 years

@voxdotcom If we permanently stopped building places that looked like this then perhaps people would be more interested in going back into the office

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

3 years

This thread is not an argument, but an index of sources from which you can learn about the problem and how we can fix it. It is the index I wish I had had a few years ago when I first became interested in this.

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

3 years

Collectively, we devalue places that promote community because fundamentally, we devalue community itself.

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

3 months

Christopher Lasch on a truer conservatism : "A truly conservative position on culture rejects both enforced conformity and laissez-faire. It attempts to hold society together by means of moral and religious instruction, collective rituals, and a deeply implanted though not

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

3 years

Dostoevsky's description of Fyodor Karamazov's house is such a perfect illustration of the loneliness of modernity : A costly, spacious house built for a big family, occupied by one person, who is so profoundly lonely that he likes the sound of rats scurrying around him

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

3 years

Then read this killer book by Ray Oldenburg, about how the built environment in North America has no places for informal gathering. Without good places to meet up, we meet up less, because hosting takes much more effort than walking over to the bar . . .

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

1 year

My dissertation draws mostly from political philosophy and urban planning, but nearly the whole argument originates from and is summed up by 3 pages in the middle of the Brothers Karamazov. Read Dostoevsky people

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

2 years

The best account on youtube, @notjustbikes , has outdone himself this time. Take the orange pill. Take it. Once you see it, you can never unsee it. And that's a good thing

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

1 year

@drumm_colin D) "Art historians, you're not allowed to love paintings. It clouds your judgement" "Professional chefs / food critics, you are not allowed to love the taste of the food you try. Clouds your judgement" Why on earth would anyone pursue anything seriously?

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

3 years

If we want to, we can build places so endearing and unique that they make us want to stay and build our lives around loved ones in multi-generational communities, rather than move every few years for a higher paying job.

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

3 years

Read this essay about why so many Americans long for their college days. @StrongTowns

College Campuses Are Designed at Human-Scale. Our Cities Can Be Too.

Many college campuses are designed to be walkable and human-scaled. But living in a neighborhood like that doesn’t have to end at graduation.

www.strongtowns.org

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

3 months

Tocqueville on the Americans' relationship to philosophy : “I think there is no country in the civilized world where they are less occupied with philosophy than the United States. The Americans have no philosophic school of their own, and they worry very little about all of

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

3 years

If we want to, we can build walkable places where we are encouraged to meet our neighbors on front porches, where we can easily stroll over to the coffee shop or bar and see old and new friends by chance.

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

3 years

What book has most influenced the way you think about things? For me it is the Brothers Karamazov, even though I primarily read political philosophy. I think about the Brothers K every day of my life.

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

1 year

Random Dostoevsky books in the ‘little free library,’ a good day

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

1 year

@drumm_colin B) Books are beautiful works of art. People spend thousands of hours, and their whole lives considering a single topic. We should be grateful for that time, thoughtfulness, and consideration. I feel a deep appreciation for professors who've done that, feel the same about books

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

11 months

Passed my qualifying exams and oral exam 🎉

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

3 years

All of the videos on this channel are excellent, but the few I have selected here are especially well done.

Why We Won't Raise Our Kids in Suburbia (and moved to the Netherlands...

I was always told, growing up, that the suburbs (of Canada) are a good place to raise children. But I've come to appreciate the importance of independence fo...

www.youtube.com

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

3 years

In the space of a generation, we could remake the American built environment into a place of social interaction and community formation. We need only to decide to do it.

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

2 months

Tocqueville on restlessness in America : "It is a strange thing to see with what sort of feverish ardor Americans pursue well-being and how they show themselves constantly tormented by a vague fear of not having chosen the shortest route that can lead to it. The inhabitant of

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

3 years

Strong Towns illustrates that turning places into walkable areas that people want to be in doesn’t mean making every place manhattan. Most places they write about are small towns, not giant metropolises.

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

3 years

. . . Our houses become our palaces, rather than a gateway to the community. Essential reading.

Great Good Place

www.amazon.com

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

2 years

Married!

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

1 year

@drumm_colin C) It is difficult to think of a sentence less likely to motivate people to think deeply about anything than : "Do not love the thing you are thinking through"

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

1 year

@drumm_colin Not in any order of importance : A) It's loving a difficult thing that gives us the drive to be good at it. You think Roger Federer hates tennis? Or Lebron hates basketball? They live for it, they love it, they can't get away from it. It's the same with the humanities

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

3 years

Suburban inanity encourages people to move frequently without ever improving the place they live in. Lacking distinctive character, suburban non-places all feels the same. Why not move? This article is my one very measly contribution to this list

Living Like a Tourist

Perhaps people move so often around the U.S. because it’s hard to get attached to all the “non-places” we have. But setting downs roots is exactly what we need to build stronger towns.

www.strongtowns.org

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

3 years

Then spend some time on the website Strong Towns, learning what a Stroad is, and why car dependent suburbia is financially insolvent. ( @StrongTowns ).

Strong Towns Articles

Read the latest Strong Towns articles.

www.strongtowns.org

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

2 years

A wedding present we received from a grandparent. Thirty beautiful leatherbound books, accumulated - one per year - over a thirty year period. American classics : Faulkner, Hemingway, Hawthorne, Twain, etc. I hope to likewise pass the books on to a grandchild when the time comes

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

3 years

The best place to start - and the deepest well of insight into the problem - is Alexis de Tocqueville’s magisterial book ‘Democracy in America’, which explains why Americans tend towards individualism, self-isolation, and constant movement. Essential.

Democracy in America (Harper Perennial Modern Classics)

www.amazon.com

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

3 years

Then read Jeff Speck's ‘Walkable City’ about practical ways we can fix the damage we have done. The book focuses on how to make places walkable, which is the key to making thriving cities and neighborhoods. @JeffSpeckFAICP

WALKABLE CITY: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time

www.amazon.com

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

1 year

I love Dostoevsky twitter. I can post about urban planning, ancient philosophy, political theory, my dog, my day; all lead to crickets. I post about Dostoevsky –– bam, its blowing up, no matter what I've said

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

6 months

@M_Millerman The whole Voegelin quote is so funny

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

1 year

Why did suburbanization happen more rapidly and more completely in America than elsewhere? In his magisterial book Crabgrass Frontier, Kenneth Jackson attempts to answer this question with a variety of explanations, from economics, sociology, race, and history. A thread 🧵 1/

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

1 year

Apparently my viral tweet about college campus walkability was quoted in the Washington Post yesterday; that's a new one

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

3 years

Most places like this are currently illegal to build in America, because of single family zoning laws. But it doesn’t have to be like this.

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

3 years

But building places that bind us together rather than separate us will do a world of good towards countering our natural tendencies towards social isolation.

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

8 months

Philosophy friends — what books in the history of philosophy talk about the city? The Republic, Aristotle’s Politics. City of God. What else?

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

1 year

Started this with my students today. I read it ages ago but have almost no recollection of it

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

3 years

The fact that so many structural forces (democracy, capitalism, technology, secularization) push us away from each other means that remaking the built environment is all the more important. It is possible and desirable in a way that rolling back technological progress isn’t.

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

3 years

This page from Nisbet sounds exactly like Tocqueville, comparing modern/democratic with premodern/predemocratic societies. It depends on what you value. If excellence, moral rectitude, community, roots, then premodern. If autonomy, liberation, and comfort, then modern

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

3 years

Building walkable places that encourage community will not fully solve the enduring problem of loneliness in America. It is too multifarious and too deeply rooted.

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

2 months

Moving and packing up all my books except for the ones I need for my dissertation. Won’t have access to them for at least 4 months. Horrifying. Will I need Aquinas? The Great Short Works of Dostoevsky? Lincoln’s speeches? I mean probably not, but who knows? And how to choose?

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

3 years

You know that thing where companies will plant 5 trees after cutting one down? We should do the opposite with podcasts. If you start a podcast you should have to convince 5 other people to end their podcast

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

3 years

I’m on this journey too. There’s much more for me to read. Next up is James Howard Kunstler’s ‘The Geography of Nowhere’, a history of how America went from main streets to sterile, lifeless suburbs. ( @Jhkunstler )

The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape

www.amazon.com

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

2 years

Haha, yesterday I wrote a fairly cliche but heartfelt tweet in about 15 seconds. It was seen by 3.5 million people and liked 90,000 times. Twitter is weird

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

1 year

Nietzsche shows us that, despite their protestations, the titans of modern philosophy –– Kant, Hegel, Rousseau, Locke, Marx –– cannot be understood apart from Christian theology. Meta-narratives of history, justification of suffering, original innocence, equality. It's all there

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

3 years

Then read Jane Jacobs classic ‘The Death and Life of American Cities’, the ‘Democracy in America’ of big cities.

The Death and Life of Great American Cities

www.amazon.com

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

2 years

Nietzsche’s read of Hamlet in the Birth of Tragedy

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

3 years

Then read Robert Nisbet’s classic ‘The Quest for Community’, which shows how all (or almost all) developments or modernity tend away from community — A large centralized state, secularism, technology, capitalism, etc etc.

The Quest for Community: A Study in the Ethics of Order and Freedom (Background: Essential Texts...

The Quest for Community: A Study in the Ethics of Order and Freedom (Background: Essential Texts for the Conservative Mind)

www.amazon.com

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

2 years

Cars are convenient, fast, private, climate controlled, comfortable. No one contests this. The problem is that when they are the dominate mode of transportation, our world becomes a race track connecting one private space to another. Community cannot thrive without public space

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

6 months

Dissertation proposal defense is tonight

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

2 years

Me: How about I write an essay on why suburbia is a failed utopia that makes us lonely, comparing suburban life to famous utopias and dystopias from literature? Academic Writing: No. Write an essay disagreeing with this one line from this one book that was written 2 years ago

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

3 years

Now it’s time to think about the reasons why we insufficiently value community.

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

3 years

Then read Patrick Deneen’s ‘Why Liberalism Failed’, which updates Tocqueville’s thesis for the modern world. @PatrickDeneen

Why Liberalism Failed (Politics and Culture)

www.amazon.com

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

7 months

Alright people, I process things through reading — what books do you recommend on parenting / having an infant / etc? Answers could range from science to religion to philosophy to classic literature; I’m all ears

Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

7 months

Isabel and I are thrilled to announce that we are expecting our first child in early August! 🎉

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

2 years

@ColombiaMatiz @GabrielsNotes Zoning arose out of a very real need to prevent the mixing of residential neighborhoods with the byproducts of factories, polluting the air, etc. But what was needed in a few circumstances was foolishly applied to ALL areas, ending mixed use development. Oversimple, but the gist

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

1 year

Genuinely baffling to me that people stay holed up in their disciplines. You like philosophy, read Dostoevsky. You like literature, read Plato. You like history, read Tocqueville. Too many good books out there to confine yourself to one discipline; the boundaries are an illusion

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

5 months

Back when I was driving Lyft, I picked up this guy who worked for some physics society, professor, etc. I asked him about the ontological status of math; after long chat he admitted that nearly every physicist he knew was a closet platonist, but refused to talk about it in

sam filby

@two_standpoints

5 months

uber driver is making small talk with me and asks me what i do, so i said i study philosophy, and he immediately says “oh nice man you hear it was Kant’s 300th birthday a few weeks ago? i bet you people went wild for that”

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

2 years

Great –– harrowing –– writing from @daily_barbarian in @compactmag_ this morning.

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

7 months

Had to tape this one back together this morning

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

2 years

Go to St. John's College. Read the books. Make the friends. That's the tweet

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

6 months

Got the full green light. Really fun time. Onward!

Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

6 months

Dissertation proposal defense is tonight

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

2 years

It is so unfortunate that there are so few charming and walkable places in the US that most of them are prohibitively expensive to live in

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

1 year

Found in the ‘little free library’ in my neighborhood; I’ve been meaning to read this for ages

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

3 years

Deneen’s podcast with Strong Towns’ Chuck Mahron also succinctly summarizes his position and comments on the links between our socio-cultural sphere and the built environment. ( @PatrickDeneen @clmarohn ).

Big, Impersonal Institutions Are Failing Us. Loyalty to Our Communities Might Save Us.

Patrick Deneen, author of the bestselling Why Liberalism Failed (hint: he doesn’t mean the political left), talks with our own Chuck Marohn about the political crisis facing Western societies, and...

www.strongtowns.org

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

3 years

One of my life goals / dreams : To have a weekly meeting at a brewery, coffee shop, or restaurant. Same location, same time, every week. Friends, family, kids, dogs, open invite, bring whoever you want. It’s on everyone’s calendar, doesn’t have to be replanned each week

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

3 years

Every time I crack open Democracy in America I am instantly thunderstruck –– Tocqueville sees everything, knows everything, predicts everything. I am left speechless

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

9 months

When I read books like Le Corbusier's 'The City of Tomorrow,' or 'The Power Broker' about Robert Moses, I'm struck by their brazen confidence and optimism. Contemporary American life is shot through with this impotent malaise: "Everything is bad and there's nothing we can do"

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

2 years

Reading the Birth of Tragedy. Apparently Nietzsche was 27 when he wrote it. I’ve got a couple weeks left of age 27 to write something of comparable enduring value

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

7 months

The Harvard undergrad to consulting pipeline

Nature is Amazing ☘️

@AMAZlNGNATURE

7 months

This system helps native fish pass over dams in seconds rather than day

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

2 years

If my 15 year old self had know that at 27 I’d be reading Pride and Prejudice cackling with delight at Jane Austin’s witticisms, I would’ve been very worried indeed

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

1 year

@StrongTowns I was just there. Relative to the rest of LA, Culver had great infrastructure, and should've been a model to the rest of the city. So frustrating that they are rolling it all back

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

2 years

@culturaltutor From the Brothers Karamazov, the best book :

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

3 years

The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in An Age of Diminishing Expectations

www.amazon.com

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

8 months

All I’m trying to do is incorporate every book I’ve ever read into a clear, accessible book of 200 pages that explores, challenges, and deepens the source material, while attaining popular success and acclaim within the academy, such that policy shifts materially, before 30

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Joey Hiles

@joeyhiles1

2 years

A few years ago I did a surprise annotation check with my high school students and leafed through their books. In the margins of Hegel's Reason in History, one student had written : "Mr. Hiles is the living embodiment of a saltine cracker"

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