At first glance the answer must be yes, and commentators generally agree. From Slate to the New Yorker, educated persons feel slightly embarrassed to be drawn into the show, and describe it as a soap opera with better scenery, better dialogue, and better acting. There is something to this shame-faced fandom: Downton relies upon a cascade [...]
Archive for the ‘culture’ Category
Is Downton Abbey a Soap Opera? (Or What Texas Football and English Country Houses have in Common)
Posted in culture, Europe, ideas, Uncategorized, tagged Downton Abbey, forgiveness, Friday Night Lights, soap operas. on February 14, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Nicholas Kristof and the Gospel of Mark
Posted in culture, faith, ideas, tagged Christianity, New York Times, Nicholas Kristof, the Gospel of Mark on April 23, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
In his latest column, Nicholas Kristof once again applies his single master truth of human experience: equivalence. I don’t mean to sound mean: Kristof rightly and bravely emphasizes how little we are willing to do to help the victims of atrocities in Africa and other parts of the developing world, whereas the victims of equivalent [...]
O tempora, O mores: Drug legalization
Posted in culture, politics, tagged drug legalization, Mitterand on February 9, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
There is a lot being said these days about American having a more “mature” policy on recreational drugs, and thus vastly reducing the legal penalties associated with using them or legalizing them altogether. I’d dispute the term– I don’t think an advance in maturity is on the horizon so much as a kind of resignation, [...]
The Weakness of our Strength (Which is Ultimately a Weakness): Scott Boras Edition
Posted in culture, Free Market Apologists, tagged baseball, Jason Varitek, Manny Ramirez, Scott Boras on February 7, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Reading up on free-agent signings in preparation for the upcoming baseball season, I’m struck by how poorly the über-successful super-agent Scott Boras played his hands the past few months. He’s managed to put some of his older players in terrible contract situations (Jason Varitek, Manny Ramirez, and others), losing them millions of dollars because he [...]
The Day in Reductive Materialism
Posted in culture, ideas, tagged love, materialism, prairie voles, The New York Times on January 14, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The New York Times, long a purveyor of very favorable or at best bemused, shoulder-shrugging reports about the putative materialization of all human experience, provides two new reports. The makers of botox have developed a new technique to stimulate the growth of long eyelashes. Yesterday, the Times reported that oxytocin and vasopressin are responsible for [...]
Branding Life redux
Posted in culture, Free Market Apologists, tagged capitalism, Dogs, language, postmodernism on January 13, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
As many of you know, I’m fascinated by the ways in which the language of capitalism– and a kind of provisional contractual mobility associated with capitalism– have become ubiquitous in the language of postmodern culture. It’s become increasingly difficult to talk outside the market, even to name experiences that were long thought to be sanctuaries [...]
Christianity and Liberalism (postscript)
Posted in culture, faith, tagged Christianity, liberalism, postmodernism, Richard Neuhaus on January 10, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Perhaps our moment in American history is leading Christians to recognize that while they can and should continue to engage a more general public culture, and to participate in it in various ways (helping people, laughing with people, enjoying the company of others in diverse settings), I think that it is no longer wise to [...]
Liberalism and Christianity in America: The Curse of Clarity
Posted in culture, faith, ideas, tagged American politics, Charles Péguy, Christianity, Damon Linker, liberalism, Richard Neuhaus, Ross Douthat on January 9, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Amidst all the comment surrounding the death of Father Neuhaus, Damon Linker, responding to Ross Douthat, raises the most important politico-theological question of the moment, one that will last far longer than the more obvious immediate questions about whether Neuhaus went way too far in the direction of arguing that a serious Christian is morally [...]
Father Neuhaus
Posted in culture, faith, ideas on January 8, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
There have been several reports indicating that Richard John Neuhaus is not long for this world. His illness brings into focus the remarkable trajectory of his life, from his friendship with Martin Luther King and furious opposition to the Vietnam War to his at times pugnacious neo-conservative work at First Things. At his best, Father [...]
Traditionalism vs. Technology
Posted in culture, faith, ideas, tagged Patrick Deneen, postmodernism, Rod Dreher, technology, tradition on January 6, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I’ve read quite a bit of Patrick Deneen’s work, and I admire it for its bracing clarity. He rightly takes aim at the roots of the modern technological project and its call to “conquer nature” (Bacon) or for humans to become “masters and proprietors of nature” (Descartes, though similar sentiments can be found in Hobbes [...]
